Good Afternoon;
I think I'm waterlogged!
37 days and nights to go....(until the sewers back up)...."RIIIGGHHHTT!"
So I stayed in the shed just lying there until 10:30 am. this morning, after crawling in at 10:30 pm. last night. About 9 hours of that was actual sleep time, interspersed with bladder interventions and reading and spacing out until the back said..'that's it, you're getting up now'.
I hit the Giant and am here at the library praying the rain will let up enough for me to travel crosstown. I'm headed to Monkee's to pick up meds, and then up to Mt. Washington to the Starbucks to plant my self until closing, unless someone comes by with a better offer. I'm going to try to dry out my sweat shirt, it's not sodden but very damp and even though I hung it up in the shed, the atmosphere inside is almost as saturated as the air outside.
I was hoping to find Allan at the library and cadge a ride, but I have not seen him for 2 days, he must be busy with "the Girlfriend", who at time will remain a mysterious blond, (like Suzanne Sommers in 'American Graffiti', only in a Prius...not A '55 T-Bird...LOL). I tried to get Monkee to meet me in her car at the Metro station to save the walk in the rain from the bus stop to her house, but she is down with the flu..(NOT H1N1..!), and is not leaving the house. Ah well, I've got another sweat shirt clean in the shed if needs be.
Friday, I met Rachel and her Mom and 'friend' at the Giant in the morning and she shopped with me and we had an ice cream while they shopped. Rachel charmed Carol the cashier who helps at the self service registers, to the extent that when I went into the Giant this morning, she was effusive in her compliments and amazed at Rachel's intelligence and personality....(yeah, I'm a proud daddy,...and why not???!!). They dropped me in Mt. Washington and I sat out the rain in the coffee shop. I tried to help a woman dry out her laptop, unsuccessfully, and we had a nice conversation ranging in content from Poe to Sci-Fi to animal oddities to ecology, conservation and extinction of species. I helped Ashley (formerly of "OUR" Starbucks in Pikesville) with the trash and she gave me some pastries..it's the time of year for the 'Cream Cheese Filled Pumpkin Muffin" again...YUM!!!
I closed the Starbucks and took the bus, and the bus 'home'.
NOW...The juicy details of yesterday...
While in the Giant, I saw what I thought was ANOTHER cell phone in the basket I grabbed off the rack. Turned out to be a woman's ID and credit card wallet, loaded with plastic and a drivers license and insurance cards and registrations...
Giant did not have a White Pages phone book, and I was not ready to waste money calling 411 yet, and they were ready to leave, so I went to the Starbucks and used their phone book and phone..(I'm out of minutes)..which of course would show up on caller ID as "Starbucks". This was around 12:20 pm. or so. I reached her husband and told him I found his wife's wallet, and he asked if he could kiss me...lol. He asked where and how and I told him and informed him where I was and that I was unable to come to him due to the fact that I was homeless and had no transportation, etc. And yes I was angling for some sort of thank you present, but I never asked, suggested or demanded, nor did I place any sort of conditions, and I gave him my real name. He said he'd be there in about a half an hour. An hour or more later he called the Starbucks and talked to Nelly the manager, she told me he said he was on his way. I wasn't going anywhere so it really made no difference. He also must have queried her about me in some way. He showed up near 3:00 pm......and was trailed by a city cop! He comes over and asks if I'm Dave, and we go through the whole rigamarole of how and what and where....yadda, yadda , yadda, and he takes the wallet from me and goes through it checking that all the credit cards are there..(damn skippy they were!).. and again asks somewhat suspiciously why I was at Mt.Washington if I found it at Pikesville. It was on the edge of rudeness, but not quite there yet. I explained (again), about the lack of a phone book and my ride leaving..(I almost asked him what was his problem? I was doing him a huge favor, and saving HIM unknown amounts of time, money and grief, and why should I inconvenience myself with transportation on a rainy damn day!...but I held my tongue...lol.). He told the cop that everything looked okay and that it was not a scam, (and she gave me a sympathetic look..lol), and then thanked me and asked if he could give me something and pulled out a twenty. I acquiesced immediately, without my usual pride vs. pocket disclaimer this time, and he left. I was not sure whether to be annoyed or amused at the irony of the example of the aphorism made famous by Clare Boothe Luce.."No Good Deed Goes Unpunished"!.............LOL!
Yesterday actually turned out to be a day of financial windfalls, The $20.00 just mentioned, the $7.00..(plus the free sushi)..when the wrong price scanned at the Giant..(Right Price Guarantee!!...gotta love it...AND take full advantage of it), plus when Rachel and I bought a scratch off lottery ticket from the machine..(which was not a winner..lol), there were two more unscratched tickets in the slot..(which were also losers..lol, but she had fun), and then I looked on top of the shelf next to it and saw 2 scratched off tickets discarded there, and checked them out of habit. One of them was a winner..$3.00! A total of $30.00 for the day, small potatoes maybe, but a good day for me!
Times Up.........Dave
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