Not Really All That Logical...

I love the way she stretches in the morning. The cute little scrunching up of her face as she alternately tenses and relaxes muscles that have been sleeping.

The wind just kind of blew us together. Neither of us was really looking for a relationship but, as I heard in a movie (Fools Rush In), she was everything I never knew I always wanted.

When I was kid I would often dare myself to do the most outrageous things but inevitably I’d always find some rationale to bail out at the last minute.

When I look back though, there were two decision points in my life where I took a chance, but even in those instances I knew in my heart that the paths that I was chose were (without a question) the best course of action to take given the current circumstance. I hadn’t worked out all the details yet but I knew everything was going to be all right if I just trusted my instincts and followed my heart.

I wonder where the courage comes from in those times. What emotions and criteria are involved in the spirit to drive someone either away from an emotional relationship or into one? Where do we get the courage to allow another to come into our lives and to see ourselves when we are most vulnerable?

Man is not a logical creature although some of us feel we are bound by logic and behave rationally (in most situations). I don’t think there is any man, woman, child or even animal that is immune to the need and without a capacity to love as illogical as that is.

I’ve never been much of a “social animal.” In most cases, if you put me in a room with more than a few people that I don’t know, chances are I’ll probably stay silent off to the side and take in the room for quite awhile. I would only get engaged in the situation if/when I am either pulled into a conversation or if I somehow, oddly, get comfortable with the circumstance.

I met my wife through an online acquaintance. The first time we actually met face to face was in at an airport (we had previously agreed to meet in a neutral location…a city between our two homes) and there was quite a crowd in the room as her flight disembarked. Oddly enough, despite the fact that there were many other strangers present, I didn’t feel uncomfortable at all greeting her with a warm hug and kiss.

It's warm

The recent wave of warm weather that has enveloped the area coincided with my needed to get some work done on my wife's car.

The problem began a few weeks ago when it seemed that one of the two front tires on the vehicle began to lose air. We found it low on a Tuesday morning. I re-inflated the tire only to find it totally flat a few days later.

Fortunately, none of this led to wife being stranded on the road (she doesn't USA the car much other than local grocery shopping, medical appointments, and occasional lunches.

We had the tire supposedly "repaired" last week but, the problem resurfaced two days ago stranding her at home and causing her to miss a medical appointment.

I was unable to give the problem any attention until today and as the summer sun started to bake the area, I was faced with changing actors in my driveway.

In my younger days, this would not have been viewed as a daunting task but it became one today.

The first step was to empty the contents of the trunk in order to get at both the spare tire and the jack.

The trunk had become a secondary storage facility and this step took some time and effort.

I quickly worked up a sweat and probably should have strongly considered changing into "work clothes" but didn't.

The next step was to get down on the ground to properly place the jack in the one position that the manufacturer intended you to use to jack up the car utilizing the "killer bee" scissor jack that was provided with the vehicle. The scissor jack was conveniently located under a panel in the trunk and since it was never used, you almost had to insert yourself within the trunk to gain enough leverage to remove it from it's hidden perch.

Having extracted the scissor jack and located the proper position on the undercarriage of the vehicle I was able to get the car raised and began to remove the lug nuts. This turned out to be a difficult task as I only had the manufacturer's provided lug wrench which is too short to provide very much torque. I wound up stepping on the wrench (a precarious position given my size) to break the lug nuts loose.

Having accomplished this step, I removed the flat tire and positioned the spare tire into position and had hand tightened to lug nuts onto the wheel when I needed to straighten myself up and stretch from the strain that I had put my under utilized muscles through in these tasks. I made the mistake of using the vehicle as a support when I stood up. I realized too late that I had committed a cardinal sin and I hadn't set the parking brake so the car promptly and uncerimoniously fell off the jack.

I was really lucky that I had placed the two lug nuts on the tire at opposite positions so it fell pretty much in place and the only ground I lost was I needed to jack up the car again to get the rest of the lug nuts tightened properly.

At this point I was dirty from coming into contact with the tires and drenched in sweat.

All of these efforts were completed and this then led to my sitting at a mall sweaty and bored... It was a nice day and I thought, at a minimum, we should be spending the day outside and in dome close proximity of a body of water.

I was pleased and fortunate to find a lounge in the mall and proceeded to kick back and relax while doing some people watching....