My mother has never been the type of person to travel. It was one of the reasons why she took early retirement. As such, I never got to go anywhere special when I was a kid. The one time we had planned on going anywhere, she flaked out the morning of the actual event because she thought I was going to overheat. Didn't really believe her, even then, but I could do nothing about it. Even after I got my own car, she wouldn't let me go anywhere on my own. Okay, sometimes I would find ways of going a little out of the way when I could, but rarely anything more than a half hour away when I was doing something else. Nothing interesting or special, but it was a good way to rebel, especially during my "lost years." Now that I technically own my own business, I literally can't afford to take long periods off. Therefore, I am forced to just take day long shopping trips. Yesterday was one such trip that had been scheduled for a few weeks, after having been delayed due to possible bad weather on the original date. Well, things went off bad. I had a hard time sleeping due to a storm passing through overnight and a neighbors lights being on for well over an hour. I woke up a few minutes later than expected, making me late in all of the things I had to do to get ready. Not cool. I wound up leaving at least fifteen minutes late, which I hated. It also meant that I would probably have to forego a few spots. At least I saw a heron in the creek as I was leaving. That is frequently a good omen for me. The storms weren't bad enough to cause any damage, but there was widespread fog for the first hour of driving. The roads were fine, until the never-ending road work an hour in. I really can't see why there is a speed reduction when the actual work is nowhere near the road. About two hours in was the rest break. For the first time ever, I was experiencing pain in my shoulders from having them up for so long. Now, I can perform a unilateral overhead dumbbell shoulder press with a fifty-pound weight. My delts can handle the work, but holding them out steady for that long was taxing me. My back was strangely fine. Usually, I can get sore or discomfort after so long, but not this time. I switched over radio stations for the last hour of driving, trying to catch a morning show that was no longer available locally. Somehow, there was only one short segment, about six to eight minutes, during that hour. It was mostly songs and commercials. When I could hear it locally, I thought there was more content than that. Maybe it was their vacation? Who knows. My first stop, after navigating more road work and a near collision on city streets, was a book store. Yes, I own one myself, but it is a tradition for me. My fondest memories for these trips was always getting a comic or book and looking at it while my mother shopped, reading it in the back seat on the way home. I always try to pick up a magazine whenever I go on one of these trips, as proof that it wasn't in vain. However, pretty much every magazine I used to read has moved to digital. I found one, though, that should have been found locally, but was strangely absent everywhere I looked. I also tried to check on bargains as well as anything I wanted for my store. Nothing. I had to skip my second planned stop due to the slight lateness, and I went on to the mall for the real shopping to begin. I did a quick peel at the first store before having an early lunch, before checking out the rest of the mall before I actually shopped. Well, while there were a few stores that looked great (more on one of them next week), the only thing I picked up was a CD that I wasn't even looking for. I finally got to the department store where I was planning on most of my shopping. They were out of my aftershave, but I was lucky to pick it up at the other end of the mall on my way out. I found some new pants I have been needing. Then, I saw a great new shirt. Yellow-orange. On sale for $21. My favorite higher-end brand. Someone actually talked me out of it, and they then talked me into getting a much cheaper shirt in a style and color I really didn't like. Why this always happens to me, I don't know. They looked for their own things, but wound up getting nothing. They even put something back because they were waiting in line too long and they were afraid a storm might come while we were out. There was only a brief shower, and that was when we were almost back hours later. Wildfire smoke, not storm clouds. Eh. I stopped at a supermarket for a brief look at a different spread of products from back home, where I picked up a new product that has been out for awhile but absent locally, and then it was the drive home. I stopped off for a rest and another snack (I make sure to eat every two to four hours to maintain metabolic goals), with one last stop to drop off some books at the library and print off some pages before arriving home only a half hour or so later than normal. After all of the prep and travel, I still had to put off a few of my normal daily activities last night just to make sure I got something done close to my regular schedule. Now, I'm back at my store, behind schedule with this post because I watched YouTube. How anyone take more than a day off at a time, or even a week, is something I have yet to grasp.
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