I’m off. Running. 6:05 am and it’s 76° F, already. Humidity is thick, legs are heavy, body is huge, mind is resisting, all of it groaning under the pressure of NO.
Scenes of the last 3 days flicker by.
pot·pour·ri (n) a mixture of things
In a small patch of grass, with Holly Pond on its right, a guard rail on the left, and Post Road to the North, is a flock. Not of a like-kind. But 2 adult geese, 3 toddlers, a mallard and a sparrow. All quietly feeding as I approach. Mother Goose, protecting her young-uns, approaches, neck fully extended…tall and fierce with her wings spread wide…hissing. This luncheon is human-free, and I was not welcome. All these creatures, peacefully feeding, and yet we, a higher level of intelligence can’t seem to sit in a room and have a civil conversation.
I’m in the dentist chair. Not flat, but with feet higher than head. Hygienist is wearing a face mask and magnified eye goggles. Poking, scraping, suction, flossing. I’m lolling in and out of nausea and claustrophobia. Overhead lamp beams down. I’m Dustin Hoffman in the scene from Marathon Man. Blood rushes to my head. I swallow, shift my legs and grip the arms of the chair. Hygienist notices the discomfort and withdraws. Breathe DK, breathe. I regain my composure.
Feet and legs have been hurting after my runs. Time for new shoes. I’m third in line, waiting to check out at Dick’s Sporting Goods. It’s late afternoon on July 4th. I’m watching one of three check out clerks. She’s large boned, broad shouldered, and tired. I walk up and hand her the shoes – with an intense desire to see what shoes she is wearing. She’s been standing since 10 am on a statutory holiday. She places the shoe box into a plastic bag, drops in the receipt and offers an obligatory “Thank you.” I’m walking out the door. Should have tipped her. Should have. Should have. Should have.
Driving down Post Road, heading home from Dick’s. There’s no sidewalk between Dick’s and Kohl’s, forcing pedestrians to walk on a narrow shoulder. A young man, white t-shirt, jeans, is waving his hands in the air and feigning picture-taking of the oncoming cars. Something’s not all right there but he had the happiest look on his face. I look in the rear view mirror and there he is, arms still waving, with oncoming traffic swerving to miss him. Young man, you have a striking resemblance to Pharrell Williams in Happy.
We’re at the kitchen counter. Eric (Son, 24) is home for the week. He reaches for a hot dog bun and is slicing it with a serrated knife. “Why are you doing that?” I bought the top-cut buns yesterday. “They are sliced down the middle on top.” He’s mangled the bun, I grab it from him and toss it into the disposal. “Why’d you do that Dad? We could have used it for toast in the morning.” My Son, he had been watching and listening to his Mom and Dad when money was tighter – and now that he digs in his own pocket to cover, he gets it. Warmth surges.
I’m sitting in the backyard. A large ground hog lumbers along a few feet to my right, pauses, looks up at me, and continues ambling down the backyard disappearing behind the fence. Listen Chubby, you wouldn’t be casually tromping around here if Zeke was still here.
I’m reading on the bed, chill music is playing softly in the background. Coincidence? Edmund White, in his introduction to his new book The Unpunished Vice: A Life of Reading, believes: “There is no greater pleasure than to lie between clean sheets, listen to music, and read under a strong light.”
Yes Edmund. Yes.
Nap Time.
Notes:
- Photo: Anna Heimkreiter with Under the Stars (via see more)
- Inspired by: Patricia Hampl, The Art of the Wasted Day – “Details, tossed into the shoebox of the mind, fragments. Not a regal “story” riding its narrative arc. Just a bunch of snapshots, never amounting to a shape, but too tender to be tossed.”
- Related Posts: Running Series
Live & Learn 
An enjoyable stroll with you through your day. Except the dentist part. Oh and the tossing of the bun. The first part was so me if I were to run. The last part would never come from my mouth as we don’t have groundhogs. We have squirrels. And deer. Lots of land locked deer. Suburban sprawl locked them onto our farm. Our version of group hogs I suppose. Have a tomorrow after those clean sheets.
