Today turned out to be quite pleasant despite a rocky beginning.

I say 'rocky beginning' because I went to bed about 5 AM and had difficulty falling asleep, as well as difficulty staying asleep. I set the alarm for 11 AM and managed to wake up a few minutes before it went off. Then, in less than an hour, I both showered and dressed. That may not sound like an accomplishment, but there are some days I'm still working on those things two hours after I've crawled out of bed.

My agenda this morning had three items on it: deposit my 401(k) cash-out check in the bank, call my friend Russell, and talk to my friend Pat. Busy day, eh! Long story short, I got out of bed to the alarm so I wouldn't accidentally oversleep banking hours. Everything after that was easy.

The day 'officially' ended well much later, when I realized that I was scheduled for jury duty tomorrow and made 'the phone call'. It may not work the same in other counties and states, but in San Bernardino county, you call the jury hotline number the night in advance in they'll tell you if you need to come down to the courthouse in the morning. In almost 30 years here, I have never had to report. (And, yes, I'm certain to be jinxing myself by stating that so publicly!)

I had a gut feeling that I would have to report this time. Customarily my jury service has always been at the downtown courthouse, but this latest summons was for the courthouse in Fontana. I don't know why I got simmoned so far away. The fact that it was outside of my driving range right now and that I would have to spend a few hours on the lover-ly San Bernardino bus system was the source of my foreboding. Thankfully, I'm out until next time.

To cap off the day, I decided to have dinner at IHOP. My friend Perry said on Facebook a few hours ago that he had dinner at the Waffle House. That put the idea in my head. However, since we don't have Waffle Houses in California, I thought I would settle for IHOP. Much to my surprise, the local IHOP was closed. I thought they were all open 24 hours, but I was either wrong or this particular restaurant is closed for good. I suspect, I was wrong. In my car now and hungry, I decided to head up to Denny's, which I knew to be open and serving breakfast foods. Not much more I can say about that— Denny's is Denny's.

Talk at ya later.

"Don't let me die at Denny's. If for some reason I do, please drag my body across the street."— Lauri Roggenkamp