Does the Early Bird Actually Get the Worm?

I was in the bed at 6 PM and deeply asleep within minutes. I couldn't stay up any longer. It was like a time warp when my father knocked on the door at 8:30 PM with Cokes and smokes. It was his first full day of work in over two weeks. He is still congested and coughing, though.

"You are out of it," Old Fuss and Feathers said very worriedly, "Have you been taking something?"

I laughed half-heartedly in complete dismay.

"You always expect the worse out of me!" I told my father scoldingly. "I was just in a very deep sleep when you knocked on the door."

Dad said I was acting drunkenly.

Maggie came ambling into the den and collapsed on my hardwood floor with a grunt and a sigh. Usually, she is going gangbusters at my father's arrival. She was muted last night in her demeanor and response.

"Even Maggie's been taking something!" my father exclaimed with laughter.

Maggie was deep asleep as well relishing the time with me in the bed I explained.

My father wanted to see my medications and smell my breath. He said it would give him peace of mind. I took my nightly dose of two 1 mg Klonopin and a Coreg before I retired to the bed. Nothing was amiss. My father was afraid I had taken a bunch of my Klonopin which would have given a similar response. This kind of scrutiny gets old sometimes. I am 45 years of age.

Did I Hear Thunder?

The first thing I did when I woke up this morning was to check the weather. Yes, we have a vigorous line of storms moving in. If you have read me any length of time, then you know how much this excites me.  They should roll through about 9 AM and then it is supposed to rain the rest of the day.

Much Captain Morgan was Consumed Today...

Charlie saved the day tonight. I owe him a very big and huge favor. The tables have certainly turned regarding my own sobriety and my father's increasing tendency to get drunk. My father had called me about 10 PM to tell me he was on the way. It was growing especially late and I was beginning to get worried. Dad clearly sounded drunk over the phone. I immediately called Charlie's cell phone and then called my father back.

"Charlie is going to pick you up and we all three will go buy groceries," I told my father. "Charlie wants to go with us to help me find some bargains (white lie)."

"Tell him I said to pull a rabbit out of his hat," my father laughed drunkenly and gleefully.

The Caprica soon pulled up and the excitement ensued. It was about 11 PM and growing later and later. I dreaded having to go through those self checkout lanes as they are a pain the ass when you have lots of groceries.

"Where are you going?" Charlie asked as my father ambled across my front yard almost falling down.

"I'm taking a piss in Andrew's shrubbery on the side of his house," my father said loudly so the whole neighborhood could hear us.

"I've had rum and cokes all afternoon with my old college roommate," dad then said proudly of himself.

Dad's old college roommate is a bad influence on my father. He always has been.

"You didn't get enough," my father then insisted adamantly as we looked at the total tally.

I had only spent $50 dollars. I was quite bumfuzzled by this whole endeavor.

"John, he's got enough dammit," Charlie said. "Let's go get you in the bed.

I think I got enough groceries in that quite a few items were free due to the chaotic nature of those self checkout kiosks. Certain things we had absentmindedly not "rung up" as we say in the South