What a weird day. Uneventful, but weird.

Maybe not weird so much as unremarkable and mundane.

Of all things I didn't plan on, it was the fax machine that woke me up at five o'clock this morning. I'd been so tired last night that I went to bed a couple of hours earlier than usual, but not early enough to get up at five. (Not for a fax, anyway.) It was some kind of automated advertising, set to "send" when traffic on the phone lines is low. Four pages worth, enough to wake me up to the degree that I had to get up and pee. Well, thanks ever so, Mr. "Only $349 for a Seminar on Construction Claims." Sign me up right now, you betcha.

When I woke up again at 7:30, I was just going to pick up the morning paper, but as I was walking out to the end of the driveway, I met my landlord Jerry driving in. He was wired on coffee and wanted to talk. He asked me how things are going and I told him, "Fine."

"No, really, how are things going?" Apparently he wanted to hear a complaint of some sort.

"Well, the walls are a little thinner than I thought they would be." I thought this was a way of complaining about the noise without snitching on the neighbors, but he didn't take it that way.

"Don't worry," he told me, "because I think after Fred moves in there are going to be some changes made." Fred is Jerry's partner. Together they are Fred and Jerry, never Jerry and Fred.

Fine, as long as they don't think they're getting kicked out because I complained about them. I was just complaining about the thin walls. Don't key my car or batter my shiny new mailbox, please.

Jerry wanted to show me what they were doing, so he took me around to look at the new paneling on Fred's garage. He took me out behind my own backyard to look at the overgrown berry bushes. He said they'd hired some guys to come by today and get rid of these bushes before they take over any more than they already have. I'm happy for that, since I've put so much effort into making the yard presentable.

That's a joke. Suzanne did all the work. I've done almost nothing in that yard.

Needless to say, no one showed up and the back lot is just as weedy and bushy as ever. With fire season in full force, the high, dry weeds should be a priority.

Since I was up and awake after talking to Jerry for half an hour, I went for a walk. I've been neglecting my exercise program (which consists mostly of exercising the "do-nothing" option) since I moved, because walking on the well-traveled road during my usual waking hours is tantamount to asking to be struck by a car racing around a blind curve. Or at least asking to be blown into the ditch by a pickup speeding along too close to the narrow shoulder.

Tantamount, I tell you!

I did have to stop and wait behind someone's mailbox or dart into a driveway a few times today, even early on a Sunday morning, but it a was mostly uneventful walk. Just me and the cows, sheep, horses, pigs, cats, dogs and peacocks.

I spent most of the rest of the day being lazy. Did some reading and some writing, and watched the Giants beat the Dodgers on a home run in the ninth by Marvin Benard. (What a shame these two rivals won't play each other again in San Francisco until 2001.) I also went grocery shopping and stopped by Mom's on my way to the store. That's about it.

I guess it wasn't such a weird day after all, was it?