…..after all those years of unspoken closeness—after a splendid era cast in cement that should have been easily capable of withstanding even the most stalwart forces of nature and all its omnipotent overseers—I could feel the two of us beginning to drift inexorably apart. We were gradually headed in opposite directions with no prominent headlines announcing this unexpected divorce. It wasn’t a tangible thing either, something right in your face, something well-defined and readily identifiable that a person could easily understand and wrap your arms around and perhaps do something about if such was your overriding desire. Rather, I could just sense that a severance was happening, that our once-close relationship was slowly evaporating into thin air at the behest of fate, much as one senses it is going to imminently rain long before ominous dark clouds begin rolling in on the western horizon or one can sense that a day is gonna be shitty as all tarnation even before you roll out of bed in the morning. And—sadly and I suppose most telling of all—I really didn’t mind or seem to care that this fateful separation was taking place. No, I didn’t care and, what’s more, I didn’t care either that I didn’t want to take any cathartic, decisive actions that might help restore past glories…..
Fred's Soapbox 