Ten o’ Four in the AM.
97 degrees and climbing.
This fat boy be a’sweatin’ already, but the breeze is a nice distraction. (Kerry calls me svelte now, but at 6′ 225 I certainly don’t feel it… But going from 263 to 225 feels good. So does the pants size going from 42 to 38!)?
I’m sitting by the pool in my Key West swim trunks and Sloppy Joes tank with my favorite satellite radio station playing out of the rock-shaped speakers-Radio Margaritaville. So far I’ve listened to some good ol’ Jerry Jeff, IZ (Israel Kamakawiwo’ole), The Jolly Boys,Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Leon Redbone, Peter Mayer doing “OB-LA-DI-OB-LA-DA”, James Taylor, and of course Jimmy.
Joining me are the ever present “kids”. Little yellow (white) lab Roxy who loves to stand on the second step of the pool and swim one tiny circle out and back, and Henry the black lab with male model looks and the personality of Joan Crawford. Sort of like Zoolander meets Lassie. Henry is all for the pool. He’s jumping and excited and can’t wait to plunge in and swim his little-larger-than-Roxy’s circles. He too likes the second step, but he prefers to just put his two front legs on it. His back end just floats.
Now being a male model, his attention span is short and soon he tires of this activity that, which not more than a few minutes ago, was the canine equal to having Jimmy Buffett (insert your own band/person/whatever here) come and play a private gig in your living room. He often cops this attitude when his sister makes her way into the pool. Ah, the curse of good looks and assholish tendencies. Something, I am glad to say I am not cursed with. I’m hardly ever an asshole.
So today’s activities are simple–until Kerry develops some kind of list for me. I am in the zero gravity chair with some reading and writing material beside me: Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story, Harry Potter 1, The Wreckage by Michael Robotham, my journal, the new Levenger catalog, and the 1997-2006 Jeep Wrangler TJ Builder’s Guide. Yes, I too have ADD.
The goal is NOT to think too much about work. Twenty years in the same industry, ten years selling the same product to the same people, and a definite air of worry permeating through the division as more restrictions on what we can and cannot do trickle down from those who have never been out in the field and done what we do; lawyers, accountants, auditors, marketing people et al. So I would like to have a day that is work free. Not easy to do since my office is down the hall, and my car is owned by my company, and my garage is choc-full of sales materials. And yes I know I should:
1. Just be happy I have a job because so many are out of work.
2. Be grateful that I don’t live in a place like Somalia or Uganda..
3. Thank God every day for my blessings since so many are suffering in the world and I have no idea what it really means to suffer…etc., etc.,
I’ m not complaining. I’m just trying to de-stress and get my mind into a better place so Come Monday, it’ll be alright.
Papa's Point 