I walked to Leigh to get Tommy's car. I'd used a script I found a while ago, before my resolution to stop wasting hours and saving seconds, to calculate the wattage settings needed to get from current to target change percentage at a specific time. The point is to "slow change," which is better for long-term battery health. Anyway, it worked down to £5 min off. It was brisk and crisp walking there at 6:45 a.m. Gloves might have been wise. We are right at that point where each day touches the median between two seasons of extremes. For California, that is. In many ways, We are fortunate, yet I already dread the summer ahead. I had planned to spend a couple of hours at a coffee shop getting back into writing the book, yet several things surfaced, shiny distractions of self-infliction that took me off the path. A stop at Autobahn to get some input on an automotive question, another for a second opinion, and then an unscheduled stop at my mom's to fix the car window that won't open. The motor seems to be barely functional, and the window, once lowered, takes work to get back out. It's a process that's a lot to ask of someone at 87, even though she would likely do well and find ways to improve it. It proved wise to arrive at the SSI office early. The parking lot is minuscule and always full. While heading there, I stopped at the stoplight; I saw one open spot and watched as I waited for the light to turn green, hoping I would get there before anyone else. The light turned, and it was still open as I approached to enter, only to find that a car was coming in from the other entry on the other cross street. As I turned in, they were already in position. No spots. Fair enough; I had time to wait, so I positioned myself, backed in, at the adjacent Goodwill store, where I could watch someone exit the building towards their car. After about 5- 10 minutes, a couple emerged and walked to their car. I drove to the streetlight, to the same entry I had used the first time, only to be blocked from making the right-hand turn by a car I could not squeeze past while a cross-traffic vehicle drove past us, pulled in and took the spot! Now, I had to stop taking chances, so I sat at the edge of the lot, out of the way of the driveway and sidewalk, put on my flashers and waited. A car pulled behind me, and I waved him around, where no spots existed, and he had to exit as I had twice before. Another car pulled behind, and I did the same thing. They went around and exited. A couple came out and walked to their car on my left. I turned off the flashers and on the left-turn signal, signifying I was taking that space. Instead of leaving, they stopped to do something or other in the trunk. Come on! Still, I kept patient while a car approached me from the other direction. My signal had staked my claim; they passed and exited, while a second couple, three people actually, exited the building and got into the car park immediately to the right of the lollygaggers. Ok, fine, I'll take either of them. Another car pulled in behind me, and neither of the two on my left was exiting. I waved them past me just as a single individual exited, walked past my car with its blinking left turn signal, virtually urinating on the two occupied spaces as the car I waved past me followed the latest exiting driver to their car on the right and, with apparent and obvious intent to rub my nose in it, activated their right turn signal. I breathed. I saw the wonderful comic irony in the fiasco and did what anyone else would do. I turned the flashers back on, ready to lay claim to any spot to open next. The right-side parker was inside by now, and the two stationary & occupied cars on my left remained so. Finally, someone walked out and was seemingly heading to my immediate right. I asked if I was blocking his car, and he said yes, but I could take his spot! Just then, a car pulled in behind me, and my flashers were right-hand tom indicators without my hands seeming to leave the steering wheel. I inched forward, and he 'pulled out; I backed in and, while doing so, motioned to the new arrival that the two on the left were leaving, which is exactly what they did. As soon as my car was in pork, both pulled out almost synchronized, as if my waiting for them ceasing was innately their release. Once inside myself, All went reasonably smoothly. Pending the routine approval cycle and our government's stable, rock-solid state, I'll start collecting social security in the summer. It's a weird feeling. It changes a lot about my working future in a way I don't necessarily mind, and in many ways, it feels freeing, yet it still feels substantially transitional. Because it is, it won't prevent me from working. It could impact the benefits depending on where, when, and how much I might earn. It feels comforting to have it begin. To start getting back even a fragment of what I put into it for 40 & years. That I have to worry about it being at risk is obscene. I spent the rest of the evening on the patio after having slightly modified the recent changes that are working well. I could do without the flies.
