Random Reaction

On a day back in February I felt inordinately happy, and I am not exactly sure why. I mean, most of the pieces of my life are in pretty good shape: healthy, loving wife and kids, some financial security, a job with meaning, friends who care, etc. But I am not a happy-go-lucky kind of guy. I am more of an even-keeled person who tends to worry more about what could go wrong rather than what is going right. So it was with some surprise that I found myself feeling this way yesterday. It wasn't necessarily and everything-going-my-way type of day, but things did go well overall. I think part of it was a somewhat silly (as in shallow) looking forward to the Duke-UNC game that I was going to watch that night (unfortunately Duke lost to a very talented UNC squad). I looked forward to relaxing and having a beer and wings and watching the game. Pretty normal day at work, went to kung fu, which as has been the case for a number of weeks now, was not able to fully participate in because...

The sun is high in the cloudless sky, the temperature is in the 90's and so is the humidity.  It is surprisingly still in spite of the immediate proximity of the South Carolina beach and its unfulfilled promise of a cooling breeze.  I've wrapped my light-colored shirt around my head like some sort of floppy turban to try to absorb sweat and shield the sun.  It doesn't do much good.  I look over at the bales of dried pine straw that I still have to break up and spread on my parents' yard. My cousin is helping me, but I know I'll be doing my fair share of  breaking open and spreading the bales of sharp, sticky needles.  I've managed to get the headphones of my Sony Walkman to sit under the shirt, and have the Walkman itself clipped to my shorts.  This is a one of the original cassette "Walkmen," loaded with the second cassette of the double cassette "album" called Reckoning by the Grateful Dead.  It became one of my favorite albums that summer ...