Day One-hundred-and-ninety-eight: Alone again

After over a month of being with people, family, it just struck me today, my third full day of being home, that I am truly alone again. Other than it striking me, I have no idea what consequences it truly has. I think I have a built-in excuse for all my failings, my lethargy, ... Well, that and my cold. Yes I still have a remnant of that head cold. I am going out today for some Coricidin HBP. I keep wanting to do something else, anything else than what I'm not doing. (Now if anyone reads that last sentence and doesn't shake their head, then my writing truly needs improvement.) I can best explain that by an example: I need to finish my speech so I can get on with other things but I'm not really working on the speech. I'm just staying at home not doing much of anything because I am not but should be working on that speech. Then there is what I would rather be doing... Top's on that list is going for a walk.

The sun is shining brightly with an outdoor temperature of 60.3 at 9:30 AM PST. It's calling me. I'll report later this evening what I decided to do with this day in my Life after Layoff. It's good to have these dilemmas. By the way, I walked out of the Hotel Nevada with $72.50 worth of quarters as I saved all state quarters as well, both in memory of Marilyn asking me to "collect" state quarters and to go through them for bicentennial quarters I may have missed in the first round. It may not have been a winning gamble but it was a fun one.

Mid-afternoon update: I went out to get shaving cream and the Coricidin HBP. Then instead of walking, I went to the Chit Chat Cafe and had a soy latte while I read my $0.75 paper. I'll be doing both rarely but it was nice to get away from the house. Then I went home and spent over an hour putting together and baking the Pueblo Corn Pie. My oldest daughter's in-laws served this with a lot of other delicious food at Thanksgiving. It was so good I made it for my middle sister's family December 22nd. Now I'm making the full recipe for myself for dinner and beyond. As soon as I take it out of the oven, I am planning on going out to sit in the Sky Chair and relax while I work on my speech.

Instead of going outside, I ate some of it. It was good and it was a good thing I didn't go outside. My rice cooker was delivered. Now I just need to do my dishes and wash everything so I can use it. I'm looking forward to having rice and beans, cooking wild rice for the Mango Black Bean salad, and having rice ready when I want to eat it.

For the first Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in quite a while, I won't be working. Instead, I'm thinking about joining the National Day of Service, which is work of a different sort. I want to do something that combines exercise and environment. At the top of my list is to revisit the area that I know wasn't cleaned up on the Coastal Cleanup day back in September.

For the first day since my arrival home, I didn't make a "to do" list. I may have gotten less done but it was a better day.