September 30, 2020. One year ago today. Six days in the hospital. Two weeks in bed. Six weeks out of work at a new job with only two weeks of accrued time. Months of physical therapy and healing.

Thank you God for giving me more life. Thank you family for your love, support and nurturing. Thank you “Angels of Mercy” for healing me with love and for “taking good care of me”. Thank you Terry and Ray for donating your time.

Thank you world of humanity for always being your best when challenged with the worst.

I am truly grateful…

Fall. 2021. September 29. Why not? Why not finish dinner and take a quick run to the local store? Why not watch a 7pm sunset while taking in a breath of fresh air at 60mph? Why not try to cheat the clock and find an extra hour before 5:30am tomorrow morning? That’s what I say……why not! Now, time to prepare for the 7am sunrise ride. Why not?

Not terribly photogenic. Not as keen as once before. I wish they could talk so they could tell me what I’ve forgotten. I yearn to remember just half of what they’ve seen. Nowadays with the help of eyeglasses, the future is clearer than the past for these gray eyelashes.

Once hidden by vanity among their brothers, the gray eyelashes now stand out among the others. I wonder if they remember all of the wonderful things the eyes and memory no longer can recall.

The gray eyelashes were somewhat of a surprise, mistaken for lent or cotton. The eyes were rubbed but the appearance remained the same. For confirmation the eyes sought the help of a pair of glasses. It was in fact confirmed: these were gray eyelashes.

This shade of gray was all too familiar. It was previously discovered elsewhere. Arms, legs, dare I mention other places? I would not dare. This shade of gray was also in places where now there is no hair….All is fair.

The past propels us to the future. We become wiser in perspective as much time passes. Make the most of your new memories. And share them with your gray eyelashes.

Perfect weather. Happy people. Water. Boats. Music. Food. Spirit. Atmosphere. Yes, one of those days.

Relationships can be funny. All relationships. Sibling, parental, platonic, romantic, professional. All have their potential ups and downs. This is even more so with new relationships. Communication in relationships is key. Saying the right thing at the right time can make life-long friends. Saying the wrong thing at the wrong time could be detrimental to one’s health. And so we have the story of “Could It Be?”

During my freshman year in college I took an African American studies class. A few days into the class I struck up a friendship with a fellow student. We’ll call him Guy. Guy was cool. Even tempered, mature, smart and ambitious. A little older than the typical college freshman, he had already established his own business. We had a few things in common but mainly we could relate to each other’s life experiences.

Guy was not shy about his personal life. He openly, but respectfully, discussed the challenges he faced in his marriage. You could tell that he did love his wife, but he felt that it was not completely reciprocated. He spoke of her fondly, but you could sometimes sense a bit of anxiety when he spoke to her. From what I could tell they were climbing the ladder to success with clear targets in mind.

As a college student I had the much needed opportunity to be blessed with a full time job at the school. In fact, I had a job there before I started classes. Man free tuition was great! Being one of the younger employees on campus was somewhat unique in the sense that I got to see higher learning from two different perspectives. An employee with employee benefits and a student with student benefits. Let me just say this: if you’ve never worked at a college (especially as a young man at the age of 18…) you have absolutely no idea what you are missing. Just ask somebody!

As a result of spending so much time on campus I met a diverse, broad, cross-section of people. I had my fair share of interest from the ladies, no more than any other male on campus, but my youth made me the target of a lot of “motherly affection” from the more mature female employees. My older male co-workers always found humor in the way our older female co-workers treated me. I did not mind the attention at all.

A couple of years after working there I saw a new girl in one of the Student Services departments. We’ll call her…..Girl. No other way to say this, but Girl was fine as hell. Radiant cinnamon caramel skin. Soft, inviting eyes. Beautifully dangerous smile. Shapely, sensuous and voluptuous. Everything in the right place. Although she never disclosed her age I guess that she was five years my senior.

Girl was manipulative, needy and insecure. I knew from the get go that she was out of my league but I never let her know it. Noticing the way that I interacted with the other ladies in her department, Girl set out to show her superiority by faking attraction to me to take my interest from her office mates. She would rush to speak to me and hold long conversations to command my time. She would walk down the halls, ask me to walk her to class. We’d hang in the cafeteria. All for show. I knew it, but hey, what did I have to loose? Oh, I was actually in a relationship at the time. And as I said, Girl was fine as hell! So….

Girl actually had a boyfriend too. Shared pictures of him. She wanted to know what my girlfriend looked like. And hey, my girlfriend was sexy as hell too and I think Girl took that as a challenge. We did have some cool, meaningful conversations and really enjoyed each other’s company. This went on for the entire semester.

