(Jon-without, Jerry the Barrister, Vic and Heather’s hand. That is Tracey O’Grady’s special in the foreground- a very large sandwich. Photo Jamie)

It was the last Friday of the month, and people flocked to Willow as soon as they could get away from their offices. Tracey was doing her Buffalo Wild Wings Theme special of the month, and it was a raucous crowd, excited about the warmth and thankful we did not live in Tornedo Alley, where they were getting the crap knocked out of them again.

Heather-the-Executive-Special-Planning-Event-Coordinator for Willow did not have to work the wrong side of the serving lane, and was surveying a Bocce Ball cocktail and thinking large, doing detailed planning on her cell phone for clubbing activities later.

I was thinking small, limiting myself to consideration of a refreshing swim under the watchful eye of Milos the Polish Lifeguard, and knowing that the Large Object Truck was coming in the morning, I should have been somewhere else, cleaning out trash, large and small.

But it was fun sitting with my simulated family of usual suspects: Old Jim and Chanteuse Mary and The Lovely Bea and Placid Jamie, who bushwhacked me with a candid and bemused photo.

“Gotcha, Vic!” she said, shooting over her Beef on Weck sandwich and the Bocce Ball cocktail. “It is about time someone got you!”

I had to agree that was true. Tex and Jamie and Brett and that new guy whose name I can’t recall were behind the bar, and they kept things moving

I was antsy, though, and did not stay long. It is a big weekend of change and movement at Big Pink. The Building has scheduled the annual big ‘clean out’ thing for Saturday morning. I guess the principal is that if we don’t periodically purge, the building might capsize and go under like the Costa Concordia.

But now I have arrived in the moment- it is happening this morning and it is a great opportunity to dump the bilges on the unit. Too good to pass up. “Bring your objects, large and small, to the back door and they will take the crap away,” Rhonda informed me with authority. “You could get rid of those gigantic plants, too.”

I wound up in the pool as darkness came on, and I put that all out of my mind fairly successfully, at least until my eyes flashed open at four-thirty. Crap!

I am going to be hauling shit this morning- down and up with my little cart. But first it had to be marshaled, and that was where I screwed up.

I went to go get a cup of coffee and screwed up- I looked in the pantry closet and realized I could throw out everything in there, including he laundry stuff I could actually use where I do laundry- down at the farm.

Cross out another hour of the morning- Christ, I walked away from this for an hour, and now I am back here and have not looked at the storage locker for crap to go straight to the curb.

This is an unprecedented opportunity- maybe the farm trip will have to wait to later in the afternoon….why am I boring you with this…ack, moving, getting one’s shit together…all this crap.

I am looking forward to just putting this life- large and small- out to the curb….

(The first load to go. Photo Socotra).

Copyright 2013 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com