Went for a walk in the evening last Saturday fully intending to make it at least as far as the end of Monona Drive, three miles away, before heading back. Got as far as the shop across from the bank that sells stuff they pick up from estate sales, about a quarter-mile away. The best-laid plans of mice and men.

Two important finds at the shop: A monitor for my computer, and three LP records.Grand total: twenty-three dollars. The monitor was twenty bucks, and I figured I’d be able to get that back if it didn’t work. It did, so I got a great deal and I didn’t have the hassle of haggling for a refund. Can’t beat that with a stick.

The LPs, all recordings of stand-up comedy back when stand-up was funny, were a dollar apiece: Two recordings of Bill Cosby, including the gasping-for-breath funny Himself, and a copy of Inside Shelley Berman, which might possibly have been my first exposure to stand-up comedy after I dug it out of my parents’ record collection. I literally jumped when I found it stuffed in between a handful of Montovani recordings, and eagerly flipped though dozens of Doris Day and Jim Neighbors albums looking for the matching record, Outside Shelley Berman. Alas, it wasn’t there.

Just kidding about stand up not being funny any more. Jim Gaffigan is hilarious and Brian Regan is so mind-bogglingly funny that I paid money to see him in person. I’m trying to think of a funny woman but it’s not coming to me right now. Amy Schumer can tell some good ones, but she’s hit or miss for me. None of them can hold a candle to Shelley or Cos, though. Sorry. That’s just how it is.