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August 3, 2000 |
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I woke to the knocking on my door; it was about 8am. Normally, I would
simply ignore the such nonsense, except that this was a knock on my bedroom
door. It was my cousin Tino. He needed to find a dry cleaner that could
do one day service. If you're keeping track, I got home the night before
at about 4am, so I'm working on less than four hours of sleep.
I wandered out of bed and got dressed. We went to drop off his dry
cleaning. I found that he had already gotten out and wondered around today,
and even asked about which dry cleaner to go to. I don't know about dry
cleaners because I generally don't get things dry cleaned. Okay, I
occasionally get things dry cleaned, but I don't know which ones can do one
day service.
We found one that in a little shopping plaza that was open and did same day
service, they said it would be ready by about 5pm. Great. One thing
accomplished. I've always been fascinated by dry cleaners. The idea of
clothes cycling through this conveyor belt mechanism has always amused me.
I'm not sure why. Maybe it is simply because of the machinery. I suppose
that dry cleaners are ones that don't really mind showing their customers
some of their internal workings. For instance, when you go to a shoe store,
do you see whatever convoluted sorting system they have for their shoes?
…no. Similarly most other types of businesses don't have (part of)
their equipment so prominently on display.
We swung by McDonald's to get breakfast because it was morning. I don't
normally see mornings, so breakfast is a rare treat for me. We went
through the drive-through. Incidentally, it does irritate me when
business spell "through" as "thru". We drove back to my
place afterwards, we sat in my living room while we ate breakfast.
We chatted briefly during breakfast. I asked him about what his plans were
for the next few days. He said that he would talk to Lynn, our other
cousin, and try to narrow it down today.
I would've liked to spend more time talking to him, but my body
really needed the sleep. I went back to bed to catch a few more
winks.
ZZzzz…
Once I awoke we drove to my company's store. If he didn't want or need any of our products, maybe he would simply like to get a shirt or something. Still, I told him last night that I would take him and I intended to. He did wind up getting a couple of things while we were there.
We wondered into the museum which is a place where many of our technologies are in display, it also covers much of the history of the industry and my company. More importantly, there was Bonnie. Bonnie was the receptionist to one of the buildings where I worked. I've worked in so many I can't remember precisely which one. She was actually technically the substitute receptionist. She filled in while the regular receptionists went to lunch. Still, it was always fun to talk to her and I missed her when she moved to the museum.
Although I suppose that I didn't miss her enough to come visit. I feel so guilty.
We talked for a little while at the entrance where she worked behind the information desk. She hadn't changed one bit, which was great. She did mention that I lost some weight. [Yay!] I suppose that she had moved before I started working out regularly, which reminds me, I haven't been quite as regular about working out. I feel like a slug.
I did have to go into work today. So I ended up dropping Tino off back at my place and I headed to work. [Sigh] I'll tell you that it was busy at work. To give you more details will cause your eyes to glaze over, either from lack of understanding or from lack of interest. Let's just say that it was hectic.
It was getting to be close to 5pm which is when we had to pick up his stuff from the dry cleaner. I called Tino at home. No answer. I called him on his cell phone. No answer.
Hmmm… maybe he has been kidnapped?!
I left messages in both places, so that I would get a call from him when he received either one. Come to think of it though, my place is so messy that I don't think he would speculate where the answering machine might be. He still had the key to my place, which was fine really, but it left everything so open ended.
He did eventually call me at work. He managed to track down Lynn and she drove to the Eastside and picked him up. They went to get lunch and pick up his dry cleaning. He needed directions back to my office so that he could drop off the key. They showed up after a few more minutes.
I apologized for not having enough time to either clean up my place or spent more time with him. I felt like a fool. He is in the same industry; he understood. Still, it doesn't mean that he had to like it.
He left a couple of his things at my place, a shirt that is still sitting on my towel rack and his belt. I'll have to send those off to him.
August 3, 2000