A much needed break

Tonight I needed a break.  Two days of being shut in will make one feel suffocated.

Today was a family day.  And it was, but a quiet one.  Tonight, after being inside for two days straight, I needed a break.

Not sure if you've been here before but, sometimes I feel that every good book has been read, and that every original concept of a movie has been made.  My brain sits unchallenged, un-worked, and I feel - stale.  And it's too much to bear.

I watched Joy tonight, and could relate initially with JL's character so much.  The sting of failure after failure, wondering how low you can go.  I said to my wife the other day that I couldn't understand how I could have so much potential and be so poor. Well, I know the why, it's just fixing it that's the hard part.  And I have no idea how.  It's like something is missing, and I can't tell you what "it" is. or even how to get there.  It's hard not to feel like a failure.

I wonder if I should be a writer.  But I lack that great concept to write about.  And I fear I may never find it.

I figured I could be a scholar . . . but what does that mean?

Sometimes I just feel - lost.

Tonight was one of those nights.

So I did the only thing I could come up with.  I took Stephanie to McDonald's and had an ice cream.   Her smile always seems to cheer me up.  Oh yes, I know, it's a school night.  Which i'm sure made the treat that much sweeter for her.  She calls it "Stephanie and Daddy" time. And I don't mind at all.

As we drove the windy road back to the home, my mind traveled to pre-technology days.  I've always been a sucker for Hopper's work.  I've read biographies about him, and have dreamed of seeing more of his works at the Whitney Art Museum.   I wondered what it would be like to have no computer, to have no TV.  to only have a radio.  But I'm old enough to know that sometimes life looks a little rosier through those glasses than it really was.

I've thought about my legacy, wondering what I'm leaving to my kids.  Tonight it doesn't seem like much.

I know I've changed the lives of 3 people, and I'm guessing that should be enough.

But sometimes I feel I could be doing more.  I want to do more.  But I lack the education to know what that is.  And if I found it, would I truly be happy?

And there are other days, where I "do" so much, with so little result.

No matter how hard the road, though, I do have them.  And it gets me through the day, no matter how hard it may feel.  Especially looking into those four sets of brown eyes.




I'm trying, bud.  I'm trying.

Saying Goodbye

The rain slowly falls - drip, drip, adding even more sadness to the day at hand.


Piece by piece, lives are slowly being changed.  Days like today, it's hard to see the good in it all.


But it is there.


Relationships made, friends loved, battles fought, small victories won.  But most importantly, memories made together.


And the rain continues to fall.


For some the end has passed - others, it ends today.  For several of us, the end is yet in sight.  Like dying a slow death, time has flown, and it has crawled, all leading to today.


Drip, Drip. Drip.


This loss has yet to fully sink in.  Sitting next to two empty cubicles, reality is hitting me little by little.


Of course I know the future holds more.  I have Hope that passes all understanding.


But that is for tomorrow.  Today is for a small amount of remembering, and a tad bit of grief.


The whistle blows.


Time for Work. Working amidst the slow pattering of rain.