Monday Bag o’ Mondays

bag of mondaysWhat a terrible bag! If it’s too small for you to read, here’s what it says: “I don’t like Mondays.” I love Mondays. I measure time in weeks, and Mondays … not Sundays … have always been the start of mine. True, back in my working days Mondays were less fun than they are now. But still, they heralded new weeks, with unknown unknowns ahead.

Most of this TGIF/I hate Mondays/hump day bullshit is driven by drinkers, who like to pretend they don’t drink during the week. Having been a drinker, and speaking as a person who lives with and pals around with drinkers, I know better, and so do you: drinkers drink every day. Maybe the weekend means we can drink more than normal, because we can afford to spend Saturday and Sunday mornings in bed with a hangover, but really, no … drinking is an everyday activity, and maybe … just maybe … the reason we dread Mondays is that we forgot to taper off on Sunday and are still suffering for it. Well, we all know what the cure for that is, don’t we?

Anyway, Monday: possibilities ahead and a very good week in the rearview mirror. You may know I’m a Hash House Harrier, a long-time member of the world’s largest hare & hounds running club, and that a few years ago I took up the bicycling version of the sport. Yesterday I hared our monthly bicycle trail, a 15-mile route through northeastern Tucson, then hosted the riders afterward. You can read about it on my hashing blog (and learn a bit more about hashing, if you’ve half a mind to).

Haring trails has always been stressful for me. I start two or even three weeks ahead of time, planning and scouting trail, practicing it at least twice, then laying in hare supplies the day before: flour and chalk, beer and ice and water for the beer check. The first few years I stressed over getting caught by fast runners. These days, having learned a few tricks of the hare trade, I stress over setting trails my friends will enjoy, and … if Donna and I are hosting the pack at our house afterward, as we often do … whether the house, patio, and pool are ready for company. It’s a lot of work and a certain amount of anxiety, and I’m happy it all went off well. So for me at least, Monday (this particular Monday, at any rate) means I can relax. My next public appearance isn’t until Wednesday, when I go to the Pima Air & Space Museum to lead my weekly walking tours.

We’re babysitting Tink, a female dachshund, for a few days. Tink’s an old friend, and Schatzi and Maxie don’t mind sharing their house and yard with her. Here are the three of them, lining up for breakfast Saturday morning:

2013-07-20 06.36.43
Schatzi, Tink, Maxie

As I’m typing, I’m watching birds outside the window checking to see if there’s any seed in the feeder. There isn’t. I know some people say you shouldn’t feed wild birds, but I can’t see the harm in it. I’m going to fill the feeder this morning and put out fresh sugar water for the hummingbirds.

Hey, as long as I’m plugging my hashing blog, let me also put in a word about my cooking blog, updated this past week with new recipes. And check out my Daily Kos diaries, where I cross-post some of my bookish and air-minded stuff. It’s not the diaries I’m pointing you toward … after all, if you read this blog you’ve already seen those posts … it’s the reader comments, which are surprisingly interesting. Only a couple of hundred people even know this blog exists, and comments are rare. Tens of thousands of people read Daily Kos, and they don’t mind telling me what they think about what I post there.

Probably not today, though, it being Monday and all.

Leave a Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badge