Why I Didn't Get to Work on Time

The gentleman who is painting our house is a gem. I just love MC. As we like to say around here, he is country. That’s not an insult. That just means he’s a simple man of simple tastes who works hard, cares about the quality of his work and is a plain talker. MC cuts right to the chase. He doesn’t waste a lot of words, and he wraps that strong southern twang around those words in a way that I could listen to all day long. When he likes something, he says, “Coooool”. MC is my age, but his slang is straight out of the 60’s. It doesn’t sound old fashioned or out of date when he says it. Just quaint. Here lately I’ve caught myself saying, “Coooool” when something pleases me.

As I was driving to work this morning, I saw that MC and his crew were painting at the new house, and that put me in a good mood because that means we’re making progress on this remodeling mayhem we began seven (yes, seven) weeks ago. I flipped the iPod on to shuffle and started humming. My mind was busy planning the day and the week ahead so I didn’t pay much attention to the music until about three miles later when I rounded a curve. Greeting me on the other side of the bend was a beautiful sunrise glowing over the Tennessee River. The opening strains of Dion’s Abraham, Martin and John hit my ears at the same time. It’s one of my favorite songs, and I never get tired of it. The sun was warming up the sky nicely and bouncing off the grain elevators sitting on the river. After driving three blocks in fifty mile an hour traffic, checking the sun in my rearview mirror and debating whether it was worth being late to work by taking a picture, I turned the car around and went back. I bailed out, left the car running and with the faint strains of Dion in my ears I dashed across the wet grass for a couple of photos. When I was finished I stood there for a moment soaking up the sights, sounds and smells of the morning and felt very alive. It was just one of those moments that pop up every now and then and make you feel extra sensitive to your surroundings and very glad to be alive. I took one last look at the sun, which was already changing and smiled. Coooool.