It’s not that I want to, but necessity compels me to try, to do what is expected of me. Maybe necessity is the wrong word, depending on how you view that which is necessary. On one end, a bowl of rice. On the other, a yacht. In the middle, you have yard work.

I don’t look forward to it, and, at times, and with the right amount of caffeine or alcohol, I can get into it, as much as one can get into something that passes the time on a sunny day that doesn’t involve beaches, pools, lounge chairs, or swaying palm trees.

What was really scary was that I couldn’t get weeds and clumps of errant grass out of my mind when I plopped into bed after a long day of mowing, trimming, weeding, watering, and whacking. Was I on the edge of obsession, like some of my neighbors seem to be? Is it the first step down a dangerous path of finely edged, perfectly trimmed lawn, flagstones placed under each step?

Nikki Sudden was one of my musical heroes.

Someday, I’ll wake up and buy a new pair of shoes.
I never said that I’d break your heart
but it was easy to do.

He provided the musical backdrop for my decision to quit my job as managing editor of Transworld Skateboarding Magazine in the late 1980s and go to college in Illinois.