I’m at the dining room table in my pajamas while the boys watch Avatar on the other side of the glass doors that separate the living and dining rooms. T was set for a sleepover, but his friend’s grandfather died, so the sleepover is canceled. Instead T and S will stay up late and watch Iron Man. T has pronounced Iron Man as his favorite movie. I’d prefer to watch Coraline, of which a friend burned us a copy, but I will be outvoted.

So what have I done since the last entry? When did I write last? Yesterday morning, apparently. Most of yesterday I spent with Odd Man Out, a minor league pitcher’s memoir. I read all 256 pages in one day…just what I needed in tandem with the intense but ultra-brilliant end of Walser’s short stories collection. The temperatures hovered well above eighty, the first hot Saturday of the summer, so I closed the front porch blinds and stuck with the book most of the day. Did I leave the house? I don’t think so, at least not until the early evening, when T, S and I drove around town on a lark. You only get so many beautiful summer evenings, and you might as well drive around town. We stopped to watch a deer with huge black eyes cross the road near the bike path. She didn’t appear scared of us as she crossed the road and sauntered into the foliage near the creek. I finished off the night with a couple beers (Corona Lights, if you must know). Oh, we also watched the first episode of Tru-Blood. Wow, there’s a lot of vampire f—king in the first episode. No watching those DVDs around the kids, thank you very much. Speaking of the kids, they played with the neighbors all day and most of the evening. I hardly saw them.

This morning I woke near seven and hit the elliptical for thirty minutes of a special on the history of pizza before eight. M and the boys gave me my father’s day presents, 1) a Ryan Braun jersey, and 2) a t-shirt that says “silent but deadly”. My sons are easily entertained. I asked M to take back the Braun jersey (not in front of the kids, of course) because I’m too old to wear another man’s name on my back. Later I hit Kohl’s myself and bought three shirts. During the Brew game (we lost again, Tigers are good) I lifted through a sinus episode, finishing everything but the last set of shoulder lifts, uh, the ones where you hold the dumbbells and try to point them directly in front of you at shoulder height. You know what I mean. S and I watched the Brew game, and I thought I’d be on the couch most of the day, but I rallied, cleaned some, and finished my laundry.

Slight sidebar: I don’t give a rat’s ass about my garden or lawn care this year. My neighbors to the west are probably appalled. My apologies. No, my apology is not sincere. I’m just no tin the mood for working in the earth this year. I’m not sure why, as the last four or five years I’ve enjoyed the garden.

M took the boys to the beach while I was completing the laundry and cleaning up the house. After I finished I jumped in the car and drove downtown. Corey asked me not long ago how often I hung out in Rotary Park and I realized I hadn’t just sat on a park bench by myself next to the water for a long time. So this afternoon I snagged coffee at Smith Bros. and sat on the bench nearest the bridge (and offering the most shade). Families were out, mostly, it seemed, either on bicycles or wearing polo shirts after lunch at one of the better restaurants downtown. Thank God I wasn’t one of them. I wore sunglasses. After a few minutes I donned my headphones and listened to eels. The earth tipped a little during the last minute of “Climbing Up To The Moon” and I felt like I was on LSD in the best was possible. I called M twice to see if she and the boys wanted to meet in the park but her phone was off. Later T called to see if we could hit Blockbuster for a movie for his (not yet canceled) sleepover, so he and I drove over to Grafton and purchased Iron Man and Superbad (the latter not for him, of course) because they were having a big enough sale on films to warrant purchase over rental. After a dinner of rice and grilled vegetables I showered and, well, here I am. Good night. I’m starting Hidden Camera later, then back to the office tomorrow. Have a lovely Sunday evening.