It occurred to me on Sunday that it was the first Mother’s Day in my entire life I didn’t have a mother – he passed away in March.
Watching all the ads about gifts for moms, I realized that for the first time in my life I didn’t need to buy a card for her, let alone a gift. She loved her cards. It just hit me. “I don’t have a mother anywhere on this planet right now.” She was the only person left for whom I would still buy greeting cards. I can understand why Hallmark, American Greetings, and the others might be in trouble.
I lit a fire this morning. The second day in a row. That was a big surprise after turning on the air conditioner just two weeks ago. I was expecting to set up my own swamp cooler, but found myself using my last back porch firewood instead. Maybe I’ll write a column about setting up my own swamp cooler someday, if I don’t fall off the roof. I’m sure I miss the days when my handyman would do this every year, although I take some pride in doing it myself.
What happened to all our rain? We finally had a bit of a Monday, but it wasn’t what we were expecting. It looked like it was going to be a warm day inside with a fire on, enjoying the quiet of the rain on a Sunday morning, but it turned out to be just a short shower. However, I am grateful for everything we got.
The weather forecast resulted in a dangerous situation for me. I was waiting for the rain to pass before putting on the new hammock I had finally started buying. I figured I’d only keep the old man awake for a day – and that was a mistake. I’ve had this swing for two or three years, and it’s identical to its predecessor, other than the ropes are knotted a little differently. This change appears to have caused the ropes to break several times more than the previous one.
My original hammock was retired mainly because the quilted bed started to split, which would have been a disaster for an older guy like me. But the alternative to it eventually seemed like a model of the knot-tying school – where they only teach square knots. I ended up having to tape each of the thirteen supporting ropes to each end of the hammock.
It was due to be the last day of the old hammock before the rain came, and when I went to wake up after a pleasant nap – boom – the ropes at the head finally failed and I was on my butt, perched in a single layer of wood chips on a rock-like stiffness. No harm, although it turned out to be a little harder to wake up than I expected.
The moral of the story – if you’re going to push the envelope into something – don’t do it with a hammock. Or it may be your last moments.
I went to Best Buy yesterday. After spending some time, I wandered a little. I don’t think I’ve been there for several years. There were things for TVs, computers, and video games whose purpose I could not imagine. And then, right in front of me was setting up the Meta Quest 2 VR headset.
Since I just wrote a column on metaverses, it amazes me that it all coincided. If only I had an idea of how all this stuff works, I might buy something. Or maybe I’ll just replace my old Xbox, and pull out all those old games. This will work.
Corky Pickering and his wife moved from Bay Area to Cottonwood in 2014. He recently retired from the federal government as a law enforcement counsel. He has been a rock ‘n’ roll player and bassist for Marine JAG. He can be reached at thecork6@gmail.com.
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