Monday

The water is back on after 36 hours without. It is so satisfying to flush the toilet. Sarge has pooped in the tub instead of her litter box. Again. J takes a turn cleaning it up and I am immensely happy. Oh, Monday, happy waste disposal day. I drive J to work before the jam. At home, I sit at the computer and attempt to write but Bea requires attention. She sits at my feet whining, she walks on the desk and knocks piles of books and magazines and papers over, she itches her chin on the edge of my laptop and whines some more. We walk outside looking for Sarge, but once we find her Bea is still not satisfied. She looks at me and whines. I take her into the empty room and she chases the laser pointer until we are both tired of it. I put an empty cardboard box in the middle of the floor. Thankfully Bea and Sarge never tire of an empty cardboard box. At the mall, the bookstore is closed until noon for restocking so I sit in Aroma Café drinking coffee and reading Blood Meridian. I buy groceries and still it is only 11:45. A group of Scottish tourists/aid workers in light blue polo shirts with Uganda 07 printed on the back seems to be following me around. After the café and the grocery store, they also wait outside the bookstore. I have decided that Helen of Troy might make an appearance in my novel, so once inside I search for anything by Homer or some sort of compendium of Greek mythology, but all I find is a coffee table book of World Mythology; the entry on Troy is one column long. Thank god for the Internet. It’s raining so Joan has hung the laundry in the bathroom to dry. There is a pile of dead and dying caterpillars in the yard. Again, I sit down at the computer but by this point Joan is finished for the day so I drive her to the taxi stand. It starts raining again and I have no umbrella for her and she tells me the boda driver is going to charge her more money so I give her more money because I am a sucker. At Kabira the parking lot is blessedly empty; the school is on break for five weeks. I roll up my pants and splash through the mud. The bartenders greet me with smiles; I come here every day.