Trees, cars, and Facebook

Life is a full-time job. Managing the “stuff” we have makes me want to give it all up, and move to my favorite beach spot, the Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge on St. Croix. When I was there, it was just a place on the beach. Now it’s a Refuge. That’s my point.

The day began with Ray’s Tree Service calling to say that they couldn’t take down the 70’ black walnut tree today, because the guys at the electric utility wouldn’t come out in the rain to take down the power lines to the house. Weenies. This call came in as I was on my way home from dropping off the car for an oil change. I didn’t stay for the oil change, because I needed to get home for the tree guys. Oh well.

So I walked back to pick up the car at around 1 PM. I had told them I would be back around noon. At 1 PM they hadn’t done the work yet. I went to lunch. Then I went back, and they still hadn’t done it. I just asked for my keys, and left the dealership. A little pissed. I called our sales guy, and complained to him. He’s coming on Monday to pick up the car to go get it serviced.

Then AT&T tried to bill me $190 for installation charges that were supposed to be for free. I’d like to bill them for the amount of time I spent on the phone trying to fix that little glitch.

Now here comes the fun stuff.

While I was having lunch today, for some reason I thought about a woman who had been a roommate of mine during my senior year of college. Yes, I lived with two women. Best roomies I ever had. As I thought about the one, I thought about her boyfriend, who was also a friend of mine. I hadn’t thought about him in – well, years and years. I mean after all, I haven’t seen either one since I graduated from Rice in 1983.

Then this afternoon, I get this thing on Facebook where he had found me a “wanted to be my friend.” How weird was that. And wonderfully cool.

So I’m trying to explain this twenty-first century phenomena to my Dad. He said, “You want to pay attention to that. Let me know what happens.” And as he completes his words, I get an email from the woman. She wants to be my friend too.

I have to confess that Facebook is kinda cool. I’ve reconnected with a lot of people who were important to me at different times of my life. Of course, there are those who you wish would just go away. But overall, I find the interconnectivity at this time of my life comforting. It’s nice to know that people still want to be my friend.