Monday is for drinking to the seldom seen kid
Mike sat at the end of the bar, just like he did after every work day. The barkeep would shoo away any newcomers that tried to sit there.
He had been coming here for years. It started easy enough as boy’s night out on Mondays. At bit of pool with the boys and a few beers. It was good to keep in touch with the guys from the old neighborhood.
The rest of the time was spent with Donna and Tommy. They played board games, went to shows, and generally kept each other amused. But then Tommy grew up as they all do. He excelled at sports and was always playing or practicing when he wasn’t playing. Any other time was spent chasing the girls. Eventually, university happened, and Tommy slipped away.
Mike and Donna struggled to find meaning. Home life was mostly awkward silences. So, boys night became two nights, then three, then every day after work.
Two weeks ago, Mike had gotten home and found a suitcase sitting on the front stoop. Donna had chained all the doors. She wouldn’t answer the doorbell or her cell phone.
Now he was here nights and weekends.
His cell phone rang.
“Hello Donna. Yeah I left a message. I need to get the rest of my stuff.
No, no. You don’t need to be there. I can let myself in.
What to you mean you changed the locks?
No. No. It’s ok. It’s alright. Yeah, yeah. It’s alright.
Just have John and Sarah come over. You can go for a walk. I’ll be in and out quickly.
Yeah, I know. I know.
I won’t take anything from Tommy’s room. I promise.
I said I promise.”
Just then, someone slammed into Mike from behind.
“Jesus dude! Pay attention.”
“Fuck you” was the only reply.
“And fuck you too asshole”.
The right cross caught Mike by surprise. The lights went out.
I’ve been working on a cocktail called grounds to divorce
Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Polishing a compass that I hold in my sleeve
Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Down comes him on sticks but then he kicks like a horse
Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
There’s a tiny cigarette case
And the rest you can keep
And the rest you can keep
And the rest you can keep
There’s a hole in my neighborhood
Down which of late I cannot help but fall
There’s a hole in my neighborhood
Down which of late I cannot help but fall
Mike kept a photo in the back of his wallet. It was the day Tommy got his scholarship. The coach had stopped by to drop off the letter and shake his hand.
Monday is for drinking to the seldom seen kid
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Mike sat at the end of the bar, just like he did after every work day. The divorce was all but final he just needed to sign the papers.
Somehow, every skank in the bar seemed to know. They all wanted a piece of him. Or a piece of his wallet. Either way, it didn’t matter. He had no interest.
Mike used his phone to search through the local florists trying to find an arrangement that he could afford, but wasn’t totally tacky. He finally found a small bouquet of roses. They were Donna’s favorite color. He tried very carefully to type in a message for the card without making any mistakes. His hands weren’t steady.
“Our last anniversary. I know I need to sign the papers. But I couldn’t do it until after tomorrow. I’m sorry for all the pain that I’ve caused you. Take care.”
There’s this whispering of jokers doing flesh by the pound
To a chorus of supposes from the little town whores
There’ll be twisted karaoke at the Aniseed Lounge
And I’ll bring you further roses
But it does you no good
And it does me no good
And it does you no good
There’s a hole in my neighborhood
Down which of late I cannot help but fall
There’s a hole in my neighborhood
Down which of late I cannot help but fall
There’s a hole in my neighborhood
Down which of late I cannot help but fall
Mike walked down the path with an umbrella held up against the rain in his left hand. His right hand clutched a half-empty flask in his overcoat pocket.
He had walked this path so many times, he imagined he could walk it with his eyes closed. He paused and turned to look at the stone, cold and unchanging. His right hand brought out the bottle, and he spun off the cap with his thumb. The whisky burned as he swallowed.
“Happy 21st birthday Tommy.”
Then he poured one onto the ground.
Someday we’ll be drinking with the seldom seen kid
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Elbow; Grounds to Divorce; 2008
I’m just Firsting here because kinnath hates it.
Your tasteless “look at meeeee” comment hasn’t sullied kinnath’s post. It’s sullied your own reputation.
