I saw a bumper sticker on a pickup today. It declared, “In case of rapture, this vehicle will be unmanned.” I suppose it was a warning to all the unfortunate souls who don’t qualify for heaven; his truck is going to become a dangerous moving object when the roll is called up yonder. The righteous […]
Continue readingStorage Nation
Seven square feet of commercial storage space now exists for every American. That’s nearly a quarter of a five-by-five self-storage unit for each man, woman, and child in the U.S., or one whole unit for each average family, or over 2 billion total storage square feet nationally, whichever number makes you more queasy. I can’t […]
Continue readingMy Myocardial Infarction
I had a heart attack two weeks ago. I woke around six and couldn’t get comfortable. I turned this way and that, but the little cramp in my chest wouldn’t go away, so I sat up. Soon I was pacing around the house, massaging my sternum, feeling a tingle descend my right arm, before traveling […]
Continue readingWhat Is Heaven?
I used to have this recurrent daydream, where I was sitting in an Adirondack chair on the back porch of a red ranch house, looking over a sunny, uninhabited valley of fields, river, and woods, clouds floating above, leaves fluttering in the breeze. There were no worries, no house payments, no place I had to […]
Continue readingVampire World
I was reading outside this summer when a hornet labored by and landed on a table. Beneath its belly, the hornet was clutching a small, green caterpillar as long as it was, which is why it could barely fly. After sitting for a moment, apparently exhausted, the little black vampire began digging its mandibles into […]
Continue reading