My dad once told me that whenever you speak in anger you usually end up regretting what you said. So before moving onto other things I’ll just say here that I’m very angry about the demise of the Mandan Community Center.

Either of my loyal readers, as well as my physicians, will attest that I tend towards being one of those Type A guys, and nothing stresses me out more than sitting around doing a lot of nothing. It’s hard for me to watch a whole movie on TV or sit in one place for more than a few minutes, and the thought of having nothing to do all day makes me stir crazy.

So out of sheer frustration I spent last weekend doing all sorts of nothing, like cleaning my bathroom, sorting out two laundry baskets of socks, cleaning a closet and wishing I had something else to do. But alas, there wasn’t anything that really needed doing, so I went to bed at 8:30 in hopes that I’d find something to do in the morning.

So having nothing better to do, I took a look at myself and discovered that my life seems to have filled with weekday and weekend routines.

Monday thru Friday I rise a 6 a.m., shower and head to Central Market to pick up a banana and an orange before stopping at Cappuccino on Collins for my morning latte. Tara, the owner of Cappuccino, is usually the first person that I actually talk to every morning and she’s always nice enough to pretend that she’s interested in my morning babblings.

Then I head to my office and usually find myself at my desk by 6:30 a.m., and my days get less predictable until 4 p.m. However, on a good day I usually find myself at the gym by 4:30 p.m.

Weekday evenings depend on what’s going on. Some nights I head to public meetings, some evenings I teach or attend a class and most evenings I’m fortunate enough to spend doing whatever I want to.

You can set your watch to me on Saturdays and Sundays as I usually attend a 7:30 a.m. mind meld with Bob, Paul, Tera and Herman. Like clockwork, we gather at Cappuccino on Collins at 7:30 a.m. Saturdays and 8:30 a.m. Sundays, and we usually solve or create enough problems during those two hours to carry us through the week.

This week I showed up with my usual banana and Paul decided he had to demonstrate his newfound ability to snap a banana in half.  He grabbed my banana and instead of snapping it in half, he mushed it in the middle. Undaunted, on Sunday he then spent $.32 to purchase one of the greener bananas I’d ever seen so he could demonstrate his new found skill of banana snapping.

This time his trick worked, unfortunately the banana was so green it was inedible and had to be disposed of, as indeed it was not a pretty sight.

Now here’s a good indicator that I really don’t have much of a life. As I look back over last weekend I discovered that Paul’s banana bending trick may well have been the highlight of my week.

So here’s a fella with master’s degree, a big job with a big company, a great resume with no retirement, a long list of successful endeavors, a big family man… and the highlight of his week has come down to watching a fellow coffee klatcher snap a banana… one can only wonder what’s next.

So when they wheel me over to the window at the nursing home, about all I can do is hope that I know I’m looking out the window.  

Here’s hoping that there’s always someone around willing to snap your banana.