Read a novel last night after settling into bed at 10:45. ’Twas a tale of murder foul in the heartland of America. The first forty pages were interesting but the day’s activities clearly must have worn me way down.
Woke up at 1:30 with the iPad glowing on my chest and drool dribbling out my mouth. Got up and shuffled to the bathroom for that pre-sleep pee. Got a sip of cool water. Returned to the comforter snuggling in like a bear moving into a cave for a long cold winter.
Just like that I was off to sleep and dreaming of things most improbable and fantastic. If you quiz me now I could not tell you a single detail. But when I awoke, I was sure I would remember it all.
At 5:57 my body told me it had rested as much as it felt necessary and that I should get up, pee again and seek out some fuel for the coming hours. I fought my corpus’s demands for a time, picking up my phone and reading the headlines and my friends’ latest social media postings. But at about 6:05 I gave in got up and after hitting the bathroom headed for the kitchen.
Today, like most days I set a pot of decaf on to brew. I got a bowl and a spoon. I sliced a banana up and threw some nuts on top of it. Then the Special K and the milk. My breakfast does not vary much although some days the fruit is diced apple with a dash of sultana raisins.
Coffee done, I grabbed a hot cup and took it to the dining room along with the cereal bowl and some milk. After opening the metal curtain that hides the courtyard from my view I ate in the darkness watching for the first signs of light. Those first signs of light are never the sun or a waning dark sky. Those first signs are lights appearing in windows across the courtyard of the poor bastards just getting home from a night shift or just getting ready to be in at 7.
Of the 58 windows I can observe across the courtyard four or maybe five light up before the sun comes up. My vision is poor enough that I can’t see people or anything taking place in those apartments. If the residents of those units knew, my myopia would probably make them happy. I just see blurry pastel yellow radiating out over what I know are pastel pink and green buildings.
As I sip my coffee I try to make a mental list of what I have to do today. There is a trip to the oculista. The replacement lenses for my sunglasses are in and will be placed in the frame I bought a couple of weeks ago. Initially I got a pair with UV protection but not polarization. It took only one day walking on the glaring calçadas of Lisboa sidewalks and I knew I had made a mistake. Luckily the oculista had a satisfaction guarantee for 30 days. So, in order to get the situation rectified all I had to do was pay for the add-on of polarization. A swap of lenses is required and that is why I am dropping in today.
An add-on to the list was a lunch date with friends. Luckily it is at a Vietnamese restaurant near my home. If I remember correctly the place does pho and bao buns. And there was other stuff I added to the list. These included dishes, laundry, purging email, and digging through a bag of papers shoved under the desk. This inadvertent hiding occurred when we had a new year’s party. I need to make sure nothing of importance got put away without being addressed.
As I jotted down some of the stuff to be taken care of on a Post-it I worked on my second cup of decaf coffee. Watching the eastern sky it lightened. Soft gray clouds filled the world's ceiling. Straining my eyes it appeared that a sliver of blue sky might be mixed in but it was difficult to tell. A look at my phone and the TWC app indicates the rain will not be steady but rather have breaks of several hours throughout the day. Typical Lisboa February.
With a list of to-dos in hand I will face the day. With my black rain jacket I will live in, if not conquer, this wet day in the world.
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