I awoke this morning, as I have for the past 135 days, and checked off another day closer to a return to a rich and fulfilling life, but we are not there yet, thanks to Covid-19.

I had no immediate plans, no pressing matters that required my attention.  I’d planned on this last night when I went to bed and had actually stayed in bed this morning until 6:00 a.m. so that the day didn’t seem as long.

When I did rise at six, at what I would normally call “midday”, I made coffee, watched the morning news, took a shower, put on clean clothes and even shaved.  I looked as good this morning as I will look all week.  Enjoy it while you can.  Then prepared myself to deal with whatever emergencies came my way.  I waited, and I waited some more.  I studied my toenail growth and came up with a plan for dealing with that.  I looked up and down my street to see if I could see anyone out say, walking their dog, that I could “accidentally” bump into and exchange pleasantries while maintaining social distancing.  I was beginning to feel like Prince Charles.  Just Waiting….

About 10:00 Penny got a text.  Im always curious about her texts, but  I don’t want to appear so.  She gets so many, and if you show any interest at all, she is likely to shove her phone in your face to show you a picture of a puppy that is missing that one of her puppy-pals sent her.  I am always hoping its an invitation to go somewhere, or do something fun, but it is almost always puppies, which is why I don’t want to appear curious.

In  this case, it was an invitation, from Walgreens Drug Store, wanting to know if she wanted to come pick up her order.  Is the Pope Catholic?  This is almost an “outing” in our world these days as the store is 1.3 miles away making the round trip just under three miles.  I’d call it an “adventure”.

We loaded up and turned right coming out of the subdivision.  Accelerated smoothly to the posted speed limit of 35, where I backed off the accelerator to maintain  that constant speed.  The traffic Gods were with us and the only light between our house and Walgreens was green as we went through the intersection and pulled into the parking lot.  Drove around to the side of the store, and pulled up next to the pharmacy window.

“Hello….” I began speaking into the silent void..”Picking up for Penny?…”

“hello…anybody in there?”

I don’t think I realized how loudly I had spoken or maybe my voice was amplified by the cover but at any rate the poor Pharmacy Tech was so rattled that when he spoke into his mic asking if I was  “Picking up?”,  I remember thinking “Jeez, you don’t have to yell.”

I really wanted to say something like “No, things are still pretty slow”, but I didn’t and got Pennys prescription without further incident.

We got home some two  minutes later because it is only 1.3 miles to the store but in keeping with Penny’s isolation protocols, we had to wash our hands.  I rinsed mine under the kitchen sink, and she went to the bathroom which had all of the soap, powders, and ungents that she would need to do a thorough cleaning.

Her sink wouldn’t drain.  I am The Man in this house so I should know about such things and indeed I do.    The stopper was stuck.  I first tried pushing on it with my thumb, then prying with a pocket knife.  Neither of those time-tested repair techniques worked so I went into the kitchen and got a kitchen knife to use as a second prybar.  That didn’t work either.  This was a mixed blessing.  On the one hand, it was going to require more effort than I’d originally planned, but it also meant I might get to use one or more of the recently organized tools from the garage.  I went to the garage to look around and see what I might need.  I came back with am armful of various tools, only a few of which I thought I’d need, but it is impossible not to drag out everything you might need when you own it.

I laid my haul out on a towel covering the vanity and grabbed the pliers. I disassembled the plumbing, cleaned the stopper and made sure it worked, and was ready to reassemble the entire thing when I realized I didn’t have any plumbers putty.  I am sure that I was the only man in my neighborhood who didn’t have plumbers putty but I was too embarrassed to ask so I went to Lowes and bought some more. As I pulled out of my driveway, I looked longingly at my neighbors house.  Steve is a contractor, and his truck was parked in the driveway.  I was pretty sure he’d have some plumbers putty and would be happy to help me out here, but I was too embarrassed to go begging for plumbers putty so I drove on and bought my own.

I got back home and rolled out a piece of putty.  I wrapped it around the stopper, and tightened the gland nut.  Reassembled the p-trap and put my tools away.  I announced I was done and it was fixed, and I got the kudos that all men live for “No leaks?…Are you sure?”.

“Yes I’m sure…”

“Of course I’m sure…”

“You can count on it”

“When have I ever let you down?”

Any of these retorts would have been proper but since I was busy double-checking that there truly weren’t any leaks, it came out mumbled and probably lost its bite.  If tomorrow, when I rise at a proper time, and  Penny is still asleep, I may sneak into the bathroom and check that there is no leaks under the vanity.  If there is, it would simply mean that we coincidentally suffered yet another plumbing leak overnight, completely unrelated to yesterdays leak.  That ‘s my story and I’m sticking to it.

All I can say is “Whew!”.  It is past noon now and the heat of the day is just now really beginning to crank up.  For my afternoon project I may make some sun tea by putting six tea bags in a glass jar and setting it on the porch in the sun until it turns that dark amber color.  Once the color is just right, I will pour a smallish glass of tea and taste it to see if it needs further aging.  If not, I will pour the small glass into a larger vessel, add sweetener, and drink that.

Then take a nap.

Then wake up long enough to eat dinner.

Man, I got to go.  I dont want to get behind in my chores.