Musings & Thoughts for Monday, November 27, 2023, or: Long Weekend Update, Part the Fourth (Wrap-Up Edition)

Midday/Early Afternoon, Monday, November 27, 2023, Lithia, Florida

Hi, everyone. It’s a quiet and – by Florida, not New England, standards – cold late autumn day in the Tampa Bay area on this last Monday of November 2023. The current temperature is 65°F/18°C under mostly cloudy conditions. Today’s forecast for Lithia/Fish Hawk calls for partly sunny skies and a high of 73°F/23°C.

Meanwhile, up in Madison, New Hampshire, the ambiance is more wintery. The temperature there is 47°F/8°C under mostly cloudy skies. The forecast for my future destination calls for partly sunny skies and a high of 49°F/9°C.

Wrapping Up the Long Weekend Update

My Sunday was, shall we say, mostly fine, I suppose. With 99.9% of my books, 100% of my music CDs, and all but one of my Blu-ray sets in moving boxes, I made do with the few entertainment-related items I have available to kill time during my remaining time here. I spent most of my day online, gamed for a while, and then watched two episodes of The War: A Ken Burns Film (the only Blu-ray I didn’t allow to be packed away for the big move to Madison.

I also made one of my last orders to Pizza Hut; I’ve been told that Madison’s Pizza Hut restaurant closed in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and never reopened, so even though I would rather have cooked something – like scrambled eggs, for instance – I figured that I’ll miss Pizza Hut once I no longer have it as an option, so, I redeemed 300 of my Hut Rewards points for a Large Any Pizza and ordered some Melts and boneless chicken wings to go along with my free pizza.

I ate my Melts with far more enthusiasm than I did the pizza – the Meat Lovers one I ordered was okay, but not great – and had a small can of Coke to wash the food down with. Maybe if I didn’t order pizza so regularly I might have enjoyed the Meat Lovers slices more than I did – but as I said earlier, the time when I won’t be able to order from Pizza Hut draws nigh. And those Hut Rewards points will eventually expire, so…..

I also fretted a great deal about my smartphone. It needs to be replaced; the battery is over seven years old, and the phone is designed so that you can’t simply buy a new battery, remove the useless one, and put the replacement battery in its place. No, no. In the case of my phone, you must go to the Verizon store, take the old phone, and trade it in for a new phone.

In Miami, I could have gotten that done weeks ago. Not only do I know my hometown and its Metrobus routes well, but I also have friends there who would have given me a ride to a Verizon or – before I moved here – a Metro PCS store to change/fix/upgrade my phone.

Here, getting around is an odyssey, and everything – from the nearest grocery store to the Verizon store –  might as well be on the far side of the Moon as far as I’m concerned. And sometimes, something as basic as getting a cell phone fixed or replaced becomes, from my perspective, a Mission: Impossible.

Things That Need to Get Done Before M-Day

1. The big 4K UHD TV set and its soundbar need to be removed from where they are and packed securely
2. My phone needs to be replaced
3. My last two Amazon orders need to arrive – I pre-ordered Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and the steelbook edition of Stand By Me because they are supposed to get here before December 12

There are, of course, a few other things that need to be packed between now and the second week of December, but those three items are the ones I worry most about.

Well, that’s all the news that I have to share with you, so I’ll close here. Until next time, then, stay safe, stay healthy, and I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things.