Glory Days

Sometimes it seems that looking at the more absurd aspects of reality is about all that keeps me sane. When I decided to post this photo I'd just been listening to the song Glory Days on the classic rock station, about how as we get older we glorify the things we did in our youth. Well, somehow the sofa brought back memories of other sofas, other times, of the girls who joined me on those sofas, and the heat we'd generate between us. No, we never got hot enough to set a sofa on fire...like I said, sometimes I conjure up the more absurd aspects of reality...

What really happened was that I was newly seperated from Claudia, she'd bought her own house, a divorce was in the cards, and I took in a room mate, a guy I'd known for twenty odd years, a house painter by trade. Larry left the proverbial cigarette burning in an ashtray, it rolled out onto the sofa after he'd left the room, and POOF!

The fire station is nearby and the fire was soon out. It had been confined to that small area of the livingroom. Nobody was hurt. Smoke and water damage were the main problems until it came time to dealing with the insurance company. They'd only make the check out to me AND the mortgage company, and the mortgage company insisted on my hiring a general contractor. Since I'd only paid $13,500 for the house about twenty-five years before, and it was a thirty year mortgage, I owed next to nothing. I paid off the damned mortgage in full.

The settlement, without having to enrich a general contractor, was enough to install new windows and doors to current hurricane code all around the house, install new ceramic tile floors throughout, redo the kitchen with all new cabinets, paint the house inside and out, purchase a new sofa, and upgrade the plumbing and electric as well. Not a bad deal after all. Now bring on those girls!