Dearest Rachel –
Now, you were never much for sports yourself, so I probably don’t have to work too hard to disabuse you of the notion that this has nothing to do with baseball and pitching – although now that I’ve brought it up, maybe you’d have to have me explain why I make the disclaimer in the first place, then. I guess it’s because it’s the first thing I would think of when I hear the (relatively unusual, outside of certain specific contexts) term “bullpen,” and while I realize that you and I don’t – didn’t – think alike, I might as well get this incorrect conclusion out of the way. Yes, it’s projection; I know.
As it happens, though, the word apparently also describes the briefing room at a police precinct, where the officers meet at the beginning of the daily shift to go over various particular assignments for the day. Think of any police procedural – Hill Street Blues comes to mind, or more recently Zootopia, complete with an actual bull conducting it to drive home the joke. It may be a curious tableau to come to mind, but it will make sense in a moment.
You see, it’s not all that often that Daniel is awake before I head out, especially when I’m basically “on time” to do so (which in this case amounts to nine o’clock, rather than the seven-twenty you might remember from my work farce days). There are stretches in which I really hope to never subject him to Tohru Honda’s plight one day – and not just because that would involve my getting into some sort of fatal accident that leaves him suddenly in charge of everything regarding the house, and guilt-ridden about not having been able to say goodbye.
But yesterday morning, while I was screwing the nut in place on the upstairs toilet like a good landlord, I head a noise behind me, and lo and behold, there he was, waiting to use the newly-repaired facilities. I got out of there as quickly as I could – nobody wants to have to wait to use a bathroom, especially first thing in the morning – and prepared to get a few things together. Because, as much as I will occasionally appreciate being able to eat breakfast in silence (although at this point, I actually didn’t see myself as having the time to do more than suck down an energy drink before putting in an hour at the ‘office’), there are often a few things I need to ask of Daniel before heading out, and yesterday was a particularly good example of that.
So once he was finished upstairs and came down to his rocking chair in the family room, I got him to stop on his way to sign a birthday card for his aunt that I was hoping to take over to her house on my way to the ‘office.’ I may have gone out and gotten both card and gift on my own, but I wasn’t about to leave his name (ideally, in his own handwriting) off any of it if I could help it, and his early rising allowed me to ensure that would be taken care of.
But as long as I had his attention, I figured I would address a few other things; assignments for the days to come, like a chief going over plans with his officers in the bullpen before everybody heads out onto their beats.
The first thing was to let him know what my schedule looked like; I would be heading out to walk with Lars yesterday. That probably doesn’t sound like it would be of any concern of his, until you realize that I’m out considerably later than on a typical ‘office’ day, so he shouldn’t expect me until well after five in the afternoon – and possibly closer to six in the evening. Moreover, part of the reason for that would be because the two of us would do lunch after our walk, which means I wouldn’t be hungry when I got home – and as a result, wouldn’t think to get anything together for Daniel to eat, since I wouldn’t have my own stomach to remind me to get food together. So by his being up so early, I could let him know to take care of his own lunch while I would be out. Granted, I also mentioned that I would do a little shopping on my way back, but that wouldn’t address any immediate needs, so he was duly informed of all that.
But since I was going into the ‘office’ for an hour or so before all that, I asked him to check his bank balance, as well, since I would be processing his monthly payment on his credit card, with the payment coming from his checking account. He confirmed that there was plenty available there, but also that it was set up with the loan for his car, which we need to figure out how to get started on paying off. I’m hoping to get him over to the bank by Friday to sort things out, as well as getting a few mature bonds deposited into his account in order to do so.
While I was doing this, I was clearing a few bags of detritus that had accumulated around his and Logan’s chairs, since yesterday was garbage day, and I wanted as much out for pickup. As usual, Daniel was apologetic about not having dealt with it, and I mentioned that I’d rather have action than apologies. I then gave him a few pieces of mail addressed to him to go over, and whatever he determined to be junk, he could walk with me to the kitchen to put together in a pile to take to the recycling bin – as a start. It sometimes feels like I’m being harsh about this, but at some point, he will need to deal with things around here on his own. Maybe not in any near-future situation, but eventually.
Either way, he has his assignments for the day, and in fact, the remainder of the week. While I don’t say it as I make my way out the door after saying our goodbyes for the day, I can’t help but think it: “Let’s be careful out there.”
