You would think I am a fairly intelligent person. Well, I am. I can spell cat and mouse, and I can add 2 + 2 and make it come out to 4. I don't even need a calculator to do that! Really!
Somehow, though, I have gotten this far through life without really getting the hang of Facebook. You've heard of Facebook, haven't you?
I've heard of it, too (how can you not?), and I even have a profile there. But it's rather puny by any standard. I don't go there very often or update things. Sometimes I go over there to see what my former bloggy friends are doing (those not on efx3). It seems they are mostly playing games and trading opinions about the latest sensation on American Idol. Or, if they are not Americans, Fillintheblank Idol.
I don't watch Whateveritis Idol, I don't play online games, and I don't do much on Facebook. Not even last week, when I was luxuriating in my recently regained free time. It all got frittered away. How did I manage that?
Well, I wrote to B. I wrote to N. (I was supposed to visit her last week, movie box under my arm, but she called it off because she had a bad cold. As of our Saturday phone call, she is a lot better.) I wrote to S and T--I'll be visiting them this weekend.
And I also wrote to a new friend. This one lives about 60 miles away. The lucky letter this time is K. She is a younger woman (three years younger than me, two years younger than my wife), she works at a store, and she has a boyfriend; they are a poly couple.
We are in the getting-to-know-you phase of things now, and so far, so good. On Friday, we meet in the flesh for the first time. At a local eatery, not far from her job. We'll have lunch and talk for a while and see what happens. What will happen is this: It will be time for her to go to work and for me to hit the road. I will see more of K some other day.
(In fact, my wife, my son and myself drove down there last Saturday to do some shopping, and we stopped at her store. But K's shift ended before we got to town--I hadn't told her about a possible visit, and I didn't know her shift. K told me later she would like to meet my wife someday, and my wife would like to meet her, too. K is also curious about meeting my son, who is autistic--she has a nephew who is autistic, about 15 years younger than my son.)
There's something on my mind, though, and I wrote B about it: This will not affect my visits to N, though K lives closer to me. I wrote: "I feel a responsibility for N's happiness--she doesn't have somebody to sleep with, and K does. And N really does enjoy having me visit and spend time with her.
"I firmly feel that even when I make new friends, I will not forget my old ones. So no matter how this friendship with K develops, I will probably still visit N more often than her." As for the other 28 nights of the month ... my wife has to put up with me.
More about this week's trip: The first stop is to have lunch with K. I also have to drop off my mom's old sewing machine--my wife wants to have it reconditioned, and there is a sewing machine place in town.
Then I'm driving south about 100 miles to visit my 92-year-old uncle, my mom's brother, who couldn't make it to her funeral last fall. I'll bring along some old family treasures--an ancient family photo album and a Danish hymnal. Both are to go to my cousin, who has done a lot of work researching the family tree.
From there, I am driving to Oshkosh for two night with S and T. We'll go out to dinner and maybe shopping. No motel this time: I will stay at their place, sleeping on their sofa.
Saturday morning, I drive north to Green Bay, to watch the NCAA regional hockey tournament--two games Saturday and one on Sunday. (The winner goes to the "Frozen Four" tourney in St. Paul one week later.) After the Saturday games, I drive back to Oshkosh. Maybe we'll watch a movie that night--plans are very tentative.
On Sunday morning, I drive back north to Green Bay for the championship game and then keep going north towards home. Monday, back to work.
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Actually, I did other things last week, too. I finished up our taxes and sent them in--both for us and for David. And I polished off another book on my e-reader: "O Pioneers!" by Willa Cather.
Now, I have to select a new book. The main candidates so far: "Wuthering Heights," "Vanity Fair" and "The Rainbow." They have one thing in common: I have not read any of them (of course, I have seen the old MGM version of WH). And I guess they are all fairly long.
If you have read any of them, feel free to give me some advice. It may come down to a coin flip.
Whoops! I just disclosed how I make my really tough decisions.
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