Overall, I'll take today, thanks

So today, (this is as opposed to Monday) I shut down my computer, locked up the office, set the alarm and was just closing the first padlock on the security gate when the phone started ringing inside.

I unlocked the lock, disarmed the alarm, hastened back to my desk, dropped whatever I had in my hand, and got Mr. B. before he finished leaving his message. It was good that I talked to him, 'cause he does have an issue that demands attention.

Then I erased the half-message from the machine, reset the alarm, pulled the gate back down and re-locked the padlock.

...Any guesses as to what was "in my hand" when I ran back in? Yeah.

Fortunately I carry a spare car key in my wallet, I had already opened the padlocks that would allow me to leave the premises, and I still had the house keys on me. I called our installer guy, who will drop the spare office keys off here in the morning.

So then I headed back to the house, stopping, as I did on Monday, at the grocery store. There were no untoward bumper sticker sightings, but it was no golden hour, what with the looming clouds and spitting rain.

(This is not an I'm Sick of the Rainy Season post. It's actually lifting early this year, so even if we get some more heavy rains, the end is in sight.)

The guards in the parking lot were, variously, ignoring or ogling me. The other shoppers seemed preoccupied and in the way. This one guy kept telling his son to shut up (which can actually be said much less harshly in Spanish than in English, but still), and the checkout lady and bagger boy were so deep in conversation about how nobody likes Raul that I couldn't even get him to put all my purchases in a single bag.

Pedestrians, drivers and bicyclists alike were being heedless on the road, and there's a really big hole and an unreasonably steep curb in the middle of the supposedly correct way to get into and out of the grocery store, which isn't accessible from the main street in the direction I travel after work.


...All potentially irritating.

And yet. (Some of) the news items that have come to my attention lately are this:

And this.

And this.

Both of those "this" links are way worth clicking. You really should.


...Balance is good.