Yesterday was a rough day.
It was a travel day,
where I left one Airbnb place to go to another.

I was making up my bed to leave,
and I saw this..

(update: this is an artist's rendition

provided by a reader who was concerned

for the welfare of other readers

seeing the actual spider on my bed,

which can be viewed by clicking here)

..which frightened me,
and I stopped.

I called the owner to let them know,
so they wouldn't continue making up the bed and get bitten by this beast..

anyway, that wasn't the rough part.
the owner bravely transported the huge spider to the safe outdoors on a paper towel.
that's not a euphemism for killing the spider.
they carried this thing live.
it could have just crawled onto them.

anyway, after this, my train was about to leave,
so I ran over to it,
and made the train,
but realized I had their key..

my first attempt to return the key was to get off at the next station and take a train back,
but I didn't know when one would come,
and my trusty 4g internet was not working,

so I called the owner,
and they said I could overnight mail it back.
a sensible idea.
so I got to Boston,
on Sunday,
and went to a Fedex place,
which was closed,
and went to another place,
which was also closed,
and called a place that was open,
and they said they didn't pick up mail today,
so I could give it to them,
but it would sit there until tomorrow.

I thought about taking a taxi back to return it,
and called a cab company,
and they said they could take me there and back for $190,
which seemed too expensive..
I could go back myself and sleep in a nice hotel for that price..

so I decided to drive it,
with a zipcar,
but there was a run on zipcars,
but I found one in Harvard Square,
and I took a taxi there..
but it was gone,
and I went to look at my reservation,
and it was for 3 hours later than I said it should be,
something to do with the website thinking I'm on San Francisco time,

and it wouldn't let me cancel without a fee,
so I called zipcar,
and they canceled it without charging me,
and found a car that was available nearby,
and asked if I wanted them to reserve it for me,
and I said "yes, grab it!",
and then they said "oh, someone just barely grabbed it.."
and I said "is there any zipcar in the city?"
and there was, but it was an hour away,
which was too long,

so I called a friend,
and he was willing to drive me,
a very good friend,
but he had a time constraint,
which was that the Red Sox were playing,
and he had tickets,
with a girl,
which seemed important,
but we had plenty of time,
at first,
but he had trouble picking me up in Harvard Square because there was a festival of sorts which was slowing traffic, and completely blocking random streets,

and when we finally were on our way,
we started to see lots and lots of traffic heading back into Boston,
presumably for the big game,
so I told him to drop me off at a train station,
so he could get back in time,

at this point,
whereas I had planned to meet my host in Maine at the train station at a time when they would be there anyway,
and drive with them to their house,
instead,
I would arrive in Maine at 1:45am,

but my gracious host in Maine said they would leave the door open for me,
and told me where my room would be..

anyway,
I managed to return the key and headed back to Boston,
again,

and it wasn't so bad..
I watched the Red Sox game in North Station,

on a side note,
my train was to leave at 11:20pm,
and I glanced up at the schedule board to see this:

..it says the current time is 11:39pm,
which is after my train would have left,
but it was wrong,
and corrected itself soon after:

anyway,

when I left,

at the top of the eighth inning,

the Red Sox were down 4 points,

though my friend is from Detroit,

and I was kindof rooting for them on his behalf,

though I would not have said that to anyone in North Station,

(my friend was actually at the game with a Tigers shirt on, which seems brave)

..turns out a lot happened in that game after I left..

the train wasn't so bad.

ticket's were $20 to Maine,

and for $28 I could get "business class",

which I opted for to see what it was like,

and it was pretty comfortable.

I had a power outlet and a chair,

which for a digital nomad is about all that's necessary..

..and when I got to Maine,

a very kind taxi driver drove me to my Airbnb place,

and the door was open as promised,

and I had a nice bed waiting for me,

with a towel,

and a cat..