Okay, we lost the nicotine battle the other morning. And find our Levis, we did.
Interestingly enough, we believe it was Mark Twain who said that "...the only people who should use the 'royal *we*' in their prose, should BE royalty and people with tapeworms."
Sigh.
Today's fantasy has to do with renting out my apartment for the US Open here. The seriously rich and famous are paying up to $250,00 for serious mansions and related amenities, such as use of the owner's Rolls Royces, and maid and butler. Oh yes, catering er the visitor's whims.
Over 50,000 people are due here for the US Open and, of course, accommodations have been sold out for a couple of years. But today's paper lists numberous homes/duplexes for $3000 to $10,00. per week. Again, driver and maid available/negotiable.
Since I live less than two miles from the US Open gates, and only a 5 minuttes walk to a shuttle lot at a universitiy, I began thinking of what I would have to do to prepare my place, like, super fast.

It's 4:23 am in my part of the country. And I think I have just lost my nicotine battle after all. ...if only I can now find my jeans..."And so it goes."
And my car keys.

Whatever became of "The Max Immelman Memorial Ontological Army Against the Void?" We were stoned, of course. But establishment of "The Army" was our passionate and youthful scream in the night. The Democratic Convention of 1968 (police riot), Vietnam heating up, Kent State. They were passionate times.
At 50, these memories seem not unlike a personal inverted Mayan pyramid; they expand and multiply and consume a hell of a lot of closet space. Probably won't clean them out, though. Newsreels of the mind. I certainly don't want to live in the past, but at this baby-booming age, it is, well, simply unexpected to have lived this long, traveled this far. It's also either very, very late or pretty damned early to be up. Nicorette gum just doesn't cut it. Doesn't taste the same with Diet Coke. Sigh. My 5-year nicotine addiction must come to an end, being deadly and stupid as it is. I'm fighting-off running down to the convenience store to buy another pack...no, no, no. Sigh again.