No mail. No trash. No plumber. Just snow.

This sums up yesterday’s excitement and why should have be very busy. Maybe tomorrow? The weather this week has affected my retirement routine, so tomorrow will be the make-up day. Plus, I could not have picked a less entertaining combination of a book and documentary to be “my time” companions. It seems that I have been reading the Grant biography for an eternity, as it continues to drag along like the Civil War, and the Ken Burns documentary The Dust Bowl turned out to be one of his most depressing subject matters, comparable to Cancer. After four hours, I felt like my shoulders were gathering dust, watching these poor, misfortune Americans battle a decade of droughts, starvation, poverty, dirt storms, disease, locusts, and death. It did make me appreciate the “tropical lush” conditions of the Northwest and how trivial my retirement hassles really are.   No Mail. No trash. No plumber. Oh My!

Tinker has to go to the vet for a cortisone shot, this too delayed from earlier this week due to early closings from the weather. Vet.Pet.Debt. The sink will finally get fixed, a hassle that I wouldn’t have if I didn’t have indoor plumbing. Trash pickup and mail delivery will hopefully resume as the ice melts, and my wife can return to driving herself to work. However, with the leadership meeting tomorrow, fundraisers to attend, and a red-eye to catch, my preferred role as a homebody will have to wait at least another week-and-a-half. I don’t think there’s enough drama or intrigue in my life for a book or documentary. I admittedly lead an uneventful, boring life with exaggerated hassles that I force you to read about every day. Just be patient – wait for it – there will be something of value in at least one of these next 10,995 posts. (See Post #433).

I was forced to run on the treadmill yesterday and today, rather than risk breaking my neck on the icy streets, just to keep my nine-year-plus running streak intact. (See Post #6). I will soon be running on foreign turf, boat decks, through airports, cobblestone streets, around walled cities, over canals, and “streak” through the famous “Red Light District.” I will be running despite too much food from the cruise buffets, rough seas, and after too much to drink because of the unlimited alcohol package that we purchased. I will also undoubtedly overdo it on bottomless Diet Cokes, irresistible pizza snacks, rich desserts, and 24-hour breakfast bars. “Run, Forest, Run!” or should that be “Drink, Mike, Drink?”

I was pleased to discover that we’re actually getting a small tax refund from my first retirement return, after years of “paying the piper.” I also saved a little money after discovering a couple of billing mistakes on my credit card. I certainly have the time now to carefully monitor my money and fight for these credits. Most of the cruise is already paid in advance, along with hotel costs, shore excursions, and tickets, so I won’t need to further tap into my bleeding IRA. We will next start to take advantage of our Marriott Vacation Club investment to reduce our $1,000 a day average travel expense. (See Post #323). The pets will once again be left behind in the care of a house sitter, so I will miss my daily conversation with them, but not the responsibility of taking them out five times a day or more. The countdown clock on the Viking Cruise website is down to 24 days. This is a much more appealing countdown than the one on the Hood To Coast website from last year. (See Post #220). 

My wife has been safely delivered to work again this morning. Date night was cancelled to further disrupt our weekly routine. My meal preparation was also shaky this week, as I apparently ruined a cast iron skillet, burned some of the sweet potatoes, and made another characteristic mess. It tasted great thanks to the pork belly, but it was not one of my more successful aesthetic culinary presentations. On the positive side, I’m looking forward to a week off from my kitchen responsibilities so we can both recover from my cooking incompetency. For the first time in 14 months, I’ve gone to work every day this week, but only to drop her off and pick her up. It’s also a practice that I hope doesn’t become routine.