This past Monday I had car trouble. My old-ish car with 180k miles on it nearly stalled in the middle of an intersection. By the afternoon the problem had been fixed (for free because it was related to a recent repair) but in the process of checking things out, another problem was discovered. The shop…
Category: Dear Diary
January 6: One Year Later
One year ago, on this day, I paused from my work, put on the television and began watching the news. I was curious to see how the certification of the election would go. Earlier that morning I had seen some news pieces about protesters gathering in Washington. There were pictures of them giving the middle…
Tiny Victories
Despite the constant laments about not having time for this or that, writing or exercise, or quiet observation, I sometimes have to acknowledge those moments of success when time and I seem to get along. I was up early this morning. I awoke breathing short and fast from a dream in which I drove a…
Not Exactly Languishing
It’s New Year’s Eve. The sun has been trying to break through for most of the day – a day that started off gray, damp, and foggy and is now only partly gray and damp (and that’s just my mood… say nothing of the weather). The dog has been following me around from room to…
Languishing
That’s how my friend Mike described my life. He turned to me at the bar after I had been complaining about pretty much everything – the traffic, the cold, the lack of social opportunities, the dog, and what feels like an inability (despite trying pretty hard) to get anything accomplished professionally – and he said,…
Christmas 2021
It’s Christmas morning. I’m back in Philadelphia, but will be driving back to State College in a few hours. It’s another Christmas that doesn’t quite feel like Christmas. I didn’t decorate my place – mostly because I wasn’t going to be there and partially because I figured the dog might pee on the tree if…
Poetry, Books, and Broccoli
I have a few hundred books. Most of them sit packed away in boxes downstairs in a room I seldom visit. I have a nice bookshelf made from a repurposed door. That’s where the unpacked books stand mostly at attention, snug and shoulder to shoulder: poetry, books on Buddhism or relationships, a few novels and…
I Like That
It’s Sunday morning slow and I like that. Down the street someone is using a leaf blower. On the sofa opposite me, the dog is breathing heavy but not quite snoring. I’m sitting by a lamp, wearing a gray winter hat that was given to me as a gift a few years ago. I’m fighting…
Yellow-Light Matt
I’m convinced that my timing is worse than what most people experience. I wish I could say it was part of my aw shucks, hapless sap type of charm… a Charlie Brown lovable loser vibe… but some days it feels less charming and more loser-like than others. My ex-wife used to call me yellow-light Matt…
The Car: One More Year?
The dog is on the floor a few feet away chewing on a bone. Every time I look over, he wags his tail – he wants to play. We’ll be taking our first long-ish trip together when we head to Bucks County for the Thanksgiving weekend. I’ve never traveled with a dog before – let…
The Best-Laid Plans
Friday morning… For the first time in nearly two years (two Christmases ago), I’m heading back to the Philadelphia area. I haven’t seen many of those people, family and friends, in that time. I’m looking forward to it, but I hate the “scheduling” of things to do and deciding on who I’d like to see…
Low-grade Withdrawal
On Sunday afternoon (10/17/21), a little after 4pm as the sun tried to break through the clouds, I consciously uncoupled from social media. I didn’t go so far as to delete my accounts (I didn’t even deactivate them), but I did remove them from my phone’s home screen…. which is a little like putting them…