A day gang aft agley

     Today I woke up with no real agenda and spent the morning drifting about watering plants in the yard, reading emails, and out on the deck drinking my tea with the newspaper.

     Before long I hit the wall of lethargy with a sudden need to do something, to feel as though I’d accomplished something with my day. It was going to reach well into the 90s, so if there was to be any form of activity it had to happen soon.

          I wandered outside with no real plan but then pulled a dandelion, another one, and soon was dragging out a tub for the weeds, followed by that last bag of mulch. Before long the front garden looked a little less like squatters had taken over our house. Next I gathered up bucket, sponge, soap and hose and spent a good half hour on my bug be-spackled car.

          After all this I deserved not only a shower and clean clothes, but a ride in my clean and more importantly, air-conditioned car. After all, it would be a shame to waste clean feet and make-up on an afternoon at home. Where to go?

          I did need fabric for a stool I plan to cover. The store where I planned to buy this fabric was over the river and two towns away. I checked their website. Closed on Saturday. 

          Fine. There were other errands still waiting where I could take my clean feet.

          I needed a bottom sheet for an aging set whose life I hoped to prolong.

         And tomatoes – I could make that BLT salad for dinner if I had another tomato.

         And the library – I’d just finished my latest book last night. 

Our town’s library is only a few blocks away from our house and I arrived just before 2:00. I reached the glass door and the librarian, key in hand looked back at me.

          They close on Saturday at 2:00

          Tomatoes. I drove to the farm stand where I receive my weekly farm share. No joy. Corn – honey – eggs – every form of zucchini imaginable – but no tomatoes.

          The next town’s library! I pulled out my phone. Sure enough, open today, 9 -5. A short drive and I was there, in their very empty parking lot. I squinted at the door. Hours: Saturday 9-5. Just to offer some entertainment to the three counter-culturey teenagers slumped in the shade under the library’s overhang, I climbed out of my car and pulled at the library door. Locked. As if the meaning of this should be clear to anyone with half a brain, one of them looked up and said, “It’s summer.”

          Sheet. Back to the car, off to the nearby discount store. Surely I could accomplish ONE of my missions.

          Empty parking lots were definitely the theme of the day.

          There before me was not just a closed store, but a gutted one.

          I decided I’d better head for home before I triggered any more closures in the world around me.