today

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Friday night...engine revving...waiting for the checkered flag to drop. About to enter flow. How to make two hours vanish.

I still love it. Coming on forty years.

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I’ve told you before that my friends get me. One of them sent me this beautiful piece of music writing about the song Wichita Lineman. Thank you, Neil Crossley, for distilling the song’s brilliance. It reads like magic. That it came together so quickly for Jimmy Webb and Glen Campbell feels like a miracle worth crying over. I especially admire the detail about the bassist Carol Kaye. An accomplished woman. Just look at her photo. 

On the version of the song below a listener posted this comment:

I remember too. Not in the same way. I was seven in 1970. We listened to AM radio as a family going for drives (at that age in the Gran Torino). 

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I've been writing 'today' on the subway rides to work and back. A tap on the shoulder.

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My mom’s recovering nicely. There's more time for her to tell me she loves me always.

Thank you to everyone who checked in with me in the last few weeks.

Sometimes the distance between family members feels impossible to bridge. My gratitude for a handful of women in Strathmore is boundless. One of them has cooked her a couple of good meals — mashed potatoes, roast chicken, and a slice of pie. She dropped in one day with homemade brownies. And another acts as a surrogate daughter — we talk and problem solve together. 

Today my mom and I are playing Yahtzee online for the first time in almost a month. Is there a better reason to put off cleaning for another hour?

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1968