dust

Life is work, filling up the tank on my way there.  Starbucks coffee.  A car that needs cleaned.  Old shoes that need new laces.  A pile of laundry that needs folded.  Recycling that should be taken out.  The need for more laundry detergent.  A dog anxious for a walk.  Bills that I pay and then just throw the thing away.  No checkbook anymore.  No filing cabinet with the title 'City Utilities' maintained meticulously.  Why bother?  Homework.  Dishes.  Taxes.  Marriage.  A calorie now and then mostly consisting of a handful of pretzels and a slice of cheese.  Dust on my running shoes. Still trying to understand iTunes.  Batteries for the Xbox remotes.  Light bulbs for the kitchen track lighting that I still fear I installed incorrectly. The ashes dangerously piled in fireplace, waiting to be cleaned.  Complete the science project, under duress.  Buy the boys another pair of shoes.  Catch their game. A good part: love them!   More laundry.  Laundry in terms of sorting into whites and darks, washing, drying, folding, delivery, repeat.  Cautious laundry:  nearly life and death laundry, if you could only image such a thing.  Pick up from school.  More coffee.  Take out the trash.  Read the paper (kind of...really skip most of it). Pick up my shoes.  Hang up my coat. Watch the world news...and drink a glass of red wine simultaneously.  It's different.  It's all of these little minor daily routine 'things'.  And not much else at this middle life stage.