'Fishing' for Harry was a way to get away from his desk. He could have posted anything, but 'Gone Fishing' was good enough to get the point across to most. And the rest that didn't get the point could well, 'Go Fishing' with him if they wanted to better understand Harry's need to get away from his desk.
Please no tears for the state of Harry's desk. Harry had a nice desk. He had the whole ergo setup, He had a nice monitor, and of course the sit-stand bits all worked well. It wasn't the desk that chased him off to 'fishing' it was the 'fishing' that lured him away as it were.
With the new day sun just breaking the horizon, 'fishing' meant beginning an environmental data collection set for his sister. Yes, Ophelia had signed on to assist in a case regarding contaminated stormwater runoff flowing into the bay. Harry thought it ironic, she signed on and here he was collecting some samples. It took about 3 hours, but in time all twelve samples were collected. His pre-printed labels made it easy to mark the vials for processing.
Once done he packed it in, and dropped off the samples for processing at Beta Analytical.
Having now made a good start for a Thursday, he decided to drop by for coffee at Stand then Sit Cafe. The 9:30 - 10:00 o'clock time was ideal. The early morning rush hour was now passed, which meant the barista would be rested and ready for Harry's drink order.
Entering the Stand then Sit, Harry let's out a greeting: "Hey Kat"
"Hey Dad. How's it going?"
Good, good, good. And you?"
Typical Thursday, what would you like to drink today?"
"A drip, please"
Kat prepares the drip, letting out a "- got any plans this weekend?
"Not much planned - did you want to come over to dinner on Saturday?"
"Oh, not, Saturday, I've going out with Clio"
"Concert tickets?"
Kat confirms with excitement, "Yes! Clio has tickets to the Tallest Woman on Earth at the Roman"
Wow, that's great!"
Harry side steps the next customer placing an order at his left, and waits in the zone.
Harry's mind wanders, noticing the faded decal on the floor 'Be Here Now' and thought it a good affirmation, too bad about the prior business, they ain't here no more. But they left a mark.
"Trish - Latte!" followed by "Harry - Drip!" is announced by Kat.
Harry says a kind "Thank you" and a "bye" to Kat as he grabs his drip.
Ophelia was use to seeing her brother mid morning with a coffee in one hand and a book in the other. Today's book: 'How to select your Retirement Doula, by Jim Caulfield Today's drip: Mysore
"Harry" she shouts when she see him across the intersection.
Harry feigns confusion while continuing on.
"God? Is that you? he mutters looking up, just loud enough for Father Green to overhear, then abruptly corrects his rhetoric as he politely says, "Good Morning Padre."
"Harry, God Da.." begins Ophelia and then she trails off when seeing Father Green enter in the frame. "Morning Father," she says.
Caulfield's "How to select your Retirement Doula"is a thin volume, providing the retired (or soon to be retired) reader advice on the selection process. Page two quickly sets the reader's expectations about how difficult it might be to find the ideal RD, but subsequent pages advises one well on who to avoid. The book was selling well at the Hard Back Bookstore, even with a copy at the Library.
Harry was reading the book with some personal interest. His father, Harrison was having some difficulty adjusting to the retired life that laid before him. In fact, he and Ophelia had considered if they should gift him a Retirement Doula for his up coming birthday.
II
Reaching home, Harry lays down his book and coffee. Now, the clock it is at quarter past 11 and the daily paper awaits his perusal. The Thursday paper is a sparse thing, especially with regards to obits. The Sunday paper tends to have the most obits. This fact, and others are in the "So this is Retirement" book by Caulfield. "After Retirement" completes Caulfield's "To infirmity and Beyond" trilogy. Caulfield admits, many come first to his trilogy via "So this is Retirement", due to curiosity about what that ring of life admits.
Harry finished reading the paper with a stomach ready to eat.
III
Harry's wife was out taking care of her elderly parents, and so it was peanut butter on wheat for lunch. As a lunch, it was as constant as gravity in putting him in a mindful state. Harry took his time enjoying this special treat. Harry had trained a large part of his life, one peanut butter sandwich at lunch, day in, day out for years, to reach this mindful state. Instead of the Zen philosophy of 'carry water, chop wood' it was 'chew peanut butter sandwich'.
Lunch, Monday to Friday, as constant as gravity, was a peanut butter sandwich when he worked for the Man. Now, he worked for himself, and it was an occasionally peanut butter sandwich.
Work today, besides the data collection for his sister, was consulting with the FBI regarding the 100 million dollar gem and jewelry heist. Granted, his consulting was mostly writing up possible scenarios of how a group of thieves carried off the job. The consulting wasn't bad and it paid some bills. He kept an office mostly because he had this habit of leaving the house to go to work. Silly. perhaps, but it gave him another space to conduct business if he had to meet people.
Harry had a rough sequence of how the 100 million plus heist occurred. On July 10th, at the end of the Gem show, an armored transport was loaded in San Mateo and made its way to the next show in LA. The armored transport was robbed at a truck stop on Highway 5, two hours after midnight. While the guards were away from the transport, it was robbed. Apparently, the locks on the trailer are not consider that difficult to unlock. And the food must have been good. The thieves had 27 minutes to take the loot.
This was not a quick smash and grab, and it was not just one vendor. Every vendor at the large Gem and Jewelry show was now going to be at a loss. Sure there was insurance, but insurance is not cheap and vendors tended to under insure because there had never been an issue before.
Okay, thought Harry, who does this and how?
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