The Last Day of March

It is now 14:33 when I start my entries. I went to bed about 00:40, and awoke about 02:30 to pee. I then awoke about 06:30, and mom woke me at 07:50. I tried to go back to sleep, but arose at 08:20.

I took my Metformin pill before breakfast which I started at 08:40. I had a banana, two slices of bacon (cut in half), and a fried egg with the yolk broke, and a slice of onion minced into the egg. I also had two pieces of toast with margarine. I drank a cup of coffee with cream and Equal®. I chatted with mom, and did various chores. One question came to mind from the article that I read about the passage of the city budget (along with the extra fee to be charged for trash pickup).

The article mentioned that fact that supervisors would check the trash collections to ensure that people are keeping their written promises to recycle. My question is: how many supervisors does the Solid Waste Division have to check on recycling?

My mom wants to know if the supervisors will check inside the recycling containers to ensure that people are actually recycling what they should. I checked my blood pressure about 10:30. It was 119/71 with a pulse of 73. When I ran regularly as a young man my pulse was often 55 a half hour after a 5-6 mile run. Mom’s blood pressure was 195/80 with a pulse of 56.

At 10:50 I went to the basement to feed the cats. “Grandma” came right to me when I put the contents on a plate. I took the labels off of some empty medicine bottles, and cleaned some dirty plates. I checked on the wild cats. The black-and-white one and I “meowed at each other. I came up with a couple of chores to do.

At 11:45 I put Frontline on “Lucky Charmed”, and put him in the bedroom that dad used to sleep in to let it dry.

At 11:55 I started on my walk. I left the front door, and turned north (right) onto Chapin St., and then then turned right (east) the alley that runs by my neighbor’s house. I then turned north (left) on the alley that runs parallel to Chapin Street, and turned (right) east onto Walbridge. I turned north (left) onto Langdon, and crossed the street, and turned right (east) onto Boalt.

I followed Boalt east until I came to Marion where I turned left (north). I crossed Western, and continued on Marion until I ended at Segur where I turned right (east). I came out on Broadway, and crossed Broadway, and turned north (left). I then turned right (east) onto Segur again, and followed Segur until I turned right (south) onto Sumner at 12:19.

A few minutes of walking brought me to an unfolding scene. A blue paneled truck with "Emergency" and "Water Division" printed on the driver's door pulled up in front of what used to be the “Great Lakes Book Store” on Sumner.

A white, middle-aged male got out, and went to the front door of a house on my side of the street as I approached the scene. He knocked on the door while a black guy who was with him went to a fire hydrant that was in front of the house.

The black guy took out a wrench and was going to do something while the white guy continued to knock on the door. The ground around the fire hydrant had recently been dug into. I continued on without ever being the wiser to what was going on.

I turned right (west) onto Walbridge at 12:24. About 12:40 I was passing the rear of the strip mall at the “Broadway South Shopping Center” when I saw some cardboard boxes in one of the dumpsters that appeared to be behind the “Family Dollar Store” rear entrance at the mall. I got information about the various dumpsters.

If you looked at the strip mall from the rear these dumpsters had the following ownership (left to right): Wes Stevens Disposal (ph: 856-8451; 1-800-779-0344), Allied Waste Services (800-589-9139; http://www.disposal.com/), BFI (1-800-234-3459), in back of the “Rice King” carryout was one for grease from G. A. Wintzer & Son of Wapakoneta, OH (1-800-331-1801) which was rather small, and, finally, one from Waste Management, www.wm.com, ph: 666-2640, which seemed to be in back of the Cash AdvantEase check cashing place, or the Small Smiles Dental Clinic. I wanted this information because I wanted to find out if these private solid waste contractors recycled or just paid to put it in Toledo's landfill or another (maybe in another state). After I got this information I continued on my walk.


The Broadway South Shopping Center has the following stores in the mall (left to right from the front entrances): a McDonald’s that is separated to the left and in front on the strip mall, a “Subway Restaurant” on the left, with “Rent-a –Center” to its immediate right, then Small Smiles Dental Clinic further right, a Family Dollar Store to the right of that, next a Rice King Restaurant to its right, and Laundromat at the extreme right with a Taco Bell separated from the strip mall to its right and toward the front.

I went south on Frank Street, and turned right (west) onto South Avenue, and crossed South, and continued south onto Langdon. I then crossed Langdon, and Colburn, and turned right (southwest) onto Broadway. I got the entrance to the South Branch of the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library at 12:53.

I read a couple of articles in the latest issue of “Time” magazine, picked out a couple of movies on DVD, chatted with the librarian about the weather, looked at the free literature, and left the library at 13:05. I called Irene, and asked her if she wanted me to pick up a copy of the new issue of the “Toledo Free Press”. She okay’d that, and I said I would have her copy for her tomorrow if we went shopping.

I got home about 13:08, puttered around, and started lunch at 13:30. A peanut butter sandwich with provolone cheese, a cup of tea with milk and Equal®, some green beans, and a 4 ounce slice of cherry pie. I finished about 14:00, and did a few other things. It is now 15:14.

Almost a disaster! My cat and one of my mom's got to wrestling. They knocked my DSL modem off the table, and must have put enough stress on stuff to drop my signal. I was getting that "Blogger" couldn't connect with its server. I then saved what I could, shut everything out, and had to use the "Yahoo" software to troubleshoot the problem. It turned out to be a software issue, and everything was back to normal.

After I couldn't get "Yahoo" to reconnect I turned off the computer, and let everything come back up. I'm no engineer, but I try to make frequent backups, and shutting down is time consuming but has done the trick many times so far. I had do another round of editing (it wouldn't or didn't save all the changes I did to the text). Now I can save this post, and boor other people with it.