Thursday, December 15, 2011

The Correction. It’s always there, waiting right around the corner, and its mechanics are simple enough: enjoy a series of good days, and you are bound for a patch of bad ones. Surely it’s ridiculous to expect a constant stream of the former, but what’s always fascinated me is the predictability of how the season turns, typically to the tune of three- to four-day increments. Rare is the occasion, for instance, when you can claim you’ve had a perfect month, but this is no revelation. It is simply the price of admission for being conscious.

By my rough estimation, pretty much everything went awry today. Although my formula still holds water, there were setbacks. Imagine climbing halfway up a ladder and being fairly confident in the construction of that ladder, but then having to climb back down to verify the whole contraption’s actually sitting on solid ground. There was harrowing traffic. A speaker sale fallen through. Trouble at the store. Ingredients dropping straight out of the fridge and onto the floor during dinnertime.

These are the travails of suburbia and as such, I’m sure somebody out there would gladly trade these issues for their own in a heartbeat. The fix here is simple. Sleep it off and try for a new hand tomorrow. These are trivial matters, now that I see them plainly listed, and that’s all the more reason to heed one of Al Swearengen’s very best lines: “Stand it like a man–and give some back.”