After a full day yesterday spent hooking and
jabbing with the union I was looking forward to some respite.However the cosmos had other plans starting
with a visit to the local mall.One of
the extremely too generous Fathers Day gifts I received was a brand new watch
from the whole family.Not to digress
(yet here we go), but I’ve worn a watch since college and had not been without
one since.In the Army timeliness is the
coin of the realm and a watch was required equipment.When my latest watch died a couple of months
ago I decided to see if I could live without it, turns out I could.It was like leaving another vestige of my
military personae behind.For some
reason this drove my wife a little crazy.Timeliness has never been her strong suit; hell it does not occupy a
single iota of her personality.I guess
she admired this in me and was a little distressed to see me without a
timepiece. So the vacation was over and I went to the
mall to get it sized to my wrist.As I
entered the mall I noticed two of Worcester’s
youthful denizens being handcuffed by no less than six policeman.The spoils of their would be shop lifting
spree spread about the sidewalk.I’m
sure they got there on one of our buses because we’ve had meetings with the manager
of this mall who bemoaned the fact that one of our bus routes goes directly
from one of Worcester’s
most notorious public housing complexes to his mall.I’m sure these fine young men were delivered
by one of our buses.Upon entering the
mall I noted that it was almost deserted and this caused me to reflect that the
great American mall concept is probably dying.Malls were a creation of the 1970s and like a lot of things from that
epoch were poorly done.Malls used to be
vibrant gathering places packed with people but have certainly lost their
appeal, probably due to on line shopping.Yesterday the biggest groups in the mall looked to be compatriots of the
two guys I saw being handcuffed.The sales
personnel certainly outnumbered the customers.For some reason I, who detest shopping in all forms, was little saddened
by this evolution, go figure.As soon as
I got home the wife and I embarked on a project to re-finish our back
deck.The first step was moving
everything off the deck which was a monumental task in and of itself.My wife is incredible with flowers and the
dozens of extremely heavy flower pots I had to move off the deck attested to
this.We worked together in first hosing
down the deck and then scrubbing it with some chemical cleaner.Finally as the sun was going down I was out
there with the power washer just dealing with the deck.I really, really like the power washer (Tim
Taylor had that right) more power is gooood!It was a little dark by the end to see the results of our efforts but
this morning revealed total success.We
have to let it dry out for a couple of days before the finish goes on.I sat down to watch an episode of the Wire, I’m
getting near the end of the first season and it’s starting to grow on me (just
a little).My wife and I started to
watch a movie (another F.D. gift) but we were both so tired that we’ll see the second
half of the movie tonight.I enjoyed
working on this project together with my wife, seems we’re a good team, who
knew.My thoughts today are with my
family in South Carolina
burying our beloved cousin, wish I could have been there.Oh, I love having a watch back on my wrist,
guess I haven’t left the military personae completely behind.She really does know me.
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