1335 Gift Day

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Good day today.

On my way to the mall to meet Daughter, I decided to drop off the sell-off report with Piper. His "open" flag was out, but the office door was locked. I walked to the cafe, but they were closing, so I tried the tavern across the street, and found him there. Drinking soda. Really, soda. He's losing weight, and trying very hard to stick to the diet.

He's very social. When I hang with him in the tavern, I meet all kinds of people. He knows everyone. The tavern seems to be the place for the village men to hang out during the day - it's like it should have a potbelly stove or something. I sat at the bar with him and some other guys for about 40 minutes, and had some iced tea.

Anyway, he was happy to see the numbers. He'll pass them on to The Angel.

Then I headed on down to the mall. Daughter wasn't too very late, and as she was walking into Macy's, where we were to meet, her phone rang, and it was my sister. So I got to talk to Sister while Daughter went to the ladies' room.

Daughter and I had a nice visit, with a little shopping, before she left to meet her Fishkill friends for dinner. When we parted, she gave me a bag of bath salts, skin cream, and some other stuff, in lieu of a kitten.

I was headed back up route 9, when it occurred to me that it was almost 7, and I hadn't had anything but my yogurt all day. I called Roman and said, "Hi! I happen to be in Poughkeepsie, and I'm going to be looking for someplace to eat. You interested? Have you eaten yet?" So I picked him up, and we went to a rustic little steakhouse tavern for dinner.

He gave me a CD he'd found at a used book sale, one he thought I'd be interested in. I listened to it on the way home, and it turns out it is not the mid-eastern music he thought it was from the title, it's something a lot more interesting. (I want to do some research before I say anything more about it.)

I got home about 9 pm, to find a very nice phone message on my machine from The Gypsy. Not only did she know I needed a message, to get that lonely "1" off the blink, the message was to invite me to a party in a few weeks, and to watch her perform in a Kingston restaurant next week. Feels nice in my tummy.

I feel like I got all kinds of appreciation and gifts today.

At around 10 I decided to go into the village to the all-night grocery store to buy a few things.

Now, from about 10:00 on, there is almost no traffic in the village. You often won't see another car in either direction. I frequently go at night to the gas station mini-mart or the post office, or the grocery store, because it's easy to find a place to park, and there's no jam-up at the light, people trying to make left turns. I can even pull a "U" in the middle of the deserted village street to return home - don't have to go around the block. (Which is a pain, because we have so few real "blocks".)

So I was surprised to see several cars pulled over in front of the post office and across the street, and people moving around in the street. As I got closer, I realized there was glass all over the street, and the people were trying to kick the larger pieces to the curb.

Accident? No. No mashed fenders....

It was beer bottles! There was an SUV with the hatch open, and the back was full of cases of beer. It looked like the hatch had popped open, and a case or two fell out. From the looks of some of the bottles, I'd say the cars parked to the side had driven over more than a few.

Given my recent tire woes, there was NO WAY I was going to try to navigate through that mine field.

I turned around in the post office driveway, and went around one of the more awkward blocks.

When I returned from the grocery store, the police had arrived and had blocked the street. The SUV was (mysteriously) gone, but the other cars were still there.

I wonder if they all have flat tires.


If I have a flat tomorrow, at least I will, for once, know where it came from. And actually, that's a GOOD feeling.
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