So, there I was, driving to work, listening to an old UB40 CD, as one does, when suddenly, apropos of nothing, I exclaimed loudly and with vehemence, to no one at all, “Goddamn it, Christopher Lee is dead!” My brain works in weird ways.
Category: Life
This afternoon I went to Big Lots. I needed a fan for my apartment; the motor for my fan had seized up and burned out. I pulled into a parking space, and I saw a man of an indeterminate age, dressed mainly in brown, shuffling through the parking lot toward my Beetle, shuffling as though … Continue reading An Encounter at Big Lots
Today is my coworker Lance’s birthday. Had I known, I’d have picked him up a cake on my way into the office. Though we don’t have a “birthday club” in Marketing, no one would say no to a birthday cake. And when I told Lance that he should have told me that today was his … Continue reading A Mandela Moment
Friday I took a vacation day. Though long planned, for about five months, I needed the day badly; work has been mentally exhausting and physically draining this year, and with the never-ending publishing cycle of writing and deadlines I have always struggled to even take the minimum required five vacation days each year, and it’s … Continue reading Leaving Flowers
It took two hours to get home last night. One of my coworkers insisted I should leave early, at five, since it was a Friday and a three-day weekend, but I was in the middle of a project I wanted to finish, which I did, and I left at 5:30. The trip home was pleasant… … Continue reading Adventures in a Mudslide
Something happened on Saturday at Harrisburg Senators game that I’ve been thinking about for the last few days. Not an intensive thinking. A background thinking. I arrived about when the gates opened, and I wandered around the ballpark. I was on the concourse, looking at the food options, when a woman, early twenties, working behind … Continue reading A Random Encounter
Rain began falling in the bottom of the 9th. The Senators were down 5-1. They hadn’t been able to muster any offense to speak of all game; indeed, their only run came on a wild pitch. I had no expectation that with three outs remaining, then two, and finally one, that the Senators would find … Continue reading Rainfall at Night
Over the weekend, I went down to Virginia to visit my parents, whom I’d not seen since the Carbon Leaf show back in March. On the way down, I decided, I would to visit a cemetery in Leesburg, Virginia; according to Find-a-Grave, my great-grandfather’s brother James is buried there. I’d been skeptical of Find-a-Grave’s information, … Continue reading Exploring Cemeteries in Leesburg
I received a spam email this morning. While this one came from important@williehowell.com, which is an address completely unfamiliar to me, the message itself was not unfamiliar at all. I’ve received a half-dozen of these in the past two weeks. It’s a sextortion scam. Read on. It appears that, [REDACTED], is your password. May very … Continue reading An Attempt At Scamming
Ducks splashed in the water. Two larger ducks, adults obviously, sat on outcroppings just beyond the shoreline, while four ducklings paddled in the water. Sometimes, the adults would move from one outcropping to another. Sometimes they would see me, twenty yards distant or more, and take flight, either jump-flying to the opposite shore or, more … Continue reading Scenes of Terrible Beauty
This was my headlight bulb. Right before Shore Leave, my driver’s side low beams went out, and while I went to Advance Auto Parts on York Road to get a replacement, for deadlines and other reasons I didn’t install the bulb until the following Saturday, before I went to Camden Yards and briefly saw my … Continue reading Fun With Headlight Bulbs
I may have created the ultimate cheese & onions sandwich! Back in the spring, for nerdy reasons, I began experimenting with the British-style cheese and onions sandwich. There’s a Rutles song about the sandwich, and in my mind I imagined that a cheese and onions was some amazing thing, completely unknown to American shores. In … Continue reading The Ultimate Cheese and Onions Sandwich