tomorrow is Monday...

So, today's only priority was to pick my mother up at the train station at 5:20PM.

I live about 9 minutes from the train station due to conveniently located highway exits. One of these exits jacks up my auto insurance rates because every highway accident in the area that gets reported is credited to my little peninsula neighborhood but what can you do but take the good with the bad.

Other things done to get to 5:00PM (I like to be early). Watch PBR, professional bull riding, on CBS, and stockcar racing on FOX, which are two odd programming choices for a life long city boy, also use leftover roast to create a huge sandwich from a round loaf of Italian bread which gets pressed and tossed in the oven to melt the cheese, which gets shared with others. The leftover roast was from Saturday, if I hadn't cooked it on Saturday I was going to through it away. I did not feel right about disposing of it so it was cooked and served with real mashed potatoes, the potatoes were soon to be on their was out as well as with the onions which ended up being grilled and carrots. The carrots are the only thing that I would have let see Monday. All the ingredients had more shelf life but I don't like things sitting around.

I think since Thursday, I've been eating more cheese, that's my way of shaking my fist in the face of death, known personally in my family as heart disease. I was thinking about the next time the doctor asks my if my family has a history of heart disease, I'll say no, we just drop dead from heart attacks, oh, unless you count death certificates as history.

Anyway, I really don't do anything constructive the whole day, the sandwich was nice but not worth the effort. I made it to 5PM and headed to the train station hoping for one of the choice parking spaces which is designated for drop off and pick up, that I actually requested to be put in. I pulled onto the street of my destination and things look busy, my preferred spot will probably not be available, but that's okay, I know of some other secret spaces. I pull up further and there are spaces available, someone has posted illegal no parking signs in the vicinity of the drop off and pick up area. Normally, I would cut the signs down but the illegal doer has most likely saved my spot so I let the signs stay, and my guess is that he probably has requested permission for the spaces, but he just posted it incorrectly, so he gets a walk.

So, I get the choice space, go inside the station to find out that the train is delayed, delayed two hours according to board. Great, the drop off and pick up has a fifteen minute limit. Two hours is 700% more than I have, the kicker, I know enforcement is most likely not working this area but I move the car anyway. A metered spot a block and a half away fits the bill, meters are free on Sundays. I derive a little bit of happiness that my work in traffic has benefited me today. I also find out that the train is really only a little more than an hour late, it originally was two but the train has been gaining time. I grabbed a coffee and wait. The train station is also a bus station so there where sights-a-plenty.

An hour and twenty minutes after the scheduled arrival time, my mom's train shows up, I see people disembarking so I head to the platform. Everyone seems to get off but I don't see my mother. The train does make two stops in the city maybe she got off at the wrong station, maybe she was quick and exited through a side door. I leave the platform to look around, no mother. Splendid.

I head back to the platform and there she is, she says that the conductor announced the station incorrectly so that half of the people were still on the train. That's government workers for you.

Anyway, I get mom home safe and sound and head to the real estate office to take care of business. At the real estate office I find one item which can (and will) wait for Tuesday night.

Which I find to be very sweet.