March 10 Day 367: An Afternoon in the Sun

Mostly I leave the house for three reasons:

1. To go for walks or make Math Around Town recordings;
2. To pick up take-out food; or
3. To shop for house and food supplies.

There are some days when I barely leave the second floor, let alone actually go outside. Today was different as I attended to long overdue errands. It was 52 degrees. The sky was blue. And the sunshine was warm on my face. I was away from the house for more than three hours.

• I went to a Licensing Office to get a new title for our Subaru. We paid off the car loan back in September, so it was long overdue.
• I went to the Verizon store and finally upgraded my iPhone. I’ve been thinking about it for awhile. Now I am the proud owner of an iPhone 12 with its fancy camera. I can’t wait to try it out on the next walk. My husband is jealous. (My old iPhone is a 6S and had very little trade-in value. So I kept it to serve as an alternate webcam/document camera/ video streaming device.)
• I tried to have the Impala serviced since the CHANGE OIL SOON warning was on. After checking the oil and the mileage, the kind mechanic just reset the warning indicator. Apparently I still have another 6000 miles to go (even though it has been 18 months since the previous service.) I suppose that means we drove this car only 167 miles/month on average including last summer when our college aged son was driving it to his Amazon warehouse job near the airport.
• I decided to look on campus for Pi-s from last year’s aborted Pi Day celebration. Facebook reminded me that at least three Pi-s remained unclaimed a year ago today. At the conclusion of the other errands, I made a quick trip to UWT and I can confirm that the copper Pi and the silver Pi are gone. I hope they found good homes. I could not get into the classroom building where the green one was hidden. I am still holding out hope that it remains.

It was not quite the unreal experience of June 15 Day 99: Surreal Shopping. I was still wearing a mask and having to wait outside stores until an assistant was ready for me. It felt more normal and less pandemic dystopia—but still strange.