Today I had a rough idea of what I would do and what I needed to do. I had the idea that today, like every day this week, I would be working on our website again. A start has been made, the first pages are finished, the structure is pretty much in place, the layout is starting to look like what I envision, and the atmosphere is what we want to convey. So, I was eager to get back to work, but things didn't quite work out that way.
Of course, other things came up. About two weeks ago, a letter from the municipality arrived in my mailbox asking my partner to renew his ID. It would expire in October. The letter specifically mentioned that the town hall was busy, so we asked if we could please arrange the renewal in time. Well, if it has to be done, it has to be done... so we arranged the renewal last week. Not that he was happy about it, if there's one thing my partner hates... It's having his head in a photo. But hey, you have to for ID. Anyway, that was all taken care of. So today we had to pick it up. Last week, we were already surprised by the empty halls of the town hall, and today was no different. We were practically the only people inside. What do you mean, crowded? Where did they hide it? Maybe everyone else in our town can renew their ID themselves, or maybe they forgot... I don't know. In any case, because there was no sign of crowding at all, we were done quickly. My partner had already said, "See you in about ten years!" The clerk laughed; she still didn't understand that my partner meant it.
After we finished at the town hall, we went straight to the supermarket. Last week, the supermarket we usually go to was closed for renovations. They reopened yesterday, and we were curious to see if much had changed, if anything had improved. When we walked in, the first thing we noticed was that the aisles had gotten narrower. Narrower aisles? Who comes up with that when it's getting increasingly crowded at a budget supermarket? Honestly, it certainly doesn't improve the grocery shopping experience, which has never been my favorite pastime. On the contrary, it almost makes you feel claustrophobic. But hey, we need groceries, so just hang in there and hope you get your groceries quickly, and then quickly check out to go home.
Well, that speedy checkout was also disappointing. They've never been very quick at clearing lines at the checkout, but that hasn't gotten any better now that six more self-checkout machines have been added. Of course, the consequence of this is that two manned checkouts have been removed. My goodness! I don't know if that's the smartest move they could have made, but then again, I'm not a store manager. However, if I look logically at what I see, it's not the best choice. The lines at the checkout were even longer than usual, people looked even grumpier, and at the self-checkout, there was only one staff member doing nothing, and no customers... I don't know what's supposed to be the success of that. Anyway, why bother helping people at a checkout when you can just let them fumble with a self-scanner that refuses to recognize your bell pepper? My partner is very clear about it; he refuses to use it. "I pay for service, so I want service." And of course, he's right. It's not like groceries have gotten any cheaper.
After our trip through the first supermarket, we quickly popped through the second to get the vegetables. Unfortunately, we can't manage that in one supermarket these days, and we don't have any other choice in our rural area. Even though we live in a very rural area, I can't just eat anything from the land here because most of what grows around us is animal feed, a.k.a. corn! And no, unfortunately, our garden doesn't produce enough to go without a supermarket.
Finally back in the car and home, but at that point, half your morning is already gone. The plan was to get started right away at home. Or not? No, first we'll be together, and have coffee with Skipper. No, duh, Skipper doesn't drink coffee, but he did enjoy the croissants we bought. Sharing a croissant is a bit of a boon for him, though, because before he was spoiled with it, he looked at us as if we'd left him alone for three weeks. Spoiled, what do you mean? He's rarely alone, and he gets more attention than many an influencer! And yet, he sticks his tongue out at us when he's allowed into the garden. Literally.
While we were drinking coffee, I saw a dragonfly sitting on the tip of a faded Kniphofia. Beautiful creature, and of course, I wanted to take a photo. And yeah, as you see, I took the photo from a distance with my phone. As may be clear, that was a bit of a failure. A phone is fine for lots of photos; Skipper's photo was also taken with my phone. But to capture a dragonfly in all its glory, I need different equipment, or perhaps, I need to be a little less lazy and careful getting up to get closer. Too bad. Maybe another time. Although that won't be for a while, because we're getting an early autumn here in the Netherlands. Next week we're expecting wind, rain, and cold temperatures. My goodness, I'm not ready for autumn yet, and I'm already longing for spring and summer.
I think you can ultimately say the day was okay, but website-wise, I made little to no progress. It happens, it'll work out, maybe tomorrow. Lol. No, I know it won't be tomorrow, but at least tomorrow I'll get a bit further. That's the goal. We'll see...
