For those of you who have been following along (and you know who you are), you’ve come to expect me to be trying to make the previous week interesting when the highlight is my Mom and I heading to Ingersoll for groceries.
This week is going to be a little different because for once I have content, and lots of it.
Last Saturday (July 18 for those keeping track), Mom and I got our motor running, headed out on highway, looking for adventure, and ended up at the Glencoe town wide yard sale. Admittedly my Mom didn’t see too much of the sales, as she stayed back and chatted with her friend, Carol, “about everything and anything.” She had a good time and wasn’t having to walk around in the hot sun.
Speaking of which, I decided to see as much of Glencoe, and as many of the yard sales as I could. At my age and as hot as it was that morning, that might not have been the best idea. I did take a water bottle with me, so I kept hydrated and that helped. I covered most of the south end of Glencoe and the north-west part of town so, since Mom and I checked out a few sales in the north-east portion on the way into town, I think I covered most of town.
I didn’t go down Main Street to see the car show – which afterwards I thought I should have done. The reason is that there is one guy who brings his car to the show who was part of the Southwestern Ontario Civil War Round Table and I don’t know if he knows that Dad has passed. I saw him there last year but it just wasn’t a conversation I wanted to have. It’ll be worse next year when I have to tell him “Yeah, that was three years ago!”
Moving on. I ended up not getting anything for all my travels. Someone was selling golden retriever (maybe?) pups but (a) we’re not a dog family and (b) they wanted $800!!!
I ended up walking east on South Street and discovered just how much longer South Street was than it was back in the day. I mean, I figured I was walking halfway back to London. But I think that just encapsulates what it’s like to go back to Glencoe, and I’m sure its like that for most people when they visit their home town. It’s like when I watched the British version of the Office after watching the U.S. version. There was a lot of familiarity but everything looked just a little different.
One thing that struck me was how I saw a guy, grey-haired and probably in his late-40s, early-50s, sitting in his truck, obviously waiting for his wife to come back from one of the sales. I looked at the guy and thought “Back in the day, I would have assumed that he was the father of someone I went to school with. SIGH! Now I have to wonder if that guy was someone I went to high school with.”
As it turned out, I didn’t see anyone I knew and no one seemed to recognize me. Or maybe they did and just managed to duck out of the way before I saw them. (I’m kidding. I’m sure that didn’t happen.)
I finally made it to the library’s new location but didn’t find anything I needed to buy. (At that point I think I was just trying to get the checkmark and then head for home.) My Mom was all for going to Value Village and I was like “Oh man…I just want to go home and NAP!” (I was willing to go but she suggested we go later in the week.)
On Wednesday, we did end up making that trip to Value Village and more. Mom had wanted to go back to Glencoe, specifically to Oakland Cemetery to do a little more clean-up on the family headstone. She also wanted to find her grandmother’s grave. Mission accomplished on both accounts but our journey was delayed by a few minutes as we had to stop for a family of geese crossing the road near Komoka.
Now…here is what took place that had me thinking we were about to get arrested.
On the way back through Glencoe, my Mom decided to stop by her friend, Carol’s, house to use the washroom. Carol had said “Hey, any time you are coming through town, stop by, even if it’s just to use our washroom.”
So my Mom and I ended up at Carol’s and go around to her side door but when my Mom knocked there was no answer. Oh well, them’s the breaks, I figured. Instead, my Mom tries the door and finds it unlocked. She kinda called out “Hello? Hello?” to see if Carol and her husband, David, were home. Failing that, she decides she’s just going to walk in and use the washroom.
YEAH!
I’m out on their porch thinking if they come home from wherever they went to, maybe I can stall them until my Mom comes back out and they’ll just assume she was sitting on their porch…not breaking into their house to use the washroom! I’m also thinking “What if one of their neighbours sees us and calls the cops?”
A few minutes later, I see someone at the door (from the inside) and while I was relieved to think that Mom was going to come back out before anyone noticed what was going on, I suddenly realized that Mom wasn’t tall enough to be seen out of the window on the door. Then I saw a hand that definitely was not my Mom’s waving at me to come in.
Apparently, David had just woken up and come downstairs to find Mom, still in the bathroom. He was totally nonplussed about it and had a nice little conversation. When Carol found out about it (she was at the dentist), she thought it was nice that my Mom felt comfortable enough to just come in and use their washroom.
I don’t know if it’s a generational thing or if Mom, Carol, and David are just such great people and I’m an @$$hole (and that’s definitely a possible theory) but as much as I love you guys, if I ever wake up to find any one of you M***** F******s in my bathroom, I’m physically removing you from the premises, and I don’t care if you’ve finished up yet or not!!!
From there, my Mom and I went through downtown Glencoe, as we wanted to check out the St. Vincent De Paul Store. (I wonder if the De Paul shares a reference to the De Paul school that Ray Manzarek, former keyboardist for the Doors, used to wear a T-shirt of – I know… but things I think about.) My Mom found three paperback novels for a quarter each, so we contributed 75 cents to the Glencoe economy. (If Glencoe is still standing a century from now, you can thank me for doing my part. Although we’ll all be dead by then so I guess I won’t be around to be thanked and you won’t be around to thank me, so I guess this is all for naught.)
I walked down Main Street to get a photo next to Tito’s Pizza (it’s a running gag with my friend Jason) and came back. Despite me telling my Mom I’d be a couple of minutes, she threatened to have left me behind. So in addition to almost being arrested, I was almost abandoned. Geez, who says Glencoe is a boring place? It’s downright dangerous. My sister is planning to come down in September so we can go to the Glencoe Fair but I may just sit that one out for my own safety. (I’m kidding!)
As planned, we did go to the Value Village in East London (and the Dollarama) with no incidents. At Value Village, my Mom bought some peel-and-stick contact paper that she used for the backsplash for the kitchen sink. (Brand new roll for $4!) but decided she needed new curtains for the kitchen.
So, on Friday, off we went to Stratford. We stopped off at the usual spots (Habitat for Humanity, Value Village, Dollarama) and then my Mom went to Fabricland and I went into the Festival Marketplace Mall. I figured I could hit the Coles and EB Games stores and be back in time to help Mom at Fabricland. However, by the time I got back, she had already picked up her material (which looks really nice, as always, by the way).
In between all of that, I applied for six more jobs. I think the grand total of results was one automated rejection letter for a job I applied for a couple of weeks ago – that they had to send me twice. (I guess if I didn’t get the message the first time.)
My plan for the past week was to largely check out and just relax in front of the TV but I have to admit I kinda failed in that regard. Despite having a number of options, I never really got into binge-watching anything. I ended up using ChatGPT to create alternate wrestling histories. For 99% of you (and I’m probably rounding down), that probably sounds weird but it was rather fun and interesting to see how a couple of changes (Harley Race retaining the NWA title against Flair at Starrcade ’83 and Hulk Hogan winning the AWA title about the same time, as an example) really reset the whole wrestling universe.
I told myself that I would binge-watch something but I could never decide what I wanted to sit down and watch. I did watch a few more episodes of the Runarounds. I’m hesitant to watch the last episode because it’s been so good BUT it wasn’t renewed for a second season so I am afraid that they’ll end it on some wild cliffhanger and I’ll be left hanging forever. My Mom and I watched the first episode of “Stuart Fails To Save the Universe,” the Big Bang Theory Spinoff. I will most likely give it another chance with Episode Two but my Mom is one and done. I won’t spoil anything but it is VASTLY different from the original series. Very much a sci-fi show rather than a sitcom. If you go in thinking it’s just going to be Stuart hanging around the comic book store, you’re going to come away disappointed.
I know I really wasn’t on social media this past week, but I did take to Messenger and reached out to a few people that I hadn’t heard from in a while. I had several good chat with people, including several people who had indicated that they read this blog (and you know who you are), so that was cool. I also tried to start a group chat and had one of the “participants” immediately unfriend me, so I guess you gotta take the bad with the good.
Thanks to everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday. I didn’t do anything special. I rewatched That Thing You Do. I sat out on the back porch and read my Keith Moon biography. I napped. I watched the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race and the replay of the Craftsman Truck Series race. All in all, a pretty good day. Quiet and understated, just like me.
Hey, if you weren’t one of the people I reached out to last week (odds are it wasn’t personal) and want to drop me a line to talk about anything I’ve discussed here, you can send me a text (or, if it is easier, voice) message on Facebook Messenger. Meanwhile, take care everyone and I’ll be back again next week.
johnmilner.ca 