• Wednesday. 8:00 AM. Sticker of a Winking Dolphin:

Retired detective Barry Borscht doesn’t know how to bullet journal. But he is six days into retirement and enjoys putting funny stickers on the pages. Borscht has time to kill. The Deputy Chief put him out to pasture after the botched murder inquiry into Rando McTavisham. Now Borscht is stuck in the “Rubber Room” (his living room) where ex-coppers go to die.

• Wednesday. 6:17 PM. Sticker of a Ghost:

At dusk, retired detective Barry Borscht listens to old-timey, big band jazz alone in a book-laden room. Borscht has a 60 inch Panasonic, a retirement gift from colleagues who respected his maverick approach to policing. Borscht instead stares out at the badlands of New Nuevo, California. For six years, Borscht has been a ghost to the people who should’ve been important in his life. Somewhere in that growing darkness is Margo Margo, a daughter he’s never met, an ex-wife, Miss Bunny, who once beaned Borscht with a 10 pound medicine ball, and the memory of his ex-cop partner, Rando McTavisham.

• Thursday. Noon. Sticker of a High Five.

Flashback: On Christmas Day in 2019, detective Borscht’s sexy sidekick, Rando McTavisham – his buddy from Basic, the man he trusted with his life, the man who saved Borscht’s neck in the sandy hills of Fartakesh – perished in a tragic go-kart explosion outside the Dairy Queen Grill & Chill in Henderson, Nevada.

• Thursday. 6:00 PM. Sticker of a Broken Heart.

Flashback: Detective Barry Borscht, pictured at Rando McTavisham’s rainy gravesite (behind the Dairy Queen Grill & Chill in Henderson, Nevada) – throws back his head and yowls.

• Thursday. 6:05 PM. Sticker of Exclamation Mark

Back in his apartment, retired detective Borscht examines his framed photographs and realizes he doesn’t like a single one. He’s sitting in a bad chair, with the bad feeling he’s a crap ex-copper. All the books in Borscht’s book-filled room are bad YA novels. Borscht cannot breathe. There’s a Lethal Weapon movie marathon on TBS, but he cannot change the channel. He sticks his universal remote in his mouth and pretends it’s his service weapon. Borscht looks to the skyline – somewhere in all that black he’s got a daughter, Margo Margo, who doesn’t know his name.

• Thursday. 6:17 PM. Sticker of a Middle Finger.

Tomorrow, retired detective Borscht will destroy all his terrible big band jazz records. He will excise the tremulous ruins of his heart. He will embrace his newfound uselessness. He will turn his back on New Nuevo. He will put stickers in this journal for every goddamn day of his life.