A Smashing Conclusion to Summer

Hopefully this isn't an annual rite of passage into fall.

Cold fronts are usually windy. Minnesota farmers know that. Sailers know that. People with giant umbrellas attached to their patio furniture should know that.

I saw the thing wiggling around. But really, what's the worst that could happen?

It turns out patio umbrellas can lift up into the air above the glass and then crash back down on the table when the wind dies. That can happen.

We won't be playing pegs on the porch or doing any more dump dinners this year. That's OK. The wind from the cold front was bringing chilly air. It was 58 degrees and windy on my walk to work.

Oh well.

That's a revelatory statement for me. I'm that guy. I'm the guy with Rayndaud's Syndrome, which means cold hands and feet for six months a year. I'm the guy that doesn't like Christmas so I spend a couple of months being annoyed by decorations and sales and hubub.

But life's too short to get wrapped up in the little dramas. I had plenty of them today. I fell apart toward the end of my run and called The Wife for a pickup. The state's online vehicle registration system wasn't working and my printer wasn't working, so I had to walk to work early to print documents, then walk to city hall to pay the taxes.

Whatever. The registration took 5 minutes. TW didn't even tease me for falling apart after seven miles of running. All the putzing around has netted me 19,000 steps today and I'm at work a half hour early. Things have a way of working out.

We'll need a new patio table next spring. We've got six months to save up for that. Or maybe we'll get one for Christmas.

Comments

  1. Catherine MorrisonSeptember 30, 2014 at 6:39 AM

    Sounds like a good time to price an acrylic top. It's a good thing that Daisy wasn't lounging under the table when the umbrella succumbed to its Mary Poppins urge.
    Catherine

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Aw, Maaaaaaan

Image
Journalists aren't normal. You could say it takes a certain kind of person to be a journalist, but you'd be wrong. There's lots of different kinds of people who are journalists. It's just that they sometimes have more extreme personalities than you see in, say, the movie Office Space. That brings us to Dan Dickson, one of the few larger-than-life characters I have ever known. If you were to write a book about Dan, or perhaps a movie, his character would inevitably watered down by editors because nobody would ever find a character like him believable. Though I'm sure I'm mostly writing for an audience of a hundred or so Salt Lake Tribune employees who already know "The Danimal," it's important to pause here to talk about one of his most important personal characteristics, his voice. Dan's voice is a strange blend of cowboy Western accent and surfer-dude guy accent. Take The Dude from The Big Lebowski, make his voice a little more nasal, and add...
Read more

The Most Unlikely Couple ~ Part VI ~ Roman numerals: Yuck

Image
For those that missed them, here are Parts One , Two , Three , Four , and Five . Last one. Then, because I believe in the power of dreams, I'm going to take my shot at being a NASCAR driver and blog about it. Let me know if you need cigarettes or chewing tobacco. I lied to you. Right there in the final paragraph of Part V. I made it sound like, on a drive back from Los Angeles, I waited until Cedar City, Utah, to call Amy. Not true. First, I called her outside of Las Vegas. That call was just to satisfy the voice in my head saying, "Call Amy" over and over again. It was 9 a.m. Central Daylight Time. She was at work and I knew it. Voicemail. No need to leave a message. Done and done. She didn't have my Utah cell phone number. She would have no idea who had called. Take that, voice inside my head. Then, as previously mentioned, the voice got incessant. "Call Amy. Call Amy. Call Amy," it said. Fine, I decided in St. George, Utah. I'll wait until Cedar C...
Read more

The Most Unlikely Couple ~ Pt. V ~ Phantom!

Image
For those that missed them, here are Parts One , Two , Three and Four . Only two left (with an epilogue). Then, as suggested by a reader, I'm going to take up a Sister Wife , to promote more rom-com blog posts. So stay tuned for that. The canine weight loss plan. Available at www.petfinder.com Some people go into a tailspin after a breakup. To an extent, I fit that profile for a couple of months, but it turned into a wonderful positive. I lost all appetite. Which was actually great. I capitalized on the lack of appetite and joined a gym. I lost 40 pounds in three months. It helps that I had a spaz for a chocolate lab, named Duke. He is fondly remembered by our new puppy, Daisy. But you know that already. Something snapped in me when Amy and I broke up. I started eating right. I attended an awesome church in Duluth, The Vineyard . I started writing. I do that when I need an outlet. Perhaps you've noticed. Most important, I matured. Instead of wanting acceptance from wo...
Read more