Wednesday Not Busy Day

I do not get many not-busy days while traveling, but Wednesday was mostly reading and watching the World Cup while Deborah was busy in her conference.

I rose early with Deborah, and we were going a bit early and had to wait until it was time for her breakfast. I collected our soiled clothing from the past ten days (I started earlier than Deborah to drive down for two days). I carried the bags down to the EV and headed to the nearby coin laundry. There, I also took the bottle of liquid soap (I had repurposed a drink bottle, filled it with soap, and put it in a ziplock bag), along with Bounce sheets, a bag full of coins from my last trip to a coin laundry, and various change I have collected over the year. I used three moderately sized washers to run three loads (Oh, that is about all the excitement we are getting this blog). A woman who was doing her laundry and I discussed the different machines; she was using the toploaders (same price). She believed, as I did, that top loaders beat up clothing more, but she seemed more used to them and thus preferred them.

I gave Jose, one of the folks there, who seemed to be running low on soap, my unused half-bottle of laundry soap and my remaining dryer sheets. He was surprised, and we chatted for a while with his English being a bit challenged, but he was happy to be noticed. Being seen is important. I did make a joke to many that Disney should have a Character Laundry in addition to their brunches and breakfasts. There were a few characters, local, at the coin laundry, but everyone was fixated on getting done and out of there. I had started just after 8, and the place was getting busy as I finished.

I chatted some more with the top-loader using women, and she suggested doing the Christmas tour in Finland and then heading to Sweden for the Northern Lights. She did this in March. We talked about Iceland first, and then she added that she did Iceland at the end of her Scandinavian trip. It sounded lovely, and she really enjoyed the Northern Lights in Sweden.

The instructions were in English and Spanish, many in Spanish first. The TV was on a Spanish Channel with the World Cup starting again. I was the only gray-haired white guy. Many guys were there washing their uniforms. The prices were $3 for the moderate-sized washers and dryers, and a quarter for about 10 minutes. About $1-$2 for a larger load. I used two.

I folded everything and put some in Air VW, the Gray, since I would not need two weeks’ worth of clothing. I grabbed a cloth grocery bag from the cargo hold and pushed all the reasonably clean clothing into it. I returned to the room, hung some of the clothing, and laid out some for Deborah to fold or use as needed.

Exciting, I know.

I returned to the same area and picked up WaBa rice bowls for lunch, since today was a find-your-own-lunch day at the conference. Deborah had 90 minutes for lunch, and we spent it together in the room instead of going somewhere else. It was nice to be together for a while. Deborah had dinner out for the conference.

I spoke to my server from yesterday; she was happy to see me back at the bar, feeling better, and she was sporting an England jersey (they played earlier). She has lived in Anhiem her whole life, was born here, and loves it. She and her husband are both in the service industry (I am sorry I forgot her name) and cannot imagine living anywhere else.

I headed to the hotel bar around 4, after surfing the Internet and doing some church paperwork, and spent too much on a salad and a bowl of chips. I did get to watch Ghana sneak in a goal at 90+5, wow, now ranked just behind England. I am reading a new mystery author for a locked-room mystery, Thus Was Adonis Murdered: A Novel (Hilary Tamar Book 1) on my Kindle. The story’s characters mostly receive letters about a murder and try to solve it from a distance. The use of obscure words, often in their archaic usage, makes the writing fun to read. I often have to use the built-in dictionary on the Kindle. I read this book all day and during the endless passing on the game.

With a last-minute attempt by Panama to score (Ghana’s goalkeeper stopped it and was run over by one of the Ghana players, earning the Ghana player a Yellow Card), Ghana kept the win. This goalkeeper was hurt multiple times, stayed in, seemed to be everywhere at once, and stopped at least four good Panama shots.

Deborah arrived at the bar as the game was finishing, and I paid my check (wow, that should have got the hotel a Yellow Card) as the next game started up. We spent the rest of the evening just resting and reading. We went to bed early.

I woke with a start from a bad dream. I have a terrible dream where I find myself in a diabolical, escape-room-like predicament, but in a whole complex. I have to solve the mystery, which is obscure, but as time moves on, people start to disappear, and monsters start to roam. I am trying to learn what I have to do to end this thing. Deborah is there, and she enters with me, but the complex sends us to other sides, and already the thing is timing down fast to disaster. I wake shaking and scared. But all is safe in the room. I managed to sleep again. Another dream, faded now, is about traveling and not scary, but again, my memory is faded now.

And that is a good place to stop. Thanks for reading.

Late addition: I forgot to say that I was delighted to see my first Social Security Benefit payment in my checking account on Wednesday! It is a major financial milestone for me and the execution of the plan I built years ago.