Skip to main content

The Tao of Flip Flop

The last two weeks have made this a summer to remember.  Life turns on a quarter.  A dime is no longer sufficient in this economy.  A heartbeat will do as well.  At this moment a fortnight ago I was on my back in a tattoo emporium having a rainbow trout engraved into my right forearm for life.  Mikki, the talented artist whom I chose, and I were having a good chin wag.  I handled the pain just fine and felt  fairly proud of myself until the next morning when we learned that our landlords, a delightful couple would be a couple no more.  The phrase 30 days notice" landed in the pit of my stomach and remained there day and night until three days later when found myself fishing in central Oregon at a favorite lake and thinking of nothing else but the osprey overhead and the beautiful brook trout I'd just released.  House hunting could wait.
Back at home I had a good laugh fantasizing that my landlords, or at least one of them, would call and say they'd changed their minds.  Denial comes in all forms and I was working my way up the list of predictable reactions.  Heading for anger and realizing that the foolishness of my response was only making me more depressed.  Then it happened.  The house might be sold to one of the pair.  If so we might actually be able to move downstairs (the bigger unit) and remain while one of the partners moves upstairs into our place.  A real flip flop.  One that would gradually take place.


Dreaming?  Shared visualization?  Divine intervention? Blind luck?  I really don't care...I don't have to move...well, not in the traditional sense that is, but in one very atypical way.
This is going to be a once in a lifetime experience.  Some things will flip and flop quite easily, but others present a real logistical challenge...like mail, utilities, changes of address...  We will go slow and easy on all these things.  In fact, I still can't quite be convinced that this is all going to work out. I'd love to be all wrong, but I just don't know, truth be told.  In any event, it'll be an adventure and at this point, I'll all for that.  I'm working on finding the Zen of all this change.  That and hoping that all the trips up and down stairs will strengthen my legs even more.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

To a Tee

 I'm a sucker for a good t-shirt.  They are the foundational garment of my life.  My day starts with selecting a t-shirt and it ends with sleeping in one.  Once thought of as under garments, t-shirts are now original art and no doubt, a billion dollar business.   You can get a t-shirt with anybody's picture displayed.  You can commemorate an event, a birthday, a death, even a specular play in any sport.  Family reunions usually have a commemorative t-shirt.  Also, any organization that solicits your support in the form of a donation is likely to offer you a t-shirt. Where once I only had the basic white t-shirt, my drawers are filled with all manner of colorful choices.  Some recognize major events in my life, some, spectacular performances or plays I have witnessed, and some unforgettable places I have been.   I say I'm a sucker for a good t-shirt because I have taken the bait on what I perceived as a must-have only to be disappointed. ...

Body Language

I'm sitting there in a hospital gown, waiting for my doctor to complete my yearly physical.  This is when I look at everything on the walls, read the medical posters, the instructions on any equipment in the room, look in every corner and behind every chair.  I study the paper on the examination table, laugh out loud at the picture of a smiling child holding a bouquet of broccoli, and the note the placement of the computer in the room. Finally, wondering if the gown I'm wearing is on correctly, I focus on myself.  At this point in my life I'm fairly comfortable in a doctor's office.  But it always seems to take so long when waiting for the doc to enter.  So I fidget.  Then I begin a tour of myself.  Scars are tattoos.  I look at the one on my knee and see myself at 12.  Whittling a piece of wood with my Boy Scout jack knife.  The blade slips and I cut a crescent slash through my jeans and into my flesh for life.  50 years later ...

Sex, Religion, and Politics

Watching TV to keep up with the news is like going to a party.  Sex, religion and politics, in any order.  Those are the topics of choice.  We hear about "twerking," and are confronted with all manner of exhibitionism in local news.  Should women be wearing yoga pants in non-yoga areas.  The office, the workplace, school, church...and that's just the teachers! Religion encroaches in all the right places.  Christian Mingle, the online dating service pops up on the screen during the grisliest of crime shows, the politician's speeches and the sit-coms so full of sexual innuendo that every second of canned laughter barely hides the grins, the gasps, the outcries, or the mindless guffaws. So what's the message?  Are we a society and culture in decline or just rapidly changing?  Probably both.  I recall a student once coming to school with a most offensive tee shirt.  Offensive in that the cartoon image on the front made it impossible for hi...