Passing the pub, creeks better...

Yesterday I made it out of the house with a little urging from my girlfriend. The day's weather was glorious and besides I needed to enquire about the delivery date of my "new" car. The walk down the main street took me to the car repairer who I was purchasing the car from. The large roller door was wide open, cars in various states of repair were stacked end on end out said door and vehicles were parked outside near his un-official car sales yard, but no proprietor was to be found anywhere. It is a testament to the safety of this small town when you can simply abandon your business, leaving to destinations unknown, leaving everything as it is without bothering to lock up.

I continued my walk down past the local pub and was greeted by some of the regular drinkers outside on the footpath who were having a cigarette (it's now illegal to smoke inside a licenced premises in this state). "G'day, hows it going" casual greetings, "great thanks" casual replies. No-one commented on my absence of now nearly a week. No-one seemed to care or comment that I had not taken that right hand turn into the establishment. Ordinarily that turn into the pub, upon crossing the threshold, would have seen my "usual" first schooner of beer lined up on the bar before I actually reached my usual drinking spot.

I felt relieved at the non-attention of my actions but deep down a little disappointed. These were indeed 'fair weather" drinking partners that really did not concern themselves with my recent absence. They were more concerned with finishing their cigarettes in the fastest possible way to get back inside to continue drinking. I "lapped" the small main street whilst pondering whether or not to extend my walk down the creek towards the "falls". Deciding eventually to just pass back past the pub (on the opposite side of the road) and re-attend the car bloke in case he had returned, he hadn't.

Across the road was the mechanic I was told was repairing the car so I decided to saunter across and enquire as to the car's progress. "I hear your fixing the car I'm going to buy?" "No" the reply "no" (wink). It "clicked" to me. He was repairing the vehicle, just not for the owner of the shop he worked for. I knew then I would have to wait till after his days off on the weekend. I walked back towards home but detoured down a small dirt lane that intersects the creek just to see how it was flowing after our recent rains. It was bubbling along nicely and as I realised after my walk so was I. I returned home to again read in the local rag about wild dogs in the area and hence my previous post. I was however proud of myself for passing the pub...