He was sitting all alone on the bench, not reading anything, not doing anything. Just sitting there, looking down at the ground. I needed to catch my breath, needed to regroup, so I sat down on the far end. It was one of those autumn days where the air was crisp and the leaves had […]
Monthly Archives: September 2010
Just Like That
This is how things happen in the real world. Just like that. Not bit by bit, not slowly over time, but just like that. One minute you’re walking in the sunshine and the next it’s a deluge of biblical proportions. One minute you’re filthy rich and the next you’re trying to figure out how to […]
The Call of the Riled
This is my day: I’m minding my business one minute, and someone is screaming into my ear the next. I’ve learned to live with it. Really, it’s pretty much like parenting a teenager — you’re going to get called some names. Bob was on the other end of the line, and he wasn’t a happy […]
Dinner is Pending
They are looking at me with their sad eyes and their upturned faces and even though they are not saying a word I know what it is they want. It’s what they always want, every day, morning noon and night. It’s what haunts my dreams and occupies almost every waking thought. It’s what I spend […]
Steaming Like an Old Man’s Dreams
I was old once, for a minute, but I got over it. I took a look in the mirror and then forgot all about it. I looked at my hands and decided to look somewhere else. I smelled something, something in the air, something from long ago, and then I remembered. Everything. Her hair, her […]
Thar’s Gold in Them Thar Ills
Let’s face it: When the Dummy books start coming out about this or that subject, whatever it is has become passe. Blogging is now passe. I’m sitting behind a older gentleman — and by “older” I mean he’s probably the same age as me, but not nearly as well-preserved — and he’s buying an armload […]
The Box
“I knew what I wanted to do a minute ago. Now it’s gone.” “What’s gone?” “What I wanted to do. It’s gone.” “I don’t follow. What you wanted to do?” “Right. What I wanted to do. I don’t know.” “Um… OK. You want any more wine?” “No, I’m good. Where is this going, anyway?” “What, […]
Stage Left
Lazy afternoons breed lazy minds. That’s what the sign said, the sign right behind the meat cutter. The meat cutter that hadn’t sliced anything in three days, the meat cutter in the deli that had been empty for three days at the back of a store that hadn’t seen a customer in three days. And […]
Prius Envy
Starbucks is not normally the place for fraternization. You go in, you get on line, you order your drink, you get on another line and wait for your drink. Once you get your drink, you either add things to it or not, get a napkin or not, sit down or not, stay or leave. One […]
Whatever Happened to Stripe Toothpaste?
Ah, youth. That quintessential quality, that state of being, that utter lack of being older. And that’s all it is, a time in your life when you haven’t lived as long as you will. Which, incidentally, is always true, but that’s getting away from the spirit of things. Youth is highly prized by those who […]