Days Like Tuesday

Tuesday was the kind of day where waking is painful, where thinking is hard. The kind of day where dressing is a chore and sitting at home at the computer is worse. Days like Tuesday sometimes come around, but this one was bad.

I wondered, So is this how it happens? You get to a point when the sunny days are behind you, the good ole ones are gone, and just walking to the kitchen to the coffee maker to fill your cup seems like too much effort. And before long the day is done and it's time to go to bed, what's the purpose, you hardly got anything done, and already for heaven's sake it's time to go to bed and to start another day that you figure will be just like this one was, and you dread the thought of lying down. Is this how it happens?

But then they came home: Trudy and the boy.

They drove up together, and their smiles lit the room when they came in thru the front door. They pulled me away from my desk and pushed me out of the house for dinner. They took me to a coffee house where we drank tea and read and surfed in a cozy game room in the back. We went walking in the evening on a long loop around the block and the school yard.

And today, oh look at today. The sky is blue. The sun is bright. Spring is coming. The neighbor's tulips and daffodils will be flowering soon. And I found two Bluebonnets poking out of the mulch in the front yard. Feel the warm air. It's a good day to bike to the sandwich shop for lunch, a good day to get some work done.

All because they came home, Trudy and the boy, just in the nick of time on Tuesday.

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Going Home

The week went quickly. The rain of Monday gave way to some sunny days, although the Oak trees conspired all week long. And there I was on Friday evening, heading home.

The sky was clear. A pink glow was in the west as daylight began to fade. My windows were up. The radio was on. And I sat for an hour in stationary traffic flying high over the Interstate, clover-leafing from northbound lanes to westbound lanes, merging with traffic clover-leafing from southbound lanes to those same westbound lanes. And we were all sitting there for a very long time.

But the radio filled the void, and eventually the traffic started moving.

Hours later, with a clear Texas sky over me, stars glittering against the deep black night, I came back to Central Texas. LaGrange faded behind me just as BTO was takin' care of business. The Oak trees of Houston fell further behind me with every measure as I nodded my head to the music and sang along as well as you can sing along to 70s rock.

Over a hill and KNRG faded. Over another hill and KGSR came in. Just a few more hills. The radio towers in the hills west of Austin blinked in the night. The lights of the city spread out before me. A jetliner was on approach to Bergstrom in the distance.

Just a few more stop lights. Just a little more time. Soon I'd be home.

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