russell

So he calls me Tuesday night, saying he'll be stopping in that night but he'll be gone by 8 a.m. the next day. By the time I get this message, it's already 11:15 p.m. and he's not there yet. Having drunk some wine, I went to bed and didn't hear him come in but sure enough, Wednesday morning his van is out front. So when I get home from work Wednesday night, his van's in the driveway! And he's asleep in the bed in the basement! And the bathtub is full of cold water because he's apparently taken a bath and forgot to hit the drain switch. So I mow and walk to the library and come home and he's leaving to eat at Squeaker's because he said his stomach had been all screwed up all day from having eaten breakfast somewhere. And maybe it was the sausage! Christ, if your guts are all bad like he says his are, sausage should not even be on your radar.

So he comes back around 9 and I'm still working, watering, doing laundry, sorting bills and he flops on the big chair in the green room and watches TV. He asks if he can have some of my chocolate in the cupboard. When I had come home, I had hidden the bag of chocolates from Costco which I could tell he had already been into. So he MAKES DO with a half a bar of really good chocolate and THEN goes on to eat an entire other bar of fairly good chocolate.

He's gone today. What is it about my recent discussion of 'You can't stay here anymore' that he doesn't understand? I think I'll call and leave him a reminder message.

Today Miss Oates and I went to Mancy's Italian for her birthday lunch, postponed from Monday, and ate on the patio where it was really lovely. And yakked. Apparently Whitey has taken up with Jeff Jump's sister Krista. Pictures here. Yeep. There's a couple of heavy drinking folks. Sal says she can't get a straight answer out of Jeff about coming up for the annual celebration.

So it's the big weekend coming up. Hell, they're all big weekends. Saturday I'm in the dragon boat race which I went to practice for on Monday night. Then I have to come home and slap some news on 13abc.com and then it's TunaFest for which I cannot find out the schedule although Rod's Collision IS playing. Sometime.

Sunday, Rod's is at the park in the evening.

Damn, I see that Lucero and Glossary and Justin Townes Earle (Steve's kid) are at Howard's Aug. 5. The night after Todd is at the Ark and the night before I host GNO. These are all southern punk rock outlaw bands that sound like they'd be a fun time. Better take my vitamins.