I’m a crank. I feel old and cranky. I feel like I’m in a rut. Last night, I spent at least fifteen minutes telling myself, over and over again, “I’m in a rut.” I was repeating the phrase in my head as a possible declarative opening – an opening to what… I’m not sure. Short,…
Category: Life
Foreign Correspondent
There was something about the pile at the end of the curb that seemed like something more than the usual spring cleaning trash. It looked haphazard and hurried. Maybe it was the size of the pile: four feet high by about ten feet long and a few feet deep or maybe it was the guitar…
Goin’ Down South
Last week, I took a few days off and went down to Clarksdale, MS for their annual Juke Joint Festival. I flew in to Memphis on Thursday, met up with Stacy, got some BBQ, and walked around downtown. We then made our way south to Clarksdale – down highway 61, a fairly desolate stretch of…
Tastes Like Vinegar, or How to be Less of a Malcontent
It’s gray and rainy this morning. Yesterday it was only gray – the rain held off. The dog is stretched across my lap making it difficult to write or reach my coffee. Nick, my cat used to do this as well, but I could sometimes type over him. Last night I was talking with my…
A Time Before
The other day a friend shared one of those Facebook memories that we all get and see. It was a picture of his daughter. She’s away at college now and he found the “memory” to be bittersweet. I sometimes wonder why we keep those mementos around, why we dive into the bittersweet. Old photos that…
Stealing a Moment
Yesterday morning, despite having a three-day weekend, I woke up tired and preoccupied with work. I suddenly felt like I had a few dozen things on the to-do list and was aggravated with myself for letting it get to me first thing in the morning. It didn’t help that the dog was nudging me for…
Between Seasons
The daffodils have started to bloom, but the temperatures have dipped into the low 20s and may kill them off. Yesterday, snow blanketed the mountain tops and while driving to work I drove through a squall that made it difficult to see – a corvette had spun out and was in a ditch. Times of…
Ticking Away…
Throwing stuff away, cleaning the table, deleting spam emails. This is me wanting to sit down and be productive (write) but putting it off. I’d love to say that it’s about trying to make space or clear out… but it feels more like it’s about tackling some easy things instead of the thing staring me…
Attention
Inevitably, the moment I look in a different direction, diverting my attention ever so briefly during one of our walks, is the precise moment Kimbrough (my dog) walks in front of me or spies something and tries to give chase. A slight stumble over the pooch or an arm-yanking jolt, the message is always the…
Under Construction
It’s amazing how quickly the mind jumps from one thought to something only tangentially related to something else tangentially related to that. In the span of a few minutes, I went from thinking about the vast wasteland ruins of the internet to starting a literary journal in 1996 to my long-standing interest in building things…
In Stereo Edition
Last night I hooked up the stereo. I’ve missed the rich sounds of actual speakers (compared to just an Alexa). I haven’t used my stereo since leaving Yardley. There are entire albums (Michael Kiwanuka and Glass Animals) that I’ve listened to a lot, but not through decent speakers. The apartment in Memphis was supposed to…
An Evening Walk
By the time I got home, I wasn’t in the mood for it – any of it. It was a nice day here in central PA. It was probably the warmest it’s been in months. Even the sun was out. When I left the office, I put the windows down a little and turned the…