Wasted Time

Little or nothing, one thing other than another. I spend a couple of hours with the guy marking cables that run into the museum, trying to find where the phone line actually is. I know where it ends up, so we work both ways from Sunday and eventually find a place where he can hook his resistance meter over the active line (there are several generations of dead lines) and mark, on the surface of the alley, where the live line runs. Speaking of lines, I need to take the trap apart, that runs out of the kitchen sink, because there's an obstruction, probably a clog of hair (I wash my hair in that sink) and it's not draining correctly. It'll be a slimy mess, and I've put it off for weeks, but I have to do it tomorrow because the drain is completely clogged: all problems, as Glenn has maintained, are drainage problems. Something lodged in the elbow, who knows what, I probably won't be able to tell even when I see it, what it actually is. Shit accumulates. It's a fact of nature, right now it's leaves. I've never seen so many leaves. They're inches deep and the grader ditch is completely clogged, the two important catchments are completely filled. It's possible that a violent storm will clean them, but more likely that they'll have to mucked out too. One thing after another. I have to find Emily a desk and a chair. The combined arts are difficult because you rely on other people. I know, more or less, what I can do, but I have no idea what you're capable of. Let's assume we reached an agreement. Must have made fifteen trips in the elevator from the second floor to the basement, cleaning out the gallery, and getting the pottery show down near the back door. D got the cargo van at four and we loaded it for the return trip the Cleveland. Ray, the head elevator guy, arrived at four-thirty, to load 2500 pounds of cast iron weights (used to test the elevator) into his truck for the return to Cincy. Hot today but freezing temps by Sunday night. If it rains very much tomorrow (it might) I'd have to spend the night in town because of what I call 'Leaf Slippage' which is the phenomenon whereby leaves fill the ruts in the driveway COMPLETELY and a good rain makes them far slicker than new fallen snow. The upper part of the driveway, on the flat, is absolutely invisible, several inches of leaves, but it's easy to stay on course, there's no other way. I need to remember, I just went and wrote it down on the folded piece of paper I keep in my work shirt pocket, to pick up a gallon of de-scented lamp fuel. I could use kerosene, but I hate the smell, and trying to get the smell off my hands. I'm always looking for cheap utility candles, five or six to the box, five or six inches long, three/quarters of an inch in diameter, they burn for a long time. That's what I look for, in a candle, the longest duration of light. I could be construed as a romantic, but I'm actually just a functionalist. We occupy a small part of the spectrum, just below average, we make no waves, and try to remember where we live, everything else is up in the air, that juggling we all do.