November 23, 2021

Disoriented after the blunt change of plans. But a clench has relaxed in my stomach, which was the dread of this voyage, both subconscious and inexplicable. 

Returned my shekels to Wells Fargo. Lost $50 on that transaction. 

Tolkien’s Beorn-resembling Ryan arrived from Leaf Guard, to convince me to replace my gutters and put those little roofs on them so they don’t fill up with pine needles. I had decided to do it before he arrived, so when he pulled out a thick notebook chocked with transparencies explaining the various excellencies of the product, I literally begged him to skip the sales pitch and get to the price. This he could not do. He said he’d “hit only the highlights,” but you could tell it was agony for him to edit out even a fragment of his long and, in this case, unnecessary speech. I was frantic with impatience. It reminded me more than a little of the process of acquiring a new Dean at the cathedral. Some want to get to the task. Some want to wallow and languish in the preliminaries. People who feel pushed never consider that they have been an impediment. So, I heard the whole spiel, and can lecture on the difference among the roughly 50 ways of installing covered gutters offered by Ryan’s competitors. Somewhat to my surprise, the actual workers are not so leisurely, and intend to arrive tomorrow. I got discounts because 1) I’m old and 2) I didn’t care if they did the work the day before Thanksgiving.