Scenic Route

Blame Von. And I’m taking the liberty of extending this first part back an additional ten years.

Twenty years ago

In the autumn of 1985 I was ten years out of high school and had just taken a new job with a small interstate trucking company. Tasked with computerizing the entire company, I was in up to my eyeballs in learning what they did, how, and why. I owned two suits, both polyester. One was gray, the other blue-gray. The gray one was machine-washable. I was proud of this.

I’d been living with Vince for four years. We had a two-bedroom townhouse and my office was in the finished basement. I had two computers, the already aging Commodore 64 and an Epson QX-16. It had a brand new 2400 baud modem (2.4 kbps in today’s parlance), and a Epson LQ-1500 letter-quality dot-matrix printer.

I’d just purchased a huge (for the time) 27” Sony stereo TV and a my first Dolby surround-sound system to go with it. I was shopping for a new car and was preparing to enter the real estate market.

Fifteen years ago

Living with Vince in a three-bedroom house with finished attic adjoining a town park in Greece. Three cars in the driveway, 14 (worsted wool) suits in the closet. A second full A/V surround-sound system graced my home office.

The words, “vice-president” adorned my business card and I had just helped move our eastern NY state terminal to central Massachusetts in a single weekend. Got good and drunk that Sunday night and had to call in to work from the hotel room on Monday.

Ten years ago (almost to the day)

After having essentially taken over Vince’s business from him, things between us had built to a head and I exploded out of the relationship taking only the $963 (or was it $967?) in the joint checking account, and what would fit in my car. Gave up home, job and relationship in a single argument on a Monday afternoon.

[Added later: BTW, the troubles between Vince and I were about 80% my fault. In the thick of things, and plenty of denial, I couldn’t see that then. This was when I forever left the suburbs, finding a new home in the Neighborhood of the Arts. On my third address here now. I hadn’t even settled when I was called for jury duty. Sat for a week-and-a-half that October on a murder trial. Pretty open-and-shut case. Verdict went the same way.]

Five years ago (too easy to look up)

I’d just moved in with Mark and was lamenting the extra hour commute to and from rehab. I was much more frightened and fragile than revealed in the journal back then. Fear of everyone I met, and their motives towards me dominated my relationships. When I wasn’t afraid of people, I was in fear of the future.

One year ago

Swinging madly between new feelings for CBC (referred to then as Web-Boy) and sinking into depression.

Yesterday

Actually, last night I started an entry about yesterday and got distracted before finishing it:

I like Saturdays. The week is over and I have a day or two to myself to do things I want to do without having to watch the clock so I’m not late for this thing or that.

I even like the Saturdays when I have to work. The bus schedule on Saturday doesn’t quite align with my work schedule, so I have 45 minutes to kill. I just ride a stop past work and settle in at the counter at Jim’s Restaurant.

I’m delayed at the door today as a five or six year-old kid takes one of everything off the free newspapers rack. Real Estate listings, used car trader, Spanish language monthly. I decide not to offer to autograph this month’s issue of Computer Link for him.

Decaf appears before me as the waitress asks, “The usual, hon?” The usual sounds good. Scrambled eggs and onions special, comes with hash browns and toast—I add a large OJ. Tips the scales at under $5. “Sounds fine,” I reply.

Mountain, the man behind the grill, is singing this morning. Country tunes. This sparks a lively debate at the counter on the relative merits of Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson. Since Jackson has the better hair—about all I’m qualified to comment on—I side with the Jackson camp.

Mountain drops Brooks from his playlist as he ladles-out a Mickey Mouse pancake—three pancakes siamesed to form the Disney trademark.

I’m relieved that, with national disasters fading from the headlines, the TV is tuned to CNN again, instead of The Weather Channel. The frantic gensturing on TWC gets in the way of my breakfast. CNN’s bleach-blonde anchor bobs her head and smiles her way through a more routine tale of robbery, death and dismemberment in a Georgia trailer park with the closed captioning spelling out the details.

Perhaps this is why Mountain is singing country tunes this morning.

As I chow into my special, the sports segment comes on and the guy next to me confides he likes both the Yankees and the Red Sox and wasn’t sure who to root for in last night’s game.

“The Yankees,” I suggest.

“They lost,” he tells me.

“Not much you can do on a 50-50 chance,” I offer in consolation.

He shrugs agreement.

At which point, Star Wreck finished downloading and watched I it.

Five songs I know all the words to

1. The Star-Spangled Banner
2. Row, Row, Row Your Boat
3. Happy Birthday
4. Can’t honestly say I know all the words to any other songs, or if I do, I’ve forgotten that I know them until they come back at inopportune times

Five snacks

1. Toast!
2. Ganola bars
3. Dark chocolate
4. Chips (crisps)
5. Pretzels

Five things I’d do with $100,000,000.00

1. Quit my job
2. Sell my business
3. Go shopping
4. Not tell anyone
5. Run away and hide while I figure out the rest

Five places I’d run away to

If I told you, you might track down me and my $100 mil.

Five things I would never wear

Never say never.

Five favorite TV shows

Not applicable, considering I sold my TV 18 months ago after almost never having watched it for the preceding seven years due to the complete absence of interesting content.

Five greatest joys

1. Reading
2. Warm, sunny days
3. Chatting with complete strangers
4. Talking with friends
5. Sleep

Five current reads

1. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond
2. Wicked — The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire (this in preparation for the soon-to-be released sequel)
3. Maximum Ride — The Angel Experiment by James Patterson
4. Empire Falls by Richard Russo
5. The Pigeon Has Feelings Too by Mo Willems

Five people I’m tagging to do this

1. Chris
2. Iain
3. The Dreamer
4. CBC
5. Zach

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