JUST ANOTHER MANIC MONDAY

Now that the weather has turned cold, my Sundays are definite days of rest. Read the newspaper, fret over the Sunday puzzles, read a good mystery, and catch up with "The Amazing Race" on TV at night. That's about it. Then, I awaken early on Mondays and make a list of everything that needs to be done since I was such a slug the day before. This is gonna be another Manic Monday, for sure.

Highest on my list is to clean out the bedroom closet...not to be confused with the walk-in closet that is guarded by the large poster of Brad Pitt before he ever got reeled in by Angelina Jolie and I still had a chance. No, the bedroom closet is much smaller, which is why it recently exploded and the double-folding doors cannot be shut. Big Bore made the clean-up suggestion yesterday when I asked him if he'd seen my green boom box. "It's probably somewhere in the closet--if you can shovel your way into it." I can take the hint. Today I will remove everything on the closet floor, search for the boom box, then re-stack the mess into some semblance of order--at least to the point where I can shut the doors.

Next on the list is to go to the libary to decorate two Christmas trees--one big, one little--with my Friends of the Library companions. If I find the aforementioned boom box, I will take it along and play Christmas carols while we work. If not, I'll be performing all the songs from the Fredonia Christmas Pageant, which might, unfortunately, result in me decorating the trees all by myself. Hmmm. I'd better find that blasted boom box.

After the tree decorating, it's off to the grocery store for Banana Day. Once upon a time, bananas were on special for 19-cents a pound on Mondays. Then, the price went up to 19-cents. Then 29-cents. And now the price is up to 39-cents a pound. But I once had to have liquid potassium pumped into my veins, which is no fun and costs even more, so I will purchase my weekly supply of bananas without complaint and pick up 10 tubs of yogurt that are also on sale while I'm at it. Mission accomplished. Most of my grocery shopping will be done tomorrow since Tuesday is Geezer Day at the store and, for those 62 and over, most non-sale items are slashed a whopping 5-percent--which doesn't even cover the tax. Humbug!

Next it's to the bank to see if I can get the four Presidential dollar coins issued for 2011. I started collecting them when the first ones became available in 2007 and have an "official folder" to put them in. If I'm lucky today, A. Johnson, Grant, Hayes, and Garfield will be joining the 16 presidents before them who already have their special coins in my folder. I'm not sure I'll be such an eager collector once the tricky Richard Nixon coin becomes available, but I have until 2016 to get used to the idea.

And this is ALL before noon! It's going to be a great day!