Doing While You Can

      Halfway through April, and it still feels like the year just started. I must be having fun. Although it doesn’t always feel like it. Today they shut off our water to fix some kind of local leak. We got no warning. I had just started laundry. I finished breakfast, and went to rinse my utensils, when I noticed there was no water. I checked the faucet in the bathroom: nothing. Then I went and turned off the washing machine. I don’t know what happens if you run it with no water, and I don’t want to know. I know it filled up at least once, because the clothes were wet. I think I stopped it just before the second cycle started. Which, if it had to happen, was probably the best time to catch it. I consider that a blessing. Another interesting thing that happened was: I picked up my phone to text my wife, to ask if she had heard about the water being shut off. As soon as I touched my phone, I received a text from her stating that she had just got a notification of the water being shut off. Talk about being on the same page! I love when little things like that happen. It makes it hard to be bummed when you realize that there is a universal connection, and things could have been much worse. Two timing connections within a minute of each other?! How could I not feel connected? It was hard to remember not to flush the toilet, and I had to keep reminding myself why I hadn’t brushed my teeth yet, but other than that, it was just a minor inconvenience. The water has come back on, laundry has been restarted, and my teeth have been brushed, all just a little later than desired. I’m hoping I can get this done before the dryer finishes. I hate getting distracted from this, but I also hate the idea of clean, warm clothes just sitting in the dryer wrinkling. But, I’d much rather remember where I was, than let clothes wrinkle.

     I think I may have a new neighbor. The past couple of days, I’ve been hearing loud music blaring. I thought I was the only one! No, but seriously, the other night we both heard it, and were looking at each other like: What the Fuck!? I heard it the other afternoon, and tried to inconspicuously look to see what it was, and the only thing I could see was a neighbor seemingly cleaning out his truck. He’s an older person, almost elderly. We’ve talked a few times, he’s been here since before we moved in. Taking his age into consideration, and the fact that I have not witnessed this behavior in the 5 years we’ve lived here, I assumed it wasn’t him. But, today, just as I sat down to write this, I heard it again. And, once again, all I can see is his little red truck opened all the way up, again! This time, I decided to stick my head out, and sure enough there is thrash metal coming out of the little red truck. A couple of things caught my attention. 1) This is the 2^nd or 3^rd time this week this truck needs cleaned out? Doors fully open, and I don’t really see anything going on. That’s weird. 2) I can not imagine the guy I know listening to that kind of music. If I’m like: What is all this racket? Then there’s a problem. He’s a few doors down from us, I can’t imagine what his close neighbors must be putting up with. Did he just start listening to thrash metal? Maybe he’d like the Calvins. We’re not thrash, but it’s loud and fast. 3) Since I haven’t seen anyone with the truck, I don’t know if he has a visitor. It can’t be a detailer. Why would it need detailed more than once in a week? Well, that concludes our “weird things going on around my neighborhood” segment. Now we can get into the usual stuff that keeps us connected.

     No practice tonight. Wagz and his family went to visit New York, and Washington D.C. He seemed pretty excited. I guess he’s never gone and done the touristy thing, so he didn’t want to wait anymore. I get it. His kid is getting older, and there won’t be too many opportunities left. Ever since our friend died, he’s really been on a “might as well do it now” trip. Which I also get. As we age it becomes increasingly clear that we don’t have much time left, our mortality is sitting there dangling in front of us like a carrot, egging us on to get more done, while we still can. I couldn’t help but think about it this past Sunday. We went to a memorial show for a “friend.” This lady passed away. She was at a lot of the punk rock shows we were at. We had seen her several times. I always thought she seemed very interesting. I imagined we would someday actually meet, and be like minded. She had her own style, she seemed like an artist. I was looking forward to getting to know her. However, I didn’t even know her name until I got invited to her celebration of life. She has the same name as one of our good friends: Andrea. They both go by Andi. There were a lot of cool punk bands playing. Two of my favorites. It was also a fundraiser, to help her friends with her final expenses. It was kind of sad. She wasn’t even 33 yet! I had no idea. Apparently, she OD’d, something else I had no idea about. They had a video montage playing, with photos of her. She seemed to have had an interesting life. The photos made me more sad. I felt like we missed an opportunity. And now she’s gone. I’ve been thinking about it all week. Hopefully, now, it’s run its course. The show was cool. I could not believe how many people were there. It was packed! And her best friend said, on the mic: She would never have believed that this many people would show up for her. Another reason to do while you can.