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Hi Lisa. Smiling. Thank you. We are in suburbia too but have a wide array of wildlife, especially in this heat.
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“All these creatures, peacefully feeding, and yet we, a higher level of intelligence can’t seem to sit in a room and have a civil conversation.”
The most impressive part for me, so beautifully expressed. Thank you dear David, Love, nia
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Thank you Nia!
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This is amazing !!!😭😍
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Thank you!
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I’m with Nia here….. This man David CAN write! 🙂
Didn’t like the ‘throwing away bun’ story – NEVER throw food away, please. Too many starve. Your son was right and I as a long-time ‘food processor’ could give you 20 other examples of How to use a wrongly cut bun….
Your groundhog is an animal I always struggle with. Our Murmeltiere in Switzerland only live well hidden away in the mountains, when climbing the rocks, you can hear them and rarely they show themselves. ‘Chez vous’ they seem to be like pets. Are they much bigger then? And yep, before you ask, have seen the film – wasn’t as keen as had hoped for…. maybe didn’t get a hidden message?!
Always breathe deeply when on a dentist’s chair! 😉 My little sister (she’s taller than me but most people are) told me on the phone her horror story of getting (slowly, so slowly) an implant. Not ‘just’ the cleaning of lovely white biters…. now the gritty stuff with pouring concrete, mixed with her own bone material and unspeakable other things, in her deeply dug ‘future tooth’ cavity, a story of stitching said building site up….. Me, like the big sister-fool I am, told her: You’ve got to breathe deeply!!!! – Say are we brain-joined somewhere? So many of your tales mirror my (or my family’s) life.
Hope the cool sheets stay cool and keep you cool – I can’t even use the strong reading light I really need because I get eaten up by the little buggers who suck, bite, gnaw away at me….
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Smiling. You never fail to bring me along your journeys. Thank you for following. I would feel that something large was missing if you weren’t here.
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Thank you for reinforcing my recent decision to not have an implant…getting a bridge. Kiki do you currently live in Switzerland? My elderly father (has an aide with him) in law is visiting Switzerland after River Cruising in Europe…
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@Christie; Both, Hero Husband and I are Swiss but currently still live in France. HH works (mostly) in CH and once we will have sold our beautiful house, we will eventually move back to our home country. CH is so beautiful that you can never visit everything. We have got it all, lakes, mountains, cities, tiny villages, good food and wines, and about 25 dialects plus 4 main languages. Something for everybody!!! Tell them to enjoy every minute and take picnics with you. Restaurants are horrendously expensive.
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@ Kiki sounds so wonderfully and breathtakingly gorgeous! What is CH? this is my Father in laws third or fourth trip to Switzerland.
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CH – Confoederatio Helvetica in Latin
It’s our official sign for Switzerland and once we have spoken to each other you will know! 🙂 Every (other) car has that sign (if they ever drive abroad with it)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland
Your father will probably know more about CH than we do!!! This happened to us when we lived in Devon, UK (there you go! Another abbrev.) and all the visitors coming to us had the time of their life, visiting, telling, getting themselves informed while we ‘just lived there’ and worked every day…..
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My sister’s tale is so shocking that I probably would think twice too. Luckily, my ‘biters’ are either in much better shape or are already ‘fixed’ with less an intrusion than hers. She is a poor girl, all the pain she had/has to suffer.
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I bite down on something hard and spit the tooth root, then I ended up with a bone infection and bone loss…didn’t want to chance all the complications of an implant under my situation.
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ps: should have said bit…the tooth was already root canal-ed and crowned… I’d had a horrible experience with a different Oral Surgeon and just couldn’t risk having another Surgeon error into my sinus…and it changed my face as well.
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Just a bunch of snapshots, never amounting to a shape, but too tender to be tossed.
….. thus rendering our own life so weird, wonderful, bizarre, amusing and amazing…. 🙂
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Yes, exactly. All that and more Kiki.
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I liked this.. but you did sound stressed and in a hurry. Cheers friend
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Thank you Kelly. What an accurate observation and insight. It is a normal state (stressed and in a hurry) but believe it or not, better than a few years ago. 🙂
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Stress is hard on the heart and not worth the wasting moments of your life that could have been amazing instead of stressful Take care
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Thank you Kelly
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The purest snapshots united in memory. The everydayness of life, the sacristy in the simplest of moments. I think that’s grace. I think you touched it.
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Beautiful words Mimi. Purest. Snapshots. United. Everydayness. Sacristy. Grace. Thank you.
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i like your mention of all the creatures, great and small, that you encountered along the path of your day. my post today offers a glimpse of the parade i attended here, a virtual potpourri of citizens and creatures, both in and watching the parade, all somehow managing to be in one place at one time and calmly coexisting. i wish this could exist in the larger model.
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So agree with you Beth…
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DK reports and the world listens.
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Awwww, thank you Ray. Appreciate the kind words.
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🙂
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@Ray: ….. but DK is hardly following his own advice 😉
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What a great post! I relate to every word.
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Thank you Lulu!
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DK’s posts of running and reportage…these are a few of my favorite things…. 🙂
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Smiling. Thank you Lori.
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
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Exactly!
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Oooh! You got yourself into trouble with that bun story! My mother always said it’s a sin to waste food! But, since it was a store-bought bun, I’ll forgive you. Now if Zeke had been there, you could have doctored it up with something tasty and given it to him. You might have to get another dog if you keep throwing food away like that. 😉
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You are right! If Zeke was here, nothing would go down the disposal….
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He was a good dog. Kept you out of the hands of the recycling police.
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Yes. So true!
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Liked the snapshots in your offering…I have a teeth cleaning appt. later this month…and our high yesterday was 72, and a bit sultry both unusual for July here…I prefer summer temps to be between a perfect 72 and 80…with an occasional breeze gracing maybe once a week…
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72 to 80. With breeze. That is wonderful!
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Not usual – July, Aug and some of Sept usually lots of above 90 and of course probably 5 days during the summer of over 100. Don’t know why we have been having breezy and sultry weather…and when the center of the USA is hot then both coast seem to be cooler, when the East coast is hot usually the West coast is cooler, when both coasts are Hot at the same time then the central USA is cooler. I will never forget the first time I laid my head to sleep in the mid-west it was about 94 at bedtime, when I woke up I said to my husband man it is hot, what’s up and what is the temp 92! at 6:15 am, ugh…I am so use to cool mornings, in fact it was down right cold a few mornings back 38! at the airport which means it was colder at my house!!!
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“All these creatures, peacefully feeding, and yet we, a higher level of intelligence can’t seem to sit in a room and have a civil conversation”. Run more often DK so I can read your thoughts.
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smiling. Thank you Perpetua…
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You were busy! I could add a few other activities to enjoy on clean sheets. Reading would be one, if my eye RX was up to date. I took a long nap, to long really. Slept till 5:00pm, of course I slept about two hours the night before. Zeke would have shown him who’s boss! Have a great day. Emailing shortly. M
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What’s better than a long afternoon nap!
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You can answer that one!!!!!
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Read this more than once, smiling through and through.
Curious, what shoes was she wearing? I worked yesterday too 😊
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Hmmmmm. Long day?
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It was a 9 hour shift, standing all day, and mind you, I’m on a 7-day work week stretch for three weeks. My old job did not accept my resignation. They still need help.
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9 hours. Wow.
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We, The Water Buffaloes,
https://davidkanigan.com/2014/11/24/monday-siren-call/
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Ah yes. The water buffaloes.
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I so enjoy your thoughts as we share a day if snippets. You always help me be alert to my world. Thank you!
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Thank you Carrie!
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I feel compelled to engage every dentist I’ve ever had in a convo about Marathon Man. Freaked me out for life, even though I’ve had mostly good dental experiences. 😖🤯😳
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Terrifying scene. I’ve had mostly good experiences too….
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Love the piece by Patricia Hampl! Your post definitely fit the criteria. 👍
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Me too. Thanks Karen.
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