Summer vegetables and lined fields in Autumn

I am so glad I don't have to ride back and forth between Griffin and Atlanta every day. Boy, am I tired at this point. I have to assume that my tired state could only be caused by the driving I did during the middle of the day. As I get older, my ability to withstand regular travel hither and yon is reduced. Just a product of the passage of time, but there nonetheless.

I still have a closing this afternoon at six and need to go to church afterward. Cindy will keep a plate warm for me, I know. I am happy to get back into the normal rhythm of life with Wednesday night church and such.

There you go. Why can't I remember how to spell rhythm? There always seem to be certain words the spelling of which remain beyond me. Rhythm is one of them.

I ate lunch at Mary Mac's with a new friend, Brad Howell. Brad is the husband of a former high school classmate of mine at Dunwoody. He hails from Thomson, Georgia, the home of Tom Watson, one of my favorite characters in Georgia history and politics. Watson's statue stands prominently in front of the front stairs into the capital in Atlanta and I stopped by his home in Thomson one time this year when I was coming back from a hearing in Columbia County. Since we are both from small towns, Thomson and Hopkinsville, I thought it appropriate to eat at a place where we could get 'country cooking.' So, I had chicken, rice and gravy with butter beans and cabbage and Brad ate barbecue and brunswick stew. We both washed our meals down with the state wine of Georgia: Sweet Tea.

Cindy said that it was perfect for me, taking something healthy like chicken and frying it and pouring gravy over it all. Well la-di-da. It tasted good and I think the cabbage and butter beans speak for themselves. I will say that it is now after five o'clock and I still can feel my lunch in my belly. So you can also say that it lasted me for a significant time. At least to supper.

I got into the habit of eating a meat and three when I was in law school in Athens. A bunch of my friends and I used to walk across Broad Street to Helen's restaurant and eat lunch most every day. At least that way I knew I was getting something that was intended to be healthy and full of all the vitamins, minerals, protein and carbohydrates. And sweet tea, always sweet tea.

I know this, I lost a ton of weight in my first year of law school. All that weight I put on for football dripped off when I wasn't eating to make sure I didn't fly backwards when I encountered an offensive tackle on the football field.

Which reminds me: it is upon us. When I go to pick Cindy up at Griffin Tech in the afternoon we pass the football field for a Christian high school and three fields of football players stretching out before practice for the recreational league. There are a lot of times in which I wish I was out there just like them. Smelling the grass, feeling the dizzyness after the first pop of headgear. The sour taste of the chalk from the lines on the football field. The burn of the bruises on my shoulders and forearms. The glory of putting some quarterback on his butt. Hunnh!

Ah, fall is upon us. Glory, glory, glory. The cool breezes and bright colors of dying leaves. Is there anything better?