After a leisurely breakfast, I went back through the same pool chemical test as yesterday. One of the other chemical bottles had more in it than the s...stem thought, so I had to do the whole bottle swaps before the system was ready to make whatever changes it needed to finetune the pool to whatever it thought was the perfect chemical balance. After checking my emails, I went to get the mower out to cut the grass. No one asked me to do it, especially when I found our mower was now a zero-degree. The open season on prominent black and brown leaders was ... apparently, the entire country.Maybe not Hawaii and Alaska; they were so isolated. Small comfort.Walker refreshed the Tanqueray. Pilar said, “Gertie, you’re retired; why do you keep working? All that consulting you do?”She smiled at the ever-curious little girl, “I’m old, Pilar. But not ready to die, not yet. Have you read John McPhee?”“No.” I knew that she would be checking him out as soon as Gertie left.“Pulitzer Prize-winning. “About 34 hours,” she said calculating. “It’s Wednesday morning.”“My God,” I said. “I need to check in. Riley will be panicked.”“Don’t tell me Riley is your wife,” Peg moaned.“No, my partner,” I answered.“Thank goodness,” she said and rolled on top of me with another kiss. “I did not haul your ass out of that river and thaw your freezing body with my own for someone else.”I blame it on the pollution in the Chicago River affecting my brain. I couldn’t for the life of me sort out my priorities. About a month ago, I accidentally asked her out for lunch. I was there during my lunch break, and happened to mention a new addition to the food court. She must've thought I was asking her out to lunch, because the next thing I knew, she accepted. I didn't mind, though. It was amazing how well we got along. We talked for an hour, and she was twenty minutes past her lunch break before we realised what the time was. From then on, lunch in the food court became a weekly occurrence.I feel I can.