March 13, 2017.
Weather sucks. In the mid-thirties for the high temp.. My “early garden” is probably toast. Fuck me.
But it will all be good. Nothing ventured…and all that. 5 bucks of seeds and i’m back in business.
I’m gonna go cover my garden as soon as I post this. I repeat: Fuck Me!

March 13, every-year.
My half birthday. One of my favorite holidays, even if it is a scam. At least Hallmark hasn’t made a card for it…but more than a few “half-birthday cards” have been sent and received.
Sometimes there are presents.
3/13/17 I got music and bubbly from my playmate. Perfect.
Thank you Shelly Drymon.
Thank you Paula Rudloff for the scam holiday.

The second Monday in March, every year.
NCAA brackets everywhere you look.
I get my annual copy of USA Today.
A tradition since my first march madness b-ball pool back in 1983. I was in my first year at Arthur Andersen. King Mitchell ran the pool that year. For the next 6 years I was the driving force. That first year, only about a dozen people played. My last year had just under a grand in prize money.
That year there was also the ten buck a head “bidding bracket”…my favorite march madness pool ever.
Those were the days.

March 13, 2017
There were newspaper racks back in the day. They’re basically extinct anymore, at least in Springfield, MO.
No racks holding a mac-paper theses days, so I took the 7 minute walk to Barnes&Noble . Called Dad as I walked and we chatted hoops for a little bit as I headed over to spend 2 bucks on a USA Today.

-=-=-=-=
December 3, 2012
Bucket list? I liked the movie LOTS more than the critics, if you believe Rotten Tomatoes.
Impulse purchases are a rarity for me. But today I picked up a copy of “My Ultimate Bucket List” from the bargain bid at 44% of suggested retail price.
No author. They include 300 activities. The user can have 100 of their own. I’ve never really been a “bucket list” person, but for some reason buying this book today felt right as a half-birthday present to myself.

Later I’ll spin through the book, but for now I’m gonna copy and paste a few e-mails from 1,561 days ago. I have excised a few lines. (Shelly and I had only known each other a little while at the time…there was tad bit of wishfulness in the last couple of items on my wish list, from a very personal perspective…if you get my drift. Those activities are not included in the copy and paste below.)

From: Shelly Drymon <>
To: “steve_weiss <>
Sent: Monday, December 3, 2012 1:06 PM
Subject: Bucket List

I ran two miles out and then did a two mile walk/run back. Its windy but nice.
When we were on the porch last night and you asked me about my bucket list, I don’t remember asking about yours. Do you have one?

From: Steve Weiss <>
To: Shelly Drymon <>
Sent: Monday, December 3, 2012 2:11 PM
Subject: Re: Bucket List

i don’t really have a bucket list….i can be happy doing pretty mundane, simple things….but here are a few things that i think would be fun:

See Saturday Night Live in person
See The Daily Show in person
Ride in a Hot air balloon
Ride in a helicopter
Ride in a bi-plane
Ride in a fighter jet
Zipline
Be weightless
Go to the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame
Ride the coasters at Cedar Point
Go Ice fishing
Take a road trip thru the lower 48
Attend the Rose Bowl when OSU plays
NYC at Christmas
Go to the top of the Empire State Bldg
Go to the top of the Statue of Liberty
See concerts at Red Rocks
Visit Cuba
Attend a UNC-Duke basketball game at Cameron
Attend a Louisville-UK basketball game in Lexington
Attend a Yankee-Red Sox game at Fenway
Attend a Cardinal-Cubs game at Wrigley
See the Rolling Stones at a small venue
See Jackson Browne anywhere

From: Shelly Drymon <>
To: Steve Weiss <>
Sent: Tuesday, December 4, 2012 6:55 AM
Subject: Re: Bucket List

Wow that’s quite a list!
I have checked the ones I would love to do as well! I am thinking we need to get busy! LOL

-=-==–=-=

Shelly checked 11 of my 24 items. We have done 3 of them, and will do a fourth on July 9th when we see The Avett Brothers at Red Rocks. That will be on another roadtrip. The 12th item on our list is happening a lot.

But she was right in her last comment: we need to get busy. (BTW, I have been able to successfully cross off the “excised items”…which causes me to smile and smile again.)

I’ve chosen to celebrate the annual event on the first Sunday of March, i.e. a day rather a date.

And after this past weekend, which was one great roadtrip, I think I’ve decided that the first weekend of March should be designated “Separation Anniversary Weekend.”

Last weekend was a doozy.
-=-=–=
1. Stopped and ate at a little place that I had driven by many times on trips to/from Floriduh during the 2 times, totalling 18 years, that I resided in that horrid humidity. Last Thursday was the first time I ever stepped foot in the Bluegrass Restaurant in LaCenter, Kentucky…population 1,009 per the 2010 census. Great buffet. I’ve never had better catfish.

2. Stepped inside The Ryman Auditorium for the first, and hopefully not the last, time in my life. The air is heavy with history. The seats are pews. The building opened 125 years ago as the United Gospel Tabernacle. If someone had passed the plate after Derek Trucks brought me to tears playing “Blue Sky”, I woulda emptied my wallet and asked if they would take plastic!

If that song had lead into “Midnight in Harlem” I woulda needed a snot rag.  If Susan had kicked off the lyrics, a-minute-and-20-in I’d have quivered.

“Well, I came to the city
I was running from the past
My heart was bleeding
And it hurt my bones to laugh…”

That was me in 2011.  The separation was NOT the primary cause of my plight. Stories there…another time.

3. We hit the Bluegrass Restaurant again on our way west. More catfish. Some of the same people were holding down lunch spots they had a day earlier. The owner comped us a piece of strawberry pie. I don’t expect to drive thru that town ever again without stopping in.

4. Discovered Echo Bluff State Park. So new that if you had the current official state of Missouri map, you wouldn’t find it. But you would find Eminence. EBSP is about 10 miles north. I bet it’s crazy at the park in July and August. I don’t plan to find out. We’ll be going in the off season. The Betty Lea Lodge easily makes my Top Five places on the “100 dollar a night” list.

5. A stroll around the spring at Alley Springs. I’ve always loved this place. It’ll be a regular stop on future visits at Echo Bluff.

6. Lunch at the finest spot in Cabool. Mexican. Decent fish tacos….my “go to” order whenever I’m at a new Mexican restaurant. It was my first time in “downtown” Cabool….almost as sad as the town where I started college. ( a story for another day…)

7. Back home in the apartment, we drank champagne and toasted the sixth anniversary of Separation Sunday.
-=-=-=
Separation Anniversary??

The first Sunday of March in 2011 is the day that the woman I had been married to for 37 years and I quit sleeping under the same roof. We hadn’t slept in the same bed for awhile.

I’m not going to get into all the details and history. Some of my friends have heard it all. Most of it has been written down…that’s what journals are for.

The split wasn’t ugly. It wasn’t all that pleasant either. It had been coming for awhile, after many good years and lots of adventures.

She pretty much nailed it in 3 short sentences that afternoon: “I’m not happy. You’re not happy. We’re not living here anymore.”

She beat me to the punch.  Eleven words.

It should’ve happened many years before it did. It is one more time that I let “heavy inertia” keep me from making a change.

I hope she is happy. I hear that she is. After-all, she’d lived with a “C.P.” for years. (another story, for another day…)

I know that I’m happy. I got a new life starting 3/6/11. No more heavy inertia for me.
-=-=-=

This is my favorite “break up song.” I especially like this line: “…Look on the bright side, You got a new life…”

Be. Just BE.