When I would go to class I would tell Guy about Girl but never mention her name or give details. Just the usual guy talk. I’d share hers and my latest adventure. Or talk about what may potentially happen in the future. Guy would laugh and share the latest about his wife. Then we would talk about what would happen if my real girlfriend found out. It was all innocent though.

The semester was coming to a close. We were preparing for final exams. Girl and I weren’t talking as much. Seems her boyfriend was causing a her some emotional challenges. Me and Guy would often talk after class discussing the latest topics. One day after a group study we were walking to our cars. He told me his wife was supposed to meet him at school but she was late. Myself and a few other classmates were waiting with Guy when a car pulls up. Out walks one of the finest silhouettes you may ever see.

Guy looks and me and says,”I’d like you to meet my wife”. Could it be? To my astonishment, I realize that Girl is Guy’s wife! Girl introduced herself as if we never met. I respond in kind. Guy is completely oblivious to the situation. At that moment I wondered if I had said ANYTHING that may have tipped him off. I wondered if he knew all along that I had been talking to his wife. He gave no indication that this was the case.

Guy and I kept in touch some time afterwards. I never saw nor spoke to Girl again. By the way,, she never mentioned that she was married. I felt bad knowing that Girl had shared her infidelity with me and “quasi” flirted with me while I was a friend of her husband. So glad I never mentioned her name or any other potentially incriminating details. And this was only the beginning of this story.

Remember earlier I said that saying the wrong thing at the wrong time could be detrimental to one’s health? Please come back to read the humorous continuation of this true story.

In my previous post I mentioned that I had stories to tell. I didn’t think it would be so long before I got a chance to tell the stories, but time has a way of slipping past you. Anyway here we are.

This story is about a street light. Not just any old street light but a light that seemed to sense whenever I drove past it. I know it sounds strange and it was probably just a coincidence. As a matter of fact I know it was just a coincidence but after reading this story you tell me what you would think.

The year was 1987. My car back then was a 1982 Ford Mustang. We had a tradition of sorts with Mustangs in my family. My mom had a 1966 Mustang convertible. My dad once owned an early seventies Mustang Mach II. I was a big fan of the mid eighties Mustang GT.

Around this time I would frequently visit the house of the girl I was dating. She lived in a quaint family-based community just off of the nearby river. The roads were mainly 2 lane roads with with no stop lights and no shoulders. The homes were spread apart by some degree of acreage and separated by trees and forest. There were twists and turns and slight peaks and valleys but the road leveled off just before intersecting a main thoroughfare. And the light of which I speak stood about a quarter of a mile before this intersection.

It was a typical street light. A fluorescent bulb inside a stainless steel or aluminum fixture attached to a tall brown wooden pole. That’s it. Initially I did not notice the light’s intermittent on-off behavior as I drove by because I thought it happened for every passing vehicle. Several weeks and multiple trips of traveling the route made me notice its curious behavior. So on a warm spring Friday night I decided to monitor the light to satisfy my growing curiosity.

It was around 11pm. Warm. Dark. Eerie. Sounds you typically here from the woods. The occasional car every few minutes. I pulled as close as possible to the right side of the road just behind the light. My windows were rolled up, except for the driver’s side window which was slightly cracked open. I kept my engine running and in gear, ready to move swiftly if the need arose. Remember: DARK. EERIE. WOODS.

What I saw was pretty surprising. The light stayed on the entire time. Four or five cars passed by the light in about a ten minute span. Not once did the light go out.

To be continued……

Well I’m back. Let’s pick up where we left off.

That’s right. The light stayed on as the other cars passed by. So I left shortly thereafter. I didn’t know how to feel about what I saw. Certainly this was a coincidence, but even still what was the meaning for me? I continued to travel this road for months and the light continued to go on or off as I passed by. I slowed down, I sped up. Same result.

About a year later in the Spring of 1988 my grandmother asked me to go to church with her. I did not grow up in church but I would go occasionally with my family. I had a habit of not going to church on Easter or Christmas because I did not want to be viewed as the typical ” three times a year” church goer. If you don’t know what that is just ask somebody….

But. My grandmother asked me to go to Easter Sunday Service this particular year and I never said no to her. I lived about thirty minutes from her house and she lived about thirty minutes from our family church. We were due to be there on time even after I stopped for gas along the way. So after a quick stop for gas we were about ten minutes from the church.

As I was traveling down the highway I heard a soft thump in my car. Not seeing anything in front of me I looked in my rear-view mirror. To my surprise and horror I saw a dog lying on the side of the road. The next intersection was where I had to turn for the church. I made a u-turn to go check on the dog but he was no longer there. By now it was time for the church service to start and I didn’t want to make my grandmother late. So we went to church. Easter Sunday 1988.

A week later I was visiting my girlfriend of the time. We had a late date and so I left her house at around 3:30am on Sunday morning. This particular morning, as I passed the light it was off. And it stayed off. Never flickered. Never blinked. This was unusual. Okay.

Ten minutes after passing the light, exactly one week after hitting that dog on the highway, I was in my first and only car accident. My car was totaled. I was hit from behind by a drunk driver who had NO lights on and attempted to pass me on the left, crossing the double yellow line while I was turning left.

I woke up to someone screaming. The driver’s seat that I sat in was on top of my rear passenger seats. My upper torso was lying on what was left of my trunk, hanging out of my rear window. The rear of my car was folded down to the ground, so much so that my rear wheels were in the air. The passenger side of my car was pushed in, making my car look like the letter “C”. Fluids were pouring from everywhere.

After being rear ended I struck a cement wall that supported the property of a house upon a hill. I was exactly one minute away from home. The family that lived in that house came running towards me screaming and pleading for me to lay down and stay still. Somehow I had crawled out of the car and was now moving aimlessly in the road.

The man and the woman of the house were in their mid forties. They brought blankets and towels. I heard them say “shock” and “blood” and “gasoline”. They CARRIED me to a safe place away from the potentially dangerous car. And then I saw an emergency light. This all happened within a span of about ten minutes.

I thought to myself, “The ambulance got here fast.” Then I heard the screaming that I heard just after the accident. And then I saw the car. A police car. A police car with front end damage. Still a bit foggy with what I now think was a concussion, I could not comprehend why someone in the police car was screaming in obvious pain. Then the realization: I was hit by a police car. Yes, I was actually hit by a police officer. What are the chances, right? Exactly.

As I was being transported to the hospital I had two thoughts on my mind: the dog and the light. The light and the dog. To this very day I can only recall the thoughts of the dog and the light after the accident. The other details written here had to be told to me by eyewitnesses.

Miraculously I sustained only minor injuries. A few days after being released from the hospital I received a call from the insurance company concerning the status of the car. Total loss, but also a stunning piece of news in the report. My car had been in a previous accident. The previous owner had hit a pole. A light pole….

I didn’t buy a car until the following year. Rode with my girlfriend on the weekends. Drove past the light several times a month. It just stayed on. Always. Got a new car in May 1989. Drove past the light intentionally to see what would happen. Nothing. It just stayed on.

Fast forward to 2021. I haven’t driven on the road with the light for more than twenty five years. Sometime in the very near future I have to drive past that light one night. I have to. Just to make sure that this whole thing was just a coincidence. What do you think?

August 31st 2021.  Just a few weeks away from fall.  Football is  back in action.  And that “summer is over” feeling is starting to creep in.  Remember when you “had” to go to school…….

Fall is an interesting season for me.  I love all of the seasons for their own specific reasons.  Winter for the calm.  Spring for the renewal.  Summer for the life. And Fall? Fall for reflection.  And football. 

When the Fall season comes around I tend to watch more movies, read more “books”, listen to more music and try to write more.  Some years I’m more focused and productive, some years not so much.

Well, here I am again.  Fall season around the corner.  My brain simmering with thoughts and ideas.  My ambition and ego promising to create musical and literary masterpieces.  My heart racing to keep up with my mind.  My hands and thumbs ready at a moments notice.  All set. And then……

“Why would anybody be interested in my stories?”  “Do my stories have any extraordinary content or merit?” No.  “Do they have any ordinary appeal or value?” Don’t know.  That’s the prevailing thought that goes through my mind as I prepare to be creative.  Another thing.  These stories have meaning to me and I don’t know if I can convey their true value through my limited vocabulary and writing experience.  But these stories deserve to be told.  I’ve attempted to tell these stories many times, finishing a few paragraphs and then not finishing at all.  Here we go.  I’ll try.  Again.

Blessed to wake up to another Monday morning. How fast the summers do go by. Time to get this week started. About a month of summer days left……..

Alright. Another weekend coming to a close. Another week closer to the end of summer. Boy time flies when your having fun. Actually, time flies all of the time at my age…..

Had the pleasure of celebrating my mother-in-law’s birthday today. Always good for family to get together. Great time hanging with the in-laws. Last month I hung out with my family in the same manner. First time since 2019 that we had a chance to see both of our respective families. Blessed.

Making it even better was getting to see three family members riding their bikes. All Harleys. All good brothers. I missed the ride because I had to transport too much to the party. Just as happy to see those fellas enjoy a perfect day for a ride.

Well, almost past my bedtime. Monday morning is waiting. 5:30am will be calling. But another weekend is coming…..

Another beautiful, classic ballad that everyone should hear.