• Who are you again?

    Have you ever had someone approach you and say, “hey , how the heck are you! I haven’t seen you in ages. You haven’t changed a bit.” I don’t think anyone has ever said that to me. Hell, I look in the mirror and I wonder who it is on the other side. Just this evening I was gazing upon my mug wondering who the hell I am. When did my face get so thick? When did my forehead begin to look more like a washboard than my abs?** When did my nose begin to look better suited for a grocery store deli case than my face? When did I start keeping my hair so short?*** When did I stop thinking of myself primarily as someone’s son in favor of thinking of myself as someone’s father? When did I grow up?****

    ** I never had “washboard” abs.
    *** When I got married.
    **** Oh shut up Cheryl.

  • Windows.

    Sometimes, having a window office is not all it’s cracked up to be. First, there’s the productivity problem. For those of us who are easily distracted, a window to the great outdoors can be disasterous. Then there’s the good old green house effect. You give me a window facing the sun and I’ll give you a hot office. Finally, there’s a sense of loss when you have a window. My office is at tree level. I can see a courtyard below and the sky above, but looking straight out I see branches and leaves. The trees are really close too, so I can see all of the action when a pair of squirrels chase each other around like an old episode of CHIPS. O.K., that’s all fine and good, but what does that have to do with loss? Well, today is a fine example. It is a fantastic day outside, by the looks of it. Many people would feel disturbed about working when they could be outside relaxing. That’s not my problem. I’m just as content to do my work as any other day. (Just keep your mouth shut Cheryl.) But what I wouldn’t give to be able to open one of the windows… to hear the breeze gently blowing through the branches right outside, to feel that cool breeze blowing in my face, to fill my nostrils with the smell of the woods…

    I could work like that.

  • Hiccups.

    There will always be times where your roof springs a leak, your water heater lets loose an Old Testament flood, your child acts up in school, you don’t get that new job you wanted, your favorite computer dies, you can’t shake an awful cold, or Bob Villa decides your house isn’t good enough for him.

    What does Bob Villa know anyway? He can take his crapy Craftsman socketless, adjustable wrench and go back to where ever he came from! And who’s to say This Old House would even have him back?

    Here is where my job and the national news serve me well; they are a daily dose of perspective. My child has two caring parents. My family has a stable home life. My family likes to spend time together (sometimes). I don’t have to pay for heating oil. We’re not among the record breaking masses filing for bankruptcy (yet). My legs are killing me from that hard ride home. (How’d that one sneak in there?)

    As I’ve mused before, bad things don’t necessarily bring greater good. Storm clouds don’t always have a silver lining. What’s important to me is that the rain doesn’t usually wash away all of the good stuff you had before. Now if we could just pay off that home equity loan…