Perpetual Ruminations

Bug or Windsheild?

I'm pretty sure everyone is familiar with, "Sometimes you're the Bug, sometimes you're the windshield", or something similar. Yesterday, I was the bug! Yes, it was one of those kind of days.

Actually, it started Wednesday evening when one of our neighbors came over right after we had let the dogs out for the last tie before bed. We gave them their treats, then settled in to watch a little TV before bed, when he knocked on the door. He doesn't come over often, only when he needs something, and this was no exception. His Straight Talk phone wasn't working right, and he needed to use a phone to talk to customer service to get it working right. I agreed to assist him, but it would have to wait until the next day, which was yesterday.

Here I should explain a bit about him; he's a nice, elderly, guy who pretty much keeps to himself, unless he's having problems. He lives alone and is a bit of a hoarder, which isn't a problem for me. But, he is also not very clean. He doesn't shower often, wears the same cloths for weeks, and doesn't clean his apartment, doesn't take out his trash, and chain-smokes to the point that everything inside is stained yellowish-brown, not to mention he keeps it about 80 degrees inside and there is a constant fog of cigarette smoke.

The day started out like most other days, I was up early and enjoyed some coffee while my wife and I talked about our plans for the day. She had a few things to do around the house, then planned on going over to her elderly mom's to do some cleaning, visiting, and then a bit of shopping before returning home.

I planned on spending some time in WdC, going through the Community Newsfeed, engaging in some Small Talk, and wanted to try and pull a poem up from the depths of the abyss for Express It In Eight. I also wanted to try and get a blog entry done for Andre's Banana Bar before spending some time reading another Nameless book I had downloaded from Kindle Unlimited. But, I also had agreed to help our neighbor with is phone, so I wanted to get some of this done before I went over to assist, knowing I would want to shower and put on clean cloths upon returning.

We spent about an hour in our Bible Studies, then she grabbed her guitar to do some practicing while I spent some time in WdC. But, her nephew is staying with us for the winter and got up a few minutes after she started her practice. She's just learning, and he sometimes gives her tips and advise. Wednesday, he decided to give tips, advise and instruction. This made it difficult for me to concentrate and focus, so I took the dogs out, then putzed around until it was time for her to leave for her mom's.

Since I couldn't do much of anything else, I decided to get the unpleasant task of helping the neighbor out of the way. I could have asked him to do this at our house instead of his, but the dogs continuously try to lick his filthy clothing and we would have to clean and sterilize anything he came in contact with (seriously, he is that bad). But, after trying for about an hour, we were still waiting for someone to answer his call. So, I went back home with the unpleasant task of returning later in the evening, around seven.

I showered, changed cloths and thought I would do my time in WdC, read, write, et... but, my wife's nephew decided to sit and visit, watch videos, and just hang out. Since I can't focus with a lot of noise and distractions, I decided to work on our dinner, my own recipe for red beans and rice. By the time I had dinner simmering, my wife was back home, so we visited a bit and then enjoyed dinner. After, it was back over to help the neighbor get his phone working.

We got through to customer service after a half hour wait, then went through removing the sims card, turning the phone off and back on a few times, and then were told to hold for a specialist. But instead of being placed on hold, we were disconnected. We called again, we waited again, and we went through a lot more of the same questions, routines, and in the end were told it was something wrong with the phone. Up until now, all that was asked about the cellular data is if it was turned on. I took his phone, turned his data off, then turned it back on and the phone worked like a charm...

After, he thanked me. I went back home, took another shower, changed into some comfortable clothing, and relaxed with a glass of Fireball, then off to bed; the day was shot and I hadn't accomplished anything I had planned on--just a bug!