Oberlin's Trees

The sky was grey. The air was cold. Central Texas spring was far away. The world raced by as we sped thru the flat fields west of Cleveland.

"What's up with the trees," Ben said, as we exited the highway and drove into Oberlin.

Spring hadn't arrived yet in Ohio. Maybe that was what he meant. Or maybe he was looking for Live Oaks and not finding them. Or maybe something else.

"What do you mean?"

"They're so tall. And they go straight up."

A Texas boy in a Midwestern town.

10:37:45 PM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []  

You Work At NASA?

On Mondays I go to Thundercloud Subs, where I've been going for egg salad sandwiches for more than twenty years. In particular, I've been going to this particular one on Mondays almost as long as I've been telecommuting. It's the foundation of my week.

So I walk into the place a couple weeks ago in my blue cardigan with the NASA meatball logo embroidered on it. (I wear that sweater a lot to make me feel like I'm there even though I'm here.)

The woman behind the counter looked up at me and smiled. Most of them recognize me. Many of them know what I'll order. But she was new and just looked up and smiled. And she looked at my sweater.

"So you work at NASA?" she asked.

This is Austin. The nearest NASA center is 4 hours away. I'm sure she thought she was making a joke.

I looked down at the logo and my badge, which coincidentally was hanging around my neck, since it hangs next to an electronic fob that I need to log in when I connect to the virtual network, which I had been doing that day.

"I do," I said.

She looked startled.

"I work from home."

"Um... does it get noisy?"

The people around her chuckled. NASA of course launches rockets, and so anyone working for NASA at home certainly must have a lot of noise to deal with.

"Oh yes," I said, "but I try to keep it down at night."

And then I asked for an egg salad sandwich.

9:33:50 AM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []