Little m Long a

Today, the world is yours. Go ahead and scream!!!

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Hadrian's Wall

“Fancy a walk?”

It was a simple question, short and to the point.  An e-mail from an acquaintance.   Granted, the guy’s a lunatic but he’s got an oddly compelling personality — the kind of guy with which you can picture yourself spending an evening or sharing a cup of coffee.

Or a stroll.

“Sure,” I responded.

And that was that.  Dan, you may know him from All That Comes With It, has organized a charity walk in support of the Joseph Salmon Trust and I am honored to have been asked to participate.  Well, I was honored last June when he asked me.  Now, I’m hearing a Talking Heads tune repeating on an endless loop, “My God, what have I done!!”

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Some days are diamonds.  This is not.

I woke this morning with the image of Joe Cool dancing to a melody Schroeder was banging out on the piano.  I hit the snooze because it’s what I do.  Snoopy stopped dancing and I got ten more minutes.  Happy feet can’t be still, though and when he started again I got up.

The day ahead was full of promise.  Of hope.  Of field trips and new shoes.  Of sack lunches and smoothies.  Little things that mean worlds to little people who mean the world.

The world turns — quickly.

Why’s fall from trembling lips as tears fall from sad eyes.  How comes are without explanation.  There are no answers — none  suitable.

I’m sorry will have to do.

Today is Earth Day and I’m going to be digging a hole though I’m not planting a tree.   Rather I’ll be saying goodbye to a sweet friend, and the greatest attack cat ever.

Goodbye, Cinnamon

To roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I —-

I bent down to tie my shoe and lost my balance.  I grabbed for a branch to no avail and fell headlong into the fucking stream.  Now I’m soaking wet, bruised, and so far from either path that even if I did find my way back I wouldn’t know which way to turn once I got there.

The delusions of control, the fuzzy feelings way deep down that let me rest peacefully each night are slowly eroding away.  My life as a Rockwell painting is becoming a Dali.  Or a Pollack.   Maybe it’s the onset of spring, the final push toward the promise of summer.  Patience is an ideal and my children live in the I want it now.  They grow restless with anticipation, weary of the toils of an unusually long school year, and by restless I mean annoying.

They are at each other constantly.  Yelling, hitting, pushing, fighting, arguing.  Crying, whining, pouting, sulking.  And by constantly I mean IT NEVER STOPS!!!  Their behavior is bad.

It’s worse than bad.  It’s reprehensible.  Hell, I don’t even know what reprehensible really means but it sounds a lot worse than bad, so that’s what their behavior has been.  REPREHENSIBLE!!

Or maybe they’re just tired.  It could be that they just haven’t adjusted to the fact that the sun is still up when they are supposed to be going down for the night.  I’m tired, too but I’m not afforded the luxury of that excuse.  My lot is have to.

And so I will.

But I’m going to need a lot more motrin…..

And maybe Vodka!

Always tell the truth.  That way, you never have to remember what you said. Mark Twain

According to legend, and other manuscripts held in general high regard, there are ten commandments.  Ten rather specific edicts which, if  followed closely, serve a fairly good moral foundation.  Arguably, a person that holds to these tenets would be in pretty good standing with the rest of society.  God, too.

Conversely, the person (whomever he or she may be) that voluntarily acts in such a manner that directly opposes these ten simple rules would as a result fail to maintain such elevated standing with society.  Or her parents.

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