What More?

I've decided to improve my penmanship.  I never really learned properly.  As a kid in elementary school, I always got "C"s and "D"s in penmanship.  I got "A"s in everything else, so I didn't care.  I was also bad at coloring, but they didn't give grades for that.  There were always lots of white gaps in my colored parts (I realized how funny that sounds after I wrote it).  I went looking for a primer the other day.  Palmer seems to be the most touted style.  From what I've read, I'll need to practice making letters twenty minutes a day.  That is daunting.  Perhaps, though, I can do this during meetings at the factory.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing."

"You look like you're doing something."

"I'm practicing my letters."

"Why are you doing that?"

"Manliness.  I'm becoming more manly."

From what I've read, though, writing letters stimulates the brain in several places that are rarely used otherwise.  Drawing and writing.  I would love to write letters and illustrate them by hand.  I would love to, but when I try, it looks terrible.  I will try to remedy this during the long, hot summer that is surely upon us now.

The lumber that I complained had not come had.  It was in the driveway next to the lumber to be taken away.  They didn't take it away when they delivered the new stuff, so I didn't notice.  Ili asked me Saturday if they had brought the new wood, and I said no.  She was looking at the new wood when she asked.  When I called the lumberyard yesterday to ask, they said that it had been delivered. I looked at it again.

"Oh," I said.

So yesterday I stayed home from work so the air conditioning man could do his work.  I probably have a leak in the freon lines, he said.  I was down 1.5 pounds.  When it gets low, the a.c. freezes up.  Mine was frozen.  It would take two hours to thaw, so I called my buddy and had him come over and help me with the lumber.  We put the new boards down on the deck frame.  We found some new problems that we would have to figure out, but the wood looks good.  We piled the old wood up for the lumberyard to take away.  By one, the a.c. was fixed and the wood was all stacked.  I'd only had coffee, but I decided a beer would be good.  A beer and a shower and off to the factory.

That was a mistake.  I was sleepy all day.

But I have air conditioning and wood and lots of work ahead of me.  What more could a fellow ask for than that.  Pretty handwriting, perhaps.

And a Vespa and a new Leica and several trips to foreign countries.