Blogger 365 Day 198 - This is taking longer than I thought

      Okay, I think I have pretty well covered my first two days off from this weekend, day three was pretty uneventful for the most part.  Again I woke up early,  went outside and had a cigarette.  Some neighbors were working on the makeshift memorial across the street, trimming weeds from around it, rearranging the flowers and toys left there.  It was nice to see but sad also.  Obviously sad because that the whole reason the memorial is there in the first place is three people died, including a nine year old girl.  But it was also sad because for as much as my mom says she never gets to go anywhere or do anything, there are people literally right outside her house, bonding as a sense of community and yet she is either unaware of that fact, or just unwilling to be part of anything outside of her own home.  Admittedly I don't know the neighbors there very well, I know them enough to at least say hi when they drive by and that is about it, so maybe they are a bunch of assholes, I don't know but it doesn't seem like much of an asshole move to be up early on a Sunday morning to tend to a memorial for a few neighbors who tragically are no longer with us. 

      I went back inside and was going to get a cup of coffee when my mom said she wanted to run out and get a Sunday paper.  I decided to tag along, in part because this meant I could get a cup of non instant coffee.  There is always a method to my madness kids, and coffee to go with my new found breakfast treat of Oatmeal Delights Pop Tarts seemed like a very good plan on my part.

      So after a quick trip to the store and with my brewed coffee in hand I hopped on my laptop and worked on invoices for the store, which beat the Christmas stuff that was still on the TV.  I also started to pack up some of the things I wasn't going to be using on Sunday, last thing I needed to do was get half way home and find out I left something behind, which has happened before.  It wouldn't have been that big a thing except what I left behind before was only my apartment keys.  Nothing major.  Now I am much more anal about making sure I have everything before I leave.  So I stashed away all of my clothes that I wasn't wearing as well as my laptop, camera and cables an just went with my iPad for all of my internet needs (which weren't many) and to assist in finishing my invoices from work.

     Once all of the creatures were up and stirring in the house the decision was made to go to lunch or brunch or whatever it is called on Sunday, so we ended up at Ponderosa.  Honestly it was my first trip there in probably 5 years or so, so I had to relearn how the place operated since it is basically half regular restaurant and half do it yourself buffet (if you get the buffet option with your meal).  Most of my recent buffet excursions were at Golden Corral where you get everything yourself save for your drinks, and Ponderosa has more than just a salad bar.  In fact, they had haluski, which may have vaulted them over Golden Corral in my dining pantheon.  If anyone ever wants to win my heart (provided I have a heart, that hasn't been scientifically proven yet) a good place to start would be Polish food.  They also had strawberry glazed bananas in the dessert area, which were quite tasty.

      After lunch/brunch we went back to the house and really didn't do much for a while, it was pretty uneventful until we decided to load up the car to leave.  That was when my mom decide to tell me that her neighbor (one of the few she speaks to) got a new TV and gave her the old set, and I could have it.  So now, on top of lugging my things back to my place, I am taking a 25" TV too.  Don't get me wrong, I am grateful as all get out, but just when I thought I had cut my load down coming back, I had gotten rid of the cookies and the presents for the reunion which made my bags lighter, I was treated to that law of physics that says nature abhors a vacuum in my luggage.

     So we got the car packed, the TV in the back seat because it wouldn't fit in the trunk and made the journey back to Pittsburgh.  We actually made pretty good time, it usually takes about an hour or so and on Sunday the drive only took about 50 minutes, traffic was lighter than usual coming into town which helped immensely.   And while the driveway next to my place is leased parking, nobody was there so we actually pulled the car up next to my door, which beat lugging a 25" TV half a block.  

      We did our goodbyes and things and then I came inside and started to unpack my stuff.  My mom had sent a few groceries with me as well (more of that vacuum principle at work) so I wanted to get them put away but once that was done I didn't want to sit in my apartment.  I saw on my table stuff for the casino and decided I would go down and blow whatever free money they were offering this weekend.  I hadn't used the weekly $25 they always give out and they had a pull tab promotion for Sunday which ended up being good for another $35 so I had $60 to blow on free gaming, which I did quite well.  I think after a couple of hours I was up maybe $15 or something but it was getting dark outside and not just because it was dusk but it looked like it was going to storm, so I left the casino and raced back to the subway station to catch a ride back into the city, when I pondered whether being on an elevated subway station in necessarily good judgement during a thunderstorm.  Yes, I ponder stupid things at stupid times.  Luckily the subway came before we could test that hypothesis.

      I got back into town and caught y connecting bus pretty quickly, quickly enough that I was still ahead of the rain.  At least until I got off the bus, rather than come straight home I ducked into CVS for a few things and when I came out it was pouring down.  So I did that waiting thing where you try to stay close enough to the buildingyou don't get wet, but also try to stay out of everyone's way that is coming in or going out.  Finally there was enough of a break in the rain that I made the walk home (about two blocks) without getting soaked at least, wet for sure but not soaked so I will take that as a win.

     Next thing you know I was here, working on a blog and catching up on my emails that I missed over the weekend.  And that, finally, should complete the story.  Now if you will excuse me, I am going to give my typing fingers the rest of the night off.