Day 2243

I daydream a lot eating breakfast. The music and the overheard conversations cause my mind to wander. If I overlook the hipsters at the next tables, it's easy to imagine that I'm sitting in a small roadside diner somewhere in Wyoming. This is an appealing thought. I used to love slow, pointless road trips along the back roads of Western America. There's nothing better than a great breakfast at an obscure roadside diner. I wonder if it would be the same today? I used to feel comfortable pulling over to the side of the road and sleeping in my car. Now, I'd be looking for the nearest Embassy Suites. I used to feel confident that if my car broke down, there would always be a friendly garage and a competent mechanic nearby. Now, I'd be calling AAA from my cell phone and hoping I could find a tow truck to take me back to the nearest big city. A lot of these little towns don't even have a gas station anymore. Who am I kidding? A lot of these little towns don't even exist. The interstates killed them off long ago. For the most part, the picturesque two lane highways I remember have been replaced by impersonal eight lane freeways filled with a frightening parade of eighteen wheelers.

If my fantasy still existed, it would be fun to wander from one obscure diner to another, sharing brief conversations with fellow travelers, eating tons of home made pie and pancakes, and stopping along the way to photograph amazing things I stumbled across. I'd never be in a hurry and I'd never really have a destination in mind. Since this is just a fantasy, I'd pay for my travels with a credit card that didn't need to be repaid and there would always be a comfortable, clean bed nearby when I felt tired. I would take tons of cool pictures and upload them to Google, so they wouldn't disappear, but I wouldn't try to sell them. There are never clients or money in my daydreams.

Since my mental road trips are about as real as a ride down Route 66, I am content to spend an hour a week daydreaming in a little restaurant near my house. I eat, I daydream, I always get a final cup of coffee to go, and I pick up groceries for Friday dinner on the way home. I'm usually back before the dogs have finished their morning nap.

There were more websites to update this morning, but no writing jobs. Writing jobs have been scarce this year. With extra time on my hands, I've been trying to stay busy. Today, I cleaned the utility room. This small room has become the repository for everything that won't fit in the rest of the house. The top of the washer and dryer are filled with empty Tupperware containers, half filled bottles of bleach, seldom used cookware, oven cleaner and Windex, and old dog toys. There is a heavy orbital floor polisher in a corner that we used to use years ago to wax the brick floors. I don't think the bricks have been waxed in ten years. The utility room is hard to clean and when you finish, it looks just as bad as it did before. I know that there's a lot of stuff in this room that could be thrown away, but I'll leave that to Janet. I'm terrible about throwing things away.

It's Superbowl weekend. I'll watch the game, but I can't say I'm excited about either team. I do like the Heinz commercial with the stampede of weiner dogs. What could be better than dogs in costumes running through an open, grassy field into the arms of a family of giant Heinz condiment bottles? I'll probably go to the Superbowl sale at my favorite clothing store. Everything is 75% off for a few hours just before the game. 75% off is the only time I can afford these clothes anymore. I can't believe it's Superbowl 50. I was already a college freshman when they played the first Superbowl. I think I listened to the game on the radio. Jeez, I'm getting old.

Zorro is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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