Given the dearth of activity surrounding our daily agenda during the pandemic it constantly alarms me to succeed exhausted at the end of the day with a sense of having been occupied to the extreme. Nonetheless a glance back upon what has transpired affords some legitimacy to the consciousness. Though we’re already approaching 7:00 o’clock in the evening it was only moments ago I returned to the apartment; and I have just made myself a triple-strength “Izpirazione Napoli” Nespresso coffee to boost me before commencing our evening ritual. To this energetic precaution I have added 2 ml of THC laden with a majority of CBD for the dilution of my multiple “conditions” as yet unclassified but which perhaps universally relate only to what is called by the uninitiated “old age“. It is a sparsity of definition I am prepared to accept.

From the streets of Naples, the local deep-rooted coffee ritual inspired our dark roasting method in Ispirazione Napoli. The marriage of the coffee’s velvety texture and its delicious bitter aftertaste is a win to toast to with this classic Bitter Citrus Cool

After our standard 5 km bicycle ride at nine o’clock this morning I was consumed by unanticipated office work. A question arose about payment of our residence and automobile insurance both of which policies come due about this time. When I went looking for what I recalled were the new policies I was unable to locate them on my computer. I did however confirm through our bank records that payments have been made as expected. Yet I was angry with myself for not having made a PDF copy of the new policies which had been sent to us by regular post. Accordingly I spent the remainder of the morning digging up the paper copies of the policies, photocopying them and then translating those copies to PDFs for saving under the appropriate categories.

The first difficulty arising in the completion of the seemingly uncomplicated task was that because of my moderate dyslexia I have difficulty precisely allocating years when I have a choice between last year and this year, an email sent to me a month ago about a policy to renew two months later, and generally misreading things when I am in a hurry. When all was said and done, I had repeated copies already made of last year‘s policies in both instances, then because I had not correctly cleared the computer, I ended repeating the same offence by locating the prior similar copy.

The flame engendered by this moderate undertaking was extremely annoying to me. I was able to quell my rising anxiety by reminding myself I have nothing better to do in any event, a conclusion which I can assure you it’s not as attractive as it may appear from a distance!

I went a considerable distance to relieve my perturbation by peeling myself into the Aviator for a spin in the Valley. By that time I had become so set upon giving myself a good coffee that I shot back home after getting the car washed. I interrupted my mission by diverting to the garden patio where I spent the next hour dosing in the sunshine. I was fast asleep.

At the apartment we became engaged in an open-mike telephone conversation with my erstwhile physician at his country seat.  The thrust of our chat was out-of-province medical insurance and the opening of the US/Canada land border.

I still hadn’t made my coffee. But before getting to that I had to prepare a large bowled salad for dinner because I like the lemon juice on the raw green veggies to settle before tucking in. And the final prerequisite was to slip into my lounging togs. This is admittedly absurd in view of my pandemic wardrobe. But I wanted to remove some of the layers worn to accommodate my open air motor vehicle outing.

Even after a pleasing (and restrained) dinner we devoted time to a peculiar ambition. Planning one’s funeral.  As acknowledgment of the finality of the affair I proposed that we have a large thick creamy icing carrot cake from Antrim Truck Stop. This, I added, could be usefully planned by having a rehearsal complete with ourselves only sans mourners. In keeping with this predominantly mechanical exercise I envisioned strictly casual attire. The carrot cake is naturally imperative in order to capture the dreary atmosphere of the undertaking.

So it was after all these weighty intellectual pursuits that I was at last able to stretch upon my recliner red leather chair. Enough of these draining performances!  Time to relax in reflective idyll.