Well, a couple days in the grind are behind me. It's been strange. Seems to be a recurring theme, no? Perhaps it's an existential sense of boredom with just a hint of lime. Hard to tell.

Anyway, off work for a couple now with the Cards down 0-3. It ain't over yet, but it's starting to look like you can see it from here. Oh well. The biggest bummer is that, should disappointment come for the baseball season, I don't have my usual bail out of pro hockey. Bad for me, good for you--I'll have less distracting me so I can continue to pump out the lovely literary and musical cheese you've come to know and love.

Ran into someone who actually knew WTF (see previous post "A Toast"...) Twas strange on a number of levels. Again, I'm not going to break into a melodramatic heart-wrenching tirade of raw emotion and/or vulnerability (that's so 1999...) but it did kick some stuff up. Hopefully just enough to get some writing/music done. I'll keep you all posted. In the meantime, perhaps some impromptu fiction?

The rain was becoming heavy and chunky. Some would call it sleet or freezing rain. I just called it another reason to move. Of course naming something or adding it to a list of reasons to move is like keeping track of your bowel movements--it might be thorough and even show trends, tendencies and activities, but in the end it's all still shit.

I'd been in the one bedroom basement dungeon/apartment for two years then. I'd like to say I've made progress but now I just pay more rent and get to have a better view of a neighborhood I don't like. Such is life. Anyway the car was sliding back and forth of its own volition as I tried to delicately balance my cell phone on my shoulder and the stack of pizza boxes in the drivers seat. It's not that I loved my life and it's not that I felt like I was being propelled forward to some eventful future--it was more that I was damn sure I didn't want to die in that stupid red "Pizza Barn" shirt.

Apparently at one point I thought I'd be clever and aim for a clearer path through the growing slush and immediately found the car being thrust into a power line. It's amazing how many things you can try in those final fateful seconds--none of which do a damn thing for you. There was a crunch and a jolt and some other noises and then a lot of swearing. The swearing was me.

I got out of the car. The front end of the car was messed up, but nothing I hadn't done worse and driven away from. I almost thought for a second that I had gotten off with only a shittier looking car and bruise to my ego when I saw checked the tires. They were nearly bald to begin with and now two were down. I realized my cell phone was gone. I climbed back into the car and dug around. Beneath a Canadian bacon/pineapple, a supreme and a pepperoni with kraut I found it. I'd lost the call, but it hadn't been that important: an ex-girlfriend trying to round up $75 I supposedly owed her for back rent or some other damn thing. No big loss, either way.

"Hey, you alright?"

I turned around and saw an older man looking me over. He wore an old camouflage coat and a pair of boots that were probably older than me. "Yeah, car's done though. Tires are down and at this point they're worth more than the car."

"Aw, that's too bad, too bad," he intoned solemnly.

I shrugged. "It is what it is, I guess. Guess I'm looking for a new job now. Just as well."

"Well, sometimes you just have to look at it that way, I s'pose. 'Sides, you're young, got a good look about ya. I'm sure you'll find something else."

"Well, there's always some crap job out there if you're willing to take it."

The old man chuckled, "True. Always someone needs their toilet cleaned or their garbage hauled."

I looked at him more closely. His clothes looked surplus store all the way. His face was deeply lined with what were more crevices than wrinkled. At his side he had a large knapsack with a bedroll rolled neatly at its base. A small spaniel looking dog sat obediently next to it.

"Well, you need some help getting it off the road?"

I didn't want to move it, but I really didn't want the police to send me another ticket in the mail. I didn't care if they impounded it, I just didn't want to pay for it in the meantime.

"Yeah, suppose I'd better at least try."

After some doing we managed to get it out of the way and in prime position for it to be hauled away never to be seen by my eyes again.

The old man surveyed the car. "Yup, it's a shame it had to happen. But in this weather I s'pose you just need to be thankful it wasn't something worse."

My mind flashed again on my corpse lying strewn outside the windshield with blood and brain matter gushing from my head with my Pizza Barn shirt proudly proclaiming that I had died a menial loser.

"Yeah, good thing."

The old man had gathered his pack and dog and was about to set on his way again. I tossed him the keys to the car.

"Have some pizza."

-Joe