Wednesday
The right front tire on Kristen's car went low, so this morning I'm sitting at BayTown Tire waiting for eight o'clock opening time. Repair leak, probably a nail? and, seeing the tires I bought here are due, appointment to rotate and balance. Also, bought new Feb or March 2013 after the accident that totaled Kristen's car one evening on an Atlanta freeway in rush hour traffic, the car's odometer now reads 79070, near time for a haircut. Oil change and major service at 80k.
Car windows down, deafening noise at the moment, traffic whipping by, employee in orange shirt running a blower to clear the front parking area for a new day of business.
Shower when I woke up early, hard driving rain judging by the lamplight at the park across the street, cleared, now 20% chance of rain, humidity at 88%, Florida pleasant. This time of year in my distant past I'd just be settling into summer vacation stretching beyond the horizon into early September, or packing to take the bus to Camp Weed, or at the fish market in StAndrews, packing the display cases with fresh new ice and making sure I had change for the day. Pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, half-dollars, five or ten one dollar bills, maybe a couple of fives or maybe not. Barefoot was the rule, seems to me even working in the fish market unless there was a need to wear the knee-high rubber boots, like working in the back or in the ice room shoveling ice. Boots? knock out the giant spiders before putting your foot in there. Fish market and fish processing and packing plant in the back, no air conditioning no screens, flies were as numerous as stars in the sky and grains of sand on the beach, so it was spider heaven, and I'm not talking little house spiders.
When we are boys we play, work, and look forward to being our own men. When we are our own men we realize we're not and never were, and look back fondly on the good old days.
T
Car windows down, deafening noise at the moment, traffic whipping by, employee in orange shirt running a blower to clear the front parking area for a new day of business.
Shower when I woke up early, hard driving rain judging by the lamplight at the park across the street, cleared, now 20% chance of rain, humidity at 88%, Florida pleasant. This time of year in my distant past I'd just be settling into summer vacation stretching beyond the horizon into early September, or packing to take the bus to Camp Weed, or at the fish market in StAndrews, packing the display cases with fresh new ice and making sure I had change for the day. Pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, half-dollars, five or ten one dollar bills, maybe a couple of fives or maybe not. Barefoot was the rule, seems to me even working in the fish market unless there was a need to wear the knee-high rubber boots, like working in the back or in the ice room shoveling ice. Boots? knock out the giant spiders before putting your foot in there. Fish market and fish processing and packing plant in the back, no air conditioning no screens, flies were as numerous as stars in the sky and grains of sand on the beach, so it was spider heaven, and I'm not talking little house spiders.
When we are boys we play, work, and look forward to being our own men. When we are our own men we realize we're not and never were, and look back fondly on the good old days.
T