The Effects of a Very Wonderful Weekend

Wow, I'm still feeling the effects of a very wonderful weekend. I didn't get too much work done around the house--there's still a pile of uncut tree branches in my front yard from last weekend--but I really had an enjoyable time. The weather was pretty bad, especially on Sunday, so I played video games, watched the French Connection on video, went out to dinner at our local Mexican place, read the Sunday newspaper in front of the fire until 3 o'clock, went to Seabold Second Saturday and saw some really good amateur music. One guy did a really whispery version of Bruce Springsteen's "One Step Up." Another did a absolutely mesmerizing instrumental piece on an instrument I had only seen one other time before, called a thumb piano. He was, by far, the highlight. We were sitting in the second row, so we could see him frantically thumbing away at the prongs of this instrument--just watching him play was enough to put me nearly in a hypnotic trance, but the sound this little thing made was soothing in the way that tuning forks are. Everything was aligned, I guess. All day at work I felt lucky to be alive.