Must Be Cocaine
08-21-05, 11:11 PM

Upon my mom�s return from California late Friday night, around midnight, exhaustion from a sleep disturbed night along with caring and responding to my father�s skewed questions caused me to bolt from the couch and head home to my own bed. First though, White Castle�s mini hamburgers seemed as if they could fill the void, although I wasn�t hungry. Arriving home, my dogs were stand-offish but then got a whiff of the steamed onions and cheese burger sandwiches then happily trotted over to the coffee table by the couch, each sitting to the right and left where they presumed I�ll eat between them. Dining and kitchen tables are useless to the single guy because we eat where ever a television may be.

Sitting cross-legged on the ground by the coffee table and in front of the television, I gave each dog a hug and an apology for not being around this past week. I felt negligent towards the dogs but they didn�t hold a grudge, especially after tossing a fry each their direction. Milo, an old dog, is agile with food but not with a tossed frisbee. Whereas Splash, a dog I did not name but rescued from a previous owner, is a bit dense. No matter how many times I toss a fry, cookie, a piece of bologna in her direction, it hits her squarely between the eyes then to the floor where she delicately sniffs prior to gently picking it up to eat. She�s such a girl.

I sat wondering how the next phase of my life will be. I can�t live like this. I have to do something to change it. I�ve been in a holding pattern with the world rotating beneath and I'm not keeping up.

With little dent into the 10 hamburgers, I placed the remaining six in the fridge and went to bed. Surprisingly, both dogs slept on my bed Friday with one to my left and the other to my right. Normally, they sleep in the other bedroom but my absence may have gotten them scared that I may leave again. Most likely, they liked the fact that I smelled of White Castles or I may flip them a french fry at any moment.

Saturday morning, I woke at 7 a.m. and looked forward to mowing the lawn on my tractor. I was actually excited about this because taking care of the lawn was the only thing I had to look forward to throughout the day. With the temperature creeping to 100, I finished cutting the lawn and sawing branches. Instead of a cold beer, I opted for a lemonade because a lemonade seemed appropriate with the smell of fresh cut grass.

Sitting outside on the front porch with the sun beating down upon me, I watched a few cars pass but quickly lost my interest because it seemed a snow storm hit. Yes, it was too hot to be outside so the world opted to stay indoors and let the heat storm pass. In Kentucky, with the threat of snow, people don�t travel. With heat such like this, it might as well be snowing.

Still tired from the past week, I was tempted to stay in Saturday night but a drunken promise Wednesday night had me heading downtown for beers and some live music. Actually, I would like this bar with four different stages and a variety of acts but my �drinking buddy� is not much for conversation, well, he does converse but has an eighth grade sense of humor. Throughout the night, I looked around and wondered what happened to my friends? I try to make the best of the situation, but the social aspect is not connecting with the �drinking buddy�.

Wanting the night to end early, I decided I had enough and we drove over to the Waffle House for late night eggs and bacon. At two a.m., the usual suspects, the late night drunks like myself, began filing in at the yellow and black building. A woman in her late twenties with a dress barely hanging on her sat at the next booth with an old guy in his fifties. Clearly, she was bombed or on some drugs because their conversation indicates they just met for the night. She was laughing it up and her left breast fell out of her dress. She had no idea for about ten minutes and the waitress who filled her coffee didn�t bother to tell her either. Maybe she thought she would get a bigger tip from the guys lined up at the dinner bar who were were staring at the loquacious woman as well? I thought it funny that even her �date� didn�t say a word! Finally, she laughs at her exposures, turns a little red, adjusts herself and keeps on chatting. Must be cocaine.

Yesterday - Tomorrow