Carol's Ex

We had never met Carol’s ex before. We were spending the afternoon on the stoop with our neighbors drinking gin and tonics talking about the best birthday cake ever and the weather and if the DH should be allowed in Cooperstown, when this old gray K car drives up. Carol was the woman who sold us the mobile home right before she died. She had cancer and was moving in with her daughter so’s she could be better taken care of. She died not long after and we hadn’t even thought about her for more than a year.

Out of this old dusty trap of a car comes an old dusty man. Gray dirty trousers, rumpled shirt and stains. What was left of his hair in a greasy comb over and thick glasses whose lenses were held in with tape. He shook. He left his dog in the car barking the whole time but I never saw it, I could only hear it.

He told us he used to date Carol. It didn’t sound like they had dated that much but who knows. People change, as they get older I guess. He was looking for her daughter and wondered if we might know her name. Now Sweetie is usually pretty good about those sorts of things. Her brain has a way of keeping a file so it can get used again, I guess, but today the old man was out of luck. We chat for a while about the yard and death before he heads back to his car.

He’s almost in when he stops himself and shakes his way back to where we’re standing. “I used to have this aluminum crusher, yellow plastic, that I lent Carol. Do you remember seeing anything like that when you moved in?” I didn’t understand what he was talking about but I said no anyway. He was an odd little man and it was time he moved on. He tried describing it better but it didn’t change my answer. He said he loved to watch TV and crush the cans at the same time. Said it could crush just about anything you put in it and he’s never found another one that worked as well.

After he left, Sweetie said she knew what he was talking about. Said she had found it right after we had moved in and put it on the burn pile. She just didn’t have the heart to tell him I guess.

I hope that when I’m old and the boys all grown up and happy, when social security kicks in and sweetie and I have moved into the retirement years, I won’t spend it looking for a piece of yellow plastic. Life can be hard enough without having to nail a bleak ending on the end of it.

But then again, what do I know? Sure it’s not the holly grail but it is a quest and maybe that’s what keeps you living. Joseph of Arimathea sure has hell didn’t know how he was going to change the world when he took the grail. Maybe like Carol’s ex, he just was looking for some comfort while watching TV in his old age.

Nothing

I can’t believe that today is already the fourth of June. I really need to update my Forums more often than this Itellyouwhat! Sometimes life gets so busy that there isn’t a whole lot of room to write. Doing this much writing is kind of new to me and what with trying to finish up the Soundtrack and all, a day can go by pretty fast with out me even looking at my web page. Glad to have gotten the Reverend’s question answered and up on the site this past weekend. The best news is that Pepper, Dewy and Ham’s little dog is back home looking none to worse for the wear, though his bark leaves a lot to be desired. Dewy said that the doc didn’t think he would every regain full use of his bark and with the straightest face I could muster I told her that was a shame.

I know this forum seems more like a journal entry than a true forum. I would argue that sometimes the line between the two can get a little blurred. There are days when life and talking about life go hand in hand and days when they don’t. There are days when you just feel like sitting in a lawn chair, cracking open a cold beer and railing against the forces of nature and there are days where life just keeps you to busy to do anything but live. You can think of this forum like that if it makes you feel better. Personally I’m looking forward to that beer and a whole lot of nothing.