What little goodwill I still harbored for you due to your occasional well-thought out comments is now dead.
How could anything ever be sullied with a First?
That’s some anti-SF stuff there, poignant and painful. Well done kinnath.
Very good, kinnath.
Nice little tune, I hadn’t heard it before. I appreciate grammatically correct lyrics.
New to me as well – great tune.
That made me a more than a little bit sad.
Well done.
LOL the other day I was bitching about Pluto’s ads for CBS and their many cop shows. Pluto is down so I was flipping around and caught tonite’s lineup on CBS:
FBI
FBI: International
FBI: Most Wanted
FBI: Most Wanted
Ray Epps?
He’s guest-starring on the next episode of FBI: Employee of the Month.
Very nice, Kinnath.
I’ve loved that song for years. Always vaguely imagined a story behind it.
This story is far better than anything I’d have thought up.
Great job, kinnath.
Except that now I will tear up when I hear it again.
This story for this song wrote itself.
I hope the tears mean the song is actually better for you now.
I do think you misheard some of the lyrics, but we’ll just call it artistic license. 👍
Now I have to think about it again
Powerful stuff, kinnath. Does justice to a song I never heard of. Or vice versa.
Thanks Kinnath.
Seems like they grow up and have their own life, same as we did. But not it’s different because it’s us.
Last summer my son was visiting and we were shopping, we stopped at a liquor store, he bought some beer, I paid for it. He said it was the first drink I’d ever bought him. I don’t believe that but maybe. He’s 60 years old.
My mom let me mix my own fuzzy navels when I was 17. I guess that means she bought them for me.
I remember reaching into the 12pack when my dad was out of town, and finding a note saying “don’t even think of it” on top of the beer.
LOL
Thank you all.
How was the ball game? Did your team win?
They were down 5 to 1 at the 5th when we left.
We met several folks from work and had a nice chat. The weather was glorious. So, the game really didn’t matter.
Huzzah kinnath! I know that drifting apart after the kids have started their own lives. You captured it very well.
Wow. Dallas Stars fans are arseholes.
Domi smashes Hague into the boards (crosscheck), then comes back and punches him multiple times. Hague doesn’t respond.
Refs break them up, but Dallas fans start throwing junk onto the ice.
Refs end the 2nd period early so they can clean up.
I tapped out after all the teams I liked were eliminated. I don’t even know who’s left.
Dallas Stars vs Vegas Knights in the West.
Florida Panthers vs Carolina Hurricanes in the East.
It will come down to Knights vs Panthers for the Cup.
Meh.
Big meh.
Could not care less who wins that match-up.
Yeah, there’s not even someone to root against.
OTHO I was surprised and pleased at the latest AFL Ladder.
It looked a lot better about 4 weeks ago. 🙁
I’m shocked that Florida even has enough people left to attend a hockey game since the entire population was wiped out in 2020.
That was a short but painful story. Changes in life while in a relationship are really hard to deal with. It’s rough to deal with.
I visited a couple I’ve known for years this past weekend. They are going through a rough patch in their relationship.
The challenges of caring for a parent who is past the point of living but still existing is all the more difficult when the couple doesn’t agree on how active a role to take on.
That was very well done, kinnath. I don’t know anything about the song though.
Venn Diagrams for fun and games
Lol. That was pretty good nice and short too.
Excellent.
I’d self-identify as ‘geek’, but I’m not _that_ obsessive…
https://youtu.be/uUszP569grk
Excellent and sad story, kinnath.
Now to go back to the oddball, semi-horror stuff.
Since everybody is issuing travel advisories for Florida these days, a Florida Man decides to get in on the act.
I wonder how leftists feel about devaluing the concept of a “travel advisory” to the point where it has no useful meaning anymore.
Only a bigot would say that.
The same way they feel about turning every minor annoyance into a triggering event that requires a safe space.
It really brings out the worst in my personality because I just want to see them get beatdowns until they understand what actual oppression is.
I was expecting this.
https://nypost.com/2023/05/23/florida-man-has-arm-ripped-off-by-10-5-foot-gator/
Lesson: Don’t pee in the alley behind a Florida bar. Enforced by alligators.
Death of Stalin is on Tubi.
I see I missed some good discussing today. Almost feel like responding but it’s been a hell of a day.
I started it but couldn’t get into it – I think I lack the proper historical knowledge to get it.
I think the captions introducing characters give a lot of support. I’m not particularly well informed about Soviet life during that period either, but knowing the gist of it – and also the director (The Thick of It, In the Loop, Veep, etc) gives some good prep. I picked up the graphic novel after watching it (and getting the UK bluray), but I think I need to reread it again.
They do a few time jumps and compressions though – particularly with the funeral and trial of Beria, but the film doesn’t suffer for it.
I should have watched that by now since I’ve always been into Soviet history. Not sure why I haven’t.
Celtics managed to not get swept by the 8 seeded Heat.
Another late response from me…
When it comes to assembling atomic weapons at home, nothing can come close to the excellent Japanese flick – The Man Who Stole the Sun.
Also…regarding the collapse discussion – I’ve pimped it before, but for something closer to this period than Lucifer’s Hammer, I don’t think I’ve come across something that mixes story with science and common sense discussion better than John Ringo’s “The Last Centurions”. A Chinese bird flu plague (with 40%+ mortality) that hits worldwide at the same time as the sun enters a Maunder minimum. Sadly….seeing what we’ve seen the last few years, the political and media elements addressed and “parodied” in his story are – if anything – worse now – other than the larger percentage of folks just tuning them out.
I found Ringo to be “great storyteller, shitty writer”, based on the Posleen War books and his (crap) Monster Hunter Memoirs books. I may hold my nose and try another but ‘Grunge’ really sucked and was written after The Last Centurion books, I think.
This one’s based on a longform blog format – a lot of description of past events in somewhat stream of consciousness (military/farmer/strategist perspective). I think it works really well.
Of course, I like most of what he’s written – Troy Rising series, Dark Tide, etc – Posleen wasn’t as good as those IMO. Like a lot of other writers (even Stephenson), the last few wrap-up chapters in each book are generally the worst unless he’s already got a direct sequel prepped and ready to go.
Why is it so dusty in here?!
🙂
Yikes! Hard read, Kinnath. Just found out today that we need to stop insuring the truck. Things are getting real. No more fweedom. Stuck at home by choice is one thing but being kept there is unacceptable. Festus needs Q’s thots and prayers.
LOL
Sorry about your situation, Festus, but that was funny.
I aim to please and please to aim! Why not make sport of terrible circumstances?
Coming back to town tonight the streets and the gas station parking lot were littered with dead mayflies, and a bunch still flying around any light source. I’ve seen bad mayfly hatches elsewhere, but never here. Hopefully it doesn’t go on too long.
Trout like them so I like them too. At least in the before days, in the long, long ago…
Someone brought up Ben Roethlisberger’s football podcast the other day. Roethlisberger has made headlines a few times, this time for admitting to the Steelers current QB Kenny Pickett that he wanted him to fail at first, but became a fan as the season went along. Anyone with half a brain knows that’s incredibly human, especially among top athletes. To admit to it? Not many are willing to do that.
The reaction hasn’t been over the top, but there’s still that crowd of asshats coming out of the woodwork. Some are the same ones who have attacked Roethlisberger throughout his career. They’ve really painted him into some character in their heads and look for any little thing they can to vindicate how they feel. Then there’s a couple of no-name clowns on the talk head shows criticizing him for saying it.
All of this overlooks the reality that sports is an extension of entertainment. A podcast is entertainment. And if the guy he said it to took no offense, and in fact the opposite, then you can stop white knighting for him and move the fuck on.
A few people here could learn a similar lesson, I think.
No fucking shit. It’s almost as if what someone posts in the comment section has nothing to do with the enjoyment anyone gets from an article or what they take away from it and the harping on the subject is far more tedious and obnoxious than anything I could ever come up with.
Your shtick remains tiresome.
Complaining about other people’s comments is for seconders! Don’t worry so much about it, people talk shit on this site every day.
I would like to know how many fiction writers on this site have soundtracks rolling in their head while they write and/or have their stories sparked from music. The first book I published was sparked by one song.
I’m no writer but seem to have an earworm every night.
The only ever ‘Feature Length’ script I wrote was inspired by a song. (The family moves to Suburbia to save their child from becoming involved in thuggery, but the life of suburbia leads to family decay and the teen turning to thuggery) I also wrote a scene in childrens play based on ‘The Trees’ by Rush. (the child trying to save the hero ends up in a woods where the trees are alive, but instead of helping they only argue about politics)
Also, I inserted Ted Nugent songs (with links) in the stage directions of the Harvey Weinstein thing I wrote here. (continuing a story Straff started)
Not it.
My stories come from overthinking things. The only relation to music my books have is that I’ll put some on to have background noise that doesn’t take my active attention away from what I’m doing.
Apropos of nothing, here is a wonderful version https://youtu.be/AbyKhl4N6G4
Wake up y’all.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Le-3MIBxQTw
Get out there and kick some ass.
🎶🎶💯
Don’t tell me what to do.
*readies cattle prod*
Good morning, Sean & U.
Morning.
That reminds me, I need to renew my “eliminating workplace violence” training.
I’m still waiting for the 2023 version to drop.
I already had “eliminating domestic violence” training (AKA narrow gazes from Mrs. Patzer), so I’m good
Ugh. That’s one of the most obnoxious propagandist ‘training’ in the annual set, somehow managing to be worse than the ‘protected class discrimination’ nonsense.
https://www.fox29.com/news/two-young-children-injured-in-bear-attack-in-pennsylvania-officials-say
Lol @ 4 year old photo use.
OK: Repost the Game Commission’s statement, insert a quote from them somewhere so it looks like we’re actually reporting, and slap up a four year old pic of a guy carrying a gun because no one checks the dates anyway and, besides, we have no reporters or photographers left.
Ah, looks great!
Darnit, it’s almost time to start the sommute.
😔
I didn’t know you were a sommelier.
I am a very harsh judge of wines.
I have yet to meet one that rates as high as “drinkable”
Mornin’, reprobates.
These early morning production issues (no, not the age-related kind) are becoming tedious. I need my morning glib time, it’s in the contract.
If it were in the contract, you’d be able to enforce the provision.
I suspect it’s not actually in there.
Stop harshing my buzz, UCS!
I have to do something to procrastinate.
No one else is around, and I don’t want to fill out intake paperwork for another database upgrade.
Speaking of database upgrades, I thought I was done with Oracle when I jumped into the world of Big Data. But they have befouled other tech, and we are now standardized on “Oracle Unbreakable Linux”. Gaah.
These are worse than Oracle, they’re MS SQL.
Good morning, ‘patzie.
Mornin’. How are things at Tranquility Base?
Please see my comment below. Critter worries. 😟
Damn. A red fox (four-legged variety) just sashayed across my front walkway about 2 feet in front of me. Rabid?
That close? Probably. They tend to not like proximity to people.
Poor Little Black Cat had three (maybe four??) teeth extracted yesterday. After he got home, he ate ravenously and LOVED his new canned food. He even knocked over the recycle wastebasket to get at the empty (but apparently not quite thoroughly rinsed) can. This morning, though, I can tell his pain meds have worn off, and he’s not supposed to get any more until 2:00 this afternoon. I couldn’t even tempt him with his new favorite pureed treat. 😢😿
Sorry to be a crazy cat lady.
On the bright side, he will heal and still be around.
Yes. I just hate to see him suffer. Cats tend to suffer in silence when they’re not feeling well.
😢
Awww. Poor kitteh.