My brother is starting college tomorrow. Moving into a dorm in Maryland. Out into the world. Sadly, all the serious truths that I would share are of the form “self evident once you know them, and meaningless if you don’t.” I mean, seriously, you can tell an 18 year old to floss, but until you have those first few dreams about your teeth all falling out … you don’t really know that you need to floss.
redmed is back for a few days, then off to Chicago on Friday. So far as I know, this is her last trip for a while, thank goodness. I was hungry and the laundry is all dirty. Kidding! just kidding … ha ha ha. Seriously though, I rattle around in the house when she’s not here. Plus, I lose all inclination to actually eat at mealtimes. Instead I eat a hunk of cheese here, a buttered slice of toast there, chop up a cucumber later in the afternoon … it’s the first step on the long slide which ends up running unshaven, unwashed, and mostly unclad through the streets with a plastic cup filled with tequila, shouting “Ole!, bring on the bulls!”
At Starbucks today, there was a woman with her three screaming kids. I was able to totally tune that out. Then she left, and was replaced by two scrubbed faced young republicans, who started to talk in penetrating voices about how (a) the civil war wasn’t about slavery (b) Lincoln was an overrated bastard (c) They sure were glad the troops are in Iraq because then the terrorism all happens over there! (d) They thought that maybe Bush had been wrong about the weapons of mass destruction, but they were glad he went after Saddam anyway after how he blew up the twin towers. I couldn’t take it. No amount of Ani DiFranco, ZZ Top, or Tool could drown their smug little voices. Their cherubic, satanic little smiles. I wanted to kill them, or at least pee on their table … but instead I left. This has left the domain of reasoned argument. There is no more need for rational debate.
Yesterday, technolope and capital_l came over to make spaghetti sauce with the first major tomato harvest. Good times. We also bottled the “Anything Goes Ale”, which was my first batch of beer made entirely from leftover components of other batches. In between, we drank wine and sat on the porch. I can’t think of much of a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Oh yeah, and technolope took a hacksaw to my toilet in the process of fixing it. Thanks man! Many flushes to you!
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