Good Friday in mind

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I knew it was there, the editor had told me Wednesday it would appear today. I didn't even look at it before leaving the paper on the dining table for my wife.
    In fact, an hour before I read it, I saw on my Droid that I had an email from the editor, subject line "Possible Opinion Column?"
    Gosh, it's a good Friday, I thought—or, more accurately, felt.
    Let me savor this.
    While the water was heating for coffee and I sliced the fruit (strawberries and kiwi fruit this morning, with some of the best-tasting blueberries either of us could remember) I thought about a remark I'd made the day before about my blog's being "near the center of my universe." Curious concept that. I'm not sure what "my universe" means. If I have one, then doesn't everybody? And how could all those "universes" co-exist?     But then I remembered that some physicists theorize that that's the very case, multiple universes....
    But none of them has a "center," right?
    And who is the "I" of "my"? I seem to have a different center, from moment to moment. Whatever pops up, grabs my attention.
    And I thought, how interesting that random thoughts of my own can suggest ruminations for a blog post, same as can an interesting book or book review or magazine article or something overheard.

While eating breakfast, I solved the first of the Sudokus, which seemed easy despite being rated "4" for the end of the week. The brain works best, I think, when it's savoring.

    My wife had her coffee and fruit, then went to work out for the first time on her stationary bicycle, moored to