Is Friday, October 3 as I type this. The sun is setting, and my wife has asked me to get a suitcase down. Tomorrow, will begin the worst weekend I'll have to experience in a while. I spent the day cleaning the house, knowing that with her leaving for the weekend, I'll be able to keep it that way. Don't tell her that, though. I was preparing.
What makes this a potentially great weekend is the fact that I'll be home alone, and I'll be doing as little as possible. Cooking for one, instead of two, and freezing the left overs, because I don't know how to cook for one.
I'll be alone, and while I'm doing as little as possible, I am having a great time. Until my idle thoughts take over.
I can't help but feel a certain sense of guilt (and pre-emptive revenge on her part) about this - because I am the one that has to wake up early and be functional to drive her to the country link bus stop.
That bus stop is on the Port Wakefield Highway, and whoever decided to put a bus stop for a coach service on an unsealed highway shoulder should be fired out of a cannon, into the barrel of another cannon.
Anyway, that bus stop will enable my wife to fuck off some six or seven hundred kilometres North to a town called Kimba in South Australia's remote North-over-there. She's visiting her friend for the long weekend, and I hope the traffic won't be horrific. She can sleep on the bus. I'll drive home, missing her.
At least my car will see some highway kilometres on the journey to drop her off. She won't be back until the Thursday that follows, so I'll have a house and the cat all to myself. At the same time, my friend who I would otherwise spend time with is travelling for work, so I won't be able to catch up with them.
Recent new shoes on my car. They're good. The car is much cleaner now.
So I have to find something to pass the time. Maybe I could go outside, and touch grass? No thank you. Tomorrow, it will be 29 degrees. Far too warm for my bearded, covered in hair, caveman style. I won't be visiting a hair dresser, but it if I did, it would quickly escalate into the worst weekend of my life - as my identity would be snipped to pieces and lie on commercial lino flooring.
I won't be going to the beach either. I have no desire to fling myself into the sea.
I'll be watching the Singapore F1 sessions with anxiety, hoping that my fellow citizen, Oscar Piastri can extend his lead in the Formula 1 championship. But I'll also be waiting. Waiting for the time between sessions to tick down. And, I'll be waiting the urgency and anxiety of my first solo Art show in years to dawn on me. The art work is stacked in boxes in my office, ready to go, and four hang from the wall in my corridor. I'll spend some time looking at my own Art work.
I am lucky enough, though, to have $10 in my wallet. This is something I could spend, and there's only one way that is responsible to spend it. Go to the library. Get two $5 boxes of mystery books, and see what I find. The last mystery box I purchased (which I'll post about on the Hive book club when I get around to inventorying it) was amazing.
All my favourite genres! About 20c a book!
So my $5 of change can stay in my wallet, because this entertainment budget will last for quite some time.
$10 doesn't go very far these days, but I am learning to stretch it out.
Oh I look forward to reading about the mystery box! Hope you find a way to pass the weekend in the end ;)
Well, was Day of the Triffids in the box, and its sequel (or perhaps it is the sequel) - which made it worth it, PLUS all the other books! (I've never read Day of the Triffids) - so I am keen to experience it! But serious, the value in the box is amazing!
Mystery boxes can be amazing. Last one I got was full of Warhammer Fantasy and 40k novels, I loved almost every one of them.
Oh awesome. There's been a copy of Gaiman's American Gods and a Magic The Gathering book sitting on the $1 shelf, but I ... want to maximise my value with sci-fi mystery boxes! :P Long term, at least!
Ohoo, alone with cat at home, sounds awesome to me though for sure you'll be missing your wifey, she'll be gone for a little longer I hope she'll enjoy her whole weekend too. And going to the library to buy books? That sounds fun and cheap too, you can entertain yourself with that at home 🕺✨
So many bargains to be had! :) I don't really want to go anywhere else after just getting back from dropping her off, It is a long weekend with a public holiday here, and already people are doing stupid stuff on the road. Witnessed five people overtaking dangerously in the 25km drive home!
That sounds like a really cool thing to spend a tenner - or a fiver - on. Much healthier than my alcholism at the moment. I hope you aren't too lonely this weekend. Absence makes the fart grow honda and all that. xx
She'll be back in time for the opening of my exhibition, which is what matters the most. It is is a big moment for me. Emotionally, at least.
Stay health(ier) I have so much more to write that you will read :P Just not through the bottom of a glass ;)
Or do, leave drunk comments on chain, I don't care :D
I've been consumed by ennui. Nothing interests me. I miss being interested. But given you're the one person I do come to say hi to when I feel marginally okay, well, that's saying something. Excited for you, at least!
Throw yourself into the ocean for a bit?
it's so cold
Go make dinner!