It has been a hectic week, in a way, by normal Life
Explained by Tim Clark standards, anyway. Around here, we like things to move a
little slower, no surprises, no emergencies, no obligations. “No deeds to do,
no promises to keep.” Life as a pleasant diversion.
Early in the week I went on my lunchtime stroll. Keeping the
step count up there, you know. And I came across an oddity of a building in a
parking lot. What made it odd was the shape, square, about 14 foot
square, and the height, about 40 foot high, and the location, right in the
middle of a parking lot, and the color, bright red. My coworkers John and Bill
had no explanation. It is a complete mystery.
Today, I walked right next to the building, and it still
makes no sense. It is empty inside. A tall, narrow, thin building sitting empty
in the middle of a busy parking lot with no easily understood purpose, and it
is beginning to bother me. I will keep a weather eye on it, and if there is any
news it will be right here.
Last night we went out and had a beer with a friend of ours.
It was a hip, trendy new bar (kind of) in an old building. It was wonderfully
decorated, antique everywhere, booths, tables, chairs, and barstools. This was
a stark contrast to the staff, who were young, attractive and friendly, it a
little heavy on piercings. The small
room was crowded, and it made me a little uncomfortable, there are lines that
should not be crossed, memories that should be avoided. I wasted a lot of my
life in places like that.
When I walk around town at lunch I try not to walk in front
of cars, even at stop signs. Yes, the laws of right of way are clear, and
crosswalks define the sacred path of pedestrians. You don’t have to drive very
long to understand people in cars are often willing to ignore the rules.
Sometimes with catastrophic consequences. I try to just walk behind the car, it only
takes one miscalculation, one untimely twitch, one lapse of judgement, one
person in too much of a hurry to pay attention to make me wish I had not been
in that place.
Memories are much the same it doesn’t take much for one of
them to break free and run right over the top of you. Sometimes it is just as
much about time as it is place, I guess. Those kinds of memories make a person
realize how many friends have been lost over the years. People you saw all the
time and will probably never see again. Some are gone completely, joined the
choir invisible, others are just in Montana, or Oregon, or who knows where. They
are all faces that were once so familiar but have grown faded, fuzzy and indistinct. Where does the time go, and where do the people go?
Today, I changed the name of the Life Explained Facebook
page to Life Explained by Tim Clark. I am getting better at this shameless self-promotion.
Here is something you may not know; to
change the name of your Facebook page requires approval and they say it can
take up to three days. It took less than hour. It wasn't a big change, though.
I stopped and got coffee on my way to work this morning. Since
the coffee place was so close to where my wife works I got her an iced tea, she
doesn’t drink coffee, poor girl. Since she wasn’t at work I left it on her
desk, and left a note. “Happy Friday” was my first thought. It sounds so
skimpy, insignificant, though. So “I wrote, “Happy Anniversary. It has been
thirty wonderful years.” It isn’t our anniversary, and we have only been
married 27 years. But, Friday comes every week, our anniversary it only comes
two or three times a year. I am thoughtful that way.
