I pulled weeds for the first time in my life, a few minutes ago. Girlfriend is out taking it easy in California and she asked if I would mind watering her flowers while she was gone. She got a "yes" on this and then threw in "and if you could, would you pull the weeds on the patio and get the ant killer out of the garage and pour it on those ant hills that are out back?"

Funny, this is the kind of shit that I thought that I had avoided for life. (I'm 50 on June 20.)When I was a kid, I used to mow lawns, shovel snow from driveways and sidewalks, and rake lawns for a living; or rather for basketballs, tennis raquets, candy bars, cokes and Converse All Stars.

Pulling the weeds wasn't all that bad. I actually found it a bit meditative. Making sure that I got the whole root with each weed that I pulled was my goal. The dogs added another element to my weed pulling, bringing their tennis balls up to me, as I sat on the patio pulling, so that I could throw the balls for them.

Last week, I told girlfriend that, if she bought a lawn mower, I would cut her grass for her. I must be hallucinating. What can be next?

Perhaps, though, it is like Eddie Albert used to say on the tv show, "Green Acres," "Country living is the life for me."

I have lived in the city since 1982. Pulling a weed or two and mowing the lady's lawn certainly can't hurt me, now can it?
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My backup hard drive is making some weird noises right now. It is 10:30pm. I was sure that I had changed the time for the hard drive to do its daily backup to around 4am, when I most certainly would be sleeping and wouldn't hear any noises at all. When I'm at my apartment, I have three sources of white noise that I mostly use to drown out the sounds of the city. The fan in the wall unit air conditioner is never turned off. My c pap machine is turned on every night that I go to sleep; it makes quiet a comforting whir noise. My portable heater has a fan setting. It is quite raucous, so raucous that I turn it off the first thing upon waking. It helps me fall asleep at night, but would bother me if I left it running all day.

My girlfriend recently bought a blindfold. Before you get all excited, it is the kind that you use for eliminating sunshine and getting some daytime sleep, not the kind that you use for tieing her up and spanking her, though I guess they could be used for that. I was going to make the point that isn't it funny all the devices that I have at my disposal to drown out the sounds of my neighbors in the city, so I can get a good night's sleep, but now I've gotten sidetracked. Thank God one of the dogs is indicating that he has to go, so I need to go. Bye.