In hindsight yesterday was an interesting day. Today was merely here – there was some work, although it is quiet due to the state of the government; there was some leaf raking (not by me); and I visited my favorite barber – she is leaving for Mississippi in January to work for a barber ministry. I will be sad to see her go but on the other hand when we go sailing around South America and to Antarctica I will not feel guilty if I get a haircut, a professional shave, and a men’s facial on board. In general I spent yesterday running around and today closer to home. Tomorrow will be the start of five days a week in the office for three weeks straight for me. But that’s on commuting, more on that later. For now, I digress.
Let’s start by talking about mugs. When traveling mugs seem to come home – they are the one thing to decorate the house that comes with adventures. At first it seemed silly as if it was a bit of clutter, but now they seem to be something interesting. Each day I sit down with a mug of coffee in the morning and I remember where it came from, such as the mug from The Strand in New York City, or the matching pair of blue hand-thrown mugs from the DC Holiday Market in 2019. There is also a Shenandoah mug and a mug from Siesta Key in Florida, home to a very relaxing Christmas and New Years in the same year of 2019. The latest, or one of the latest, is actually my favorite. It’s hiding in the back in the photo and it is a Quebec City mug.
When the covid shutdown began in 2020, one of the things I did at first was to post a photo of a different mug every morning on instagram. Later, I posted a photo of myself in a different Hawaiian shirt every day (I had about twelve of them at the time). I ran out of mugs and shirts for this exercise long before we reopened.
Along with my coffee recently I have been enjoying oatmeal in the morning but otherwise I do not eat until the end of the day. Well, wait, I do have some snacks. Yesterday turned into an exception though. As I was out, I went by The Broiler for lunch.
The Broiler is actually a long time Columbia Pike institution, started by my next door neighbor and his brother back in the 1950s. My neighbor still owns the building and the property (and it shows as he is more keen on earning rent than making improvements) but a different person owns the restaurant and rents from him along with all of his original memorabilia including a Ms. Pac-Man machine, photos of football stars in the restaurant, and a thank you note from the Secret Service. Anyway, The Broiler is ostensibly a sub shop but better known for cheesesteak sandwiches and they are halfway decent at that. Along with Columbia Pike in general even with prosperity it largely remains the same.
I actually prefer to be on the bus for my commuting to work, but lately I have been in the car far, far too often. Fortunately yesterday only had me driving out to the beltway to pick up one of my kids and we managed to catch a glimpse of a beautiful sunset on the way home. Per his request we also headed to Silver Diner for dinner. In keeping with only having two full meals a day I stuck with a Caesar salad with salmon.
Normally I am out mid-week for an evening. This week not so much trying to keep a handle on expenses in line with future adventures. I think after the January trip I may end up finding a way to liven things up a bit more mid-week, though, or it may be time for more weekend adventures. I need to find something so share even if I am not out traveling.
This reminds me of a meme before memes were known as memes. Two characters walking the earth trying to take in the moment until one speaks out loud, “I can’t wait to go home and share this in my blog.”
In Retrospect 