Missed day

Yeah, I missed a day of posting. And the world didn't collapse. Most of it, anyway.

Today had some simple tasks: dental appointment in the morning, take my mom grocery shopping midday, and (I thought) take the latest addition to the menagerie to the vet for the rest of his preliminary check-ups. (Turns out that appointment isn't until tomorrow.)

I don't know who decides on the programming on the sound system at the supermarket. I think it's actually selected by the people working there at any given moment, not piped in or dictated by corporate. I remember once hearing a complete Radiohead album - I think it was "The Bends" - played during a remodeling period. Another time I was just wrapping things up there at a shift change, and suddenly the volume of the music increased to annoying levels, so I had to shout to the cashier as I was checking out. But today - a Tuesday - was senior citizen's day, and somebody was playing the most obnoxious pop from the 70's and 80's. "Rock Lobster" by the B-52s is not good shopping music. Music should make people want to hang out in the store a little longer, not wrap things up as soon as possible to get away from the noise.

One of the last Waldenbooks in Pennsylvania is located in the Laurel Mall in Hazleton, about twenty miles from my house. My friends and I used to go there fairly often, but now it's been maybe five years or more since I made the trip intentionally. Late last year the Borders chain announced that it will be closing most of its remaining Waldenbooks stores, and the Laurel Mall location is on the list. So today a friend and I made a farewell pilgrimage to see if there was anything there worth buying. The store is about 40% empty, but I still found a handful of paperbacks that were worth getting at 50-70% off.

I came home to learn of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, and that occupied my attention the rest of the day...until it was time to make cookies for my cousin's baby shower. I was in the middle of mixing the batter when I realized that midnight had come and gone, and that I had missed my first post in a long time. I could have back-dated this post, but I decided against it.

I did something dumb on Facebook yesterday, and got the results today. Sometimes I guess it's best if we let the past be the past. Still, when your past is often more present in your consciousness that the present, this can be a tough thing to do.

Which brings me to here. It's almost 4:00 AM and I've been awake for over twenty hours. Need to go to sleep soon. More plans in the morning. We'll see how they work out.