Sports Update

SPORTS UPDATE:  The team in blue was playing the bad guys who wore orange.  Several players were severely injured.  The fans disagreed with the officials all game long, but especially toward the end. The game was in doubt until the final whistle.  By all accounts, it was really something.

But I missed it.  I worked on pictures all morning and then went to lunch with the woman who cancelled our dinner plans on Friday night.  It was awkward, of course, for we have not seen one another in years.  Lunch here, coffee there.  I took her by my studio where we looked at what passes sometimes for art.  And the day wore on until it was time to drop her off and say goodbye, for I was cooking dinner for my mother that night.  Somehow, everything was rushed.  Mother arrived and I poured her a Peroni.  Salad, then a good, hearty meal and a movie.  When she said goodbye, I knew I was too late for the liquor store, but I would try.  Whiskey gone on a Sunday night before Labor Day.  I would drive.  And of course, I was a minute too late.  But I knew a restaurant that carries good liquors.  Only a few customers remained when I walked in.  Nothing cheap at all on those shelves, I got a fifteen year Glenfiddich.  I spent twenty dollars more than I would have if mother had left a few minutes earlier.  C'est la vie, though, eh?  My phone made a buzzing sound.  A text.

"I had a good time this afternoon."

I had already written something ribald to her email address.  I texted back to check that.

Home again, I opened the scotch.  Yes, the fifteen year was better than the twelve year after all.

She had reminded me of something, of course.  Not mother.  The other.  The writer she was dating when I met her is now well known.  Everyone is someone here in my own hometown.  Especially when they leave.  I have not.

Man, I love this scotch tonight as I write.  It smoothes out all the sharp edges.  I have told some secrets recently.  What am I after?

I will read Bukowski and some Hunter S. Thompson.  Labor Day.  I am free of the factory.  Workers rejoice.  We have a day.  Ain't it grand!