MaineCourse

Silk Underwear

My old buddy from last summer is working with me again, but this time on his family's wraparound Victorian style porch. Short commute for me, shorter for him. Though the tool belt I bought him last year fits without adjustment, he’s bigger by fifteen pounds.

“Hey, Chris, you know those beams we struggled with last year at Applewood?”

“Yeah. They would be so much easier to pick up this year.”

“No they wouldn’t. We would have the same struggle.”

“I’m stronger this year.”

“And I’m weaker. We’d cancel each other out.”

Chris is still playing baseball and besides working with me he works two days a week at Drumlin Farms. If you call driving a Ford F350 Diesel truck work. Chris doesn’t.

And, I might add, he sits comfortably behind that wheel.

“UPS dropped something off at your side door.”

“What size package was it?”

“Small, like a loaf of bread someone stepped on.”

“Must be my underwear.”

“Your underwear?”

“Silk.”

“Silk underwear?”

They cost more but they last longer.”

“Oh, pretty boy.”

“I’m not a pretty boy.”

“Silk underwear?”

“How long does your underwear last?”

Thinking about what my underwear looks like when I finally retire them made me want to drop the subject real fast.

“You win, but I get a picture for the blog.”

---

Matthew Miller wasn't the only Matthew celebrating his birthday yesterday.

---

Friday night we fled Willow Books after unknowingly walking into “Harry Potter Night,” and as I slowed to turn into our driveway, a dark green Ford Taurus in the opposite lane stopped, almost blocking my turn. A thin young woman with thick rimmed black glasses and hair pulled into a tight bun shouted from her window, “Do you know where Fort Devens is?” Not wanting to block traffic, I turned into my driveway, and then not wanting to get run over, I walked back to her passenger side window and waited for her to roll it down. On the seat I could see her camo uniform. Iraq bound?

She repeated the question and though I’ve driven by the exit on route 2 a zillion times I wanted to make sure she got to Devens without anymore trouble.

“It's real easy but I’m tired and I can’t think of exactly how to get there. Look, this is my house and I’ll go in and Google you a map. Why don’t you pull into my driveway?”

She turned her head and looked back out the windshield, then turned back at me and said in a soft voice, “Do you mind if I stay here?”

---

Follow The Uranium

Scintillating vignettes. Chris's hands in the linked shot are definitely those of a working man, and his confidence equally toned, to so forthrightly delineate his position, and to grant a closeup of what would otherwsie have been a more "shy" subject.

The second leaves oh-so-much to ponder ...

Matthew's scoreboard birthday notice blows away the otherwise similar one we arranged for Amy's 30th at the Norwich Navigators minor league game last weekend in CT ...

Posted by adam.

OH YEA i love my boxers my first set is going on two years now. WOOT

Posted by chris.

That is one brave baseball player who proudly admits to his silk boxers. I wonder if Johnny wears them.

Another Times op-ed worth reading, on the same subject: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/15/opinion/15krugman.html?incamp=article_popular
entitled Karl Rove's America and written by Paul Krugman.

Posted by opinion.

I have to assume (since I don't feel like registering) that the op ed piece doesn't answer whether you guys let her stay or not, and why she was going to "Fort Devens" which was renamed "Devens" some time ago, I thought because it no longer had a military connection. So what's up?

I drove home today and saw that enough cars in the driveway. My heart lept. "Hilary's home!" Alas, not so. Duh, her car will be here the whole time she's gone.

Posted by jennifer.

Methinks the "Follow the Uranium" story got added post my initial comment, but much of it is oh-so-pithy ...

[Mr. Wilson's] wife's outing [has] as much to do with the real story here as Janet Leigh's theft of office cash has to do with the mayhem that ensues at the Bates Motel in "Psycho."

Would that the real denouement be more worthy of a "-gate" than that which Mr. Rich predicts.

Posted by adam.

The "young woman with thick rimmed black glasses and hair"....
turned her head and looked back out the windshield, then turned back at me and said in a soft voice, “Do you mind if I stay here?”

And after keeling over on the road, Michael said...

Posted by rakkity.

Leave it up to me to paint as ambiguous a picture as possible. Your interpretation was not too far from Adam's.

I wanted her to pull into what I considered the safety of my driveway. After some consideration, she decided that remaining in the center of the lane (she hadn’t even pulled over to the curb), in the dark, was safer than my offer.

I thought Strong young army woman going to Iraq afraid to pull into smiling, middle class, old-enough-to-be-her-grandfather guy’s driveway. Reminded me of a recent, local, lost-in-the-woods eleven year old boy who nearly died from exposure, because he’d been afraid to approach strangers on the trail to ask for help.

In my view, George and his cronies will get re-elected forever if our fear is that pervasive, and to me, that ridiculous.

Needless to say, Diane takes a different view.

Posted by michael.

wait, so did she stay at your house or not?

Posted by LaChica.

Damn. I just wrote a really long comment, which disappeared. I guess I'll post this and send my long comment to Michael. Then maybe Michael can tell me if there is a way to paste a comment.

Posted by jennifer.

Ambiguity is thy middle name. (Now that's a unique email moniker: michaelambiguitymiller.)

"I thought Strong young army woman going to Iraq afraid to pull into smiling, middle class, old-enough-to-be-her-grandfather guy’s driveway."

Oh well, maybe that attitude will keep her alive in Iraq.

But you're right, if we afraid to stand up to George, Rove and friends, we're in deep doo-doo forever.

Posted by rakkity.

La Chica...no, she stayed in the road until I returned with a map. I pointed her in the direction of route 2, and off she went. Btw, if you have time to drop a comment, you have time to tell us what you've been up to. Que pasa?

Jennifer, where's the longer version?

Posted by michael.

Posted by Michael at July 17, 2005 07:46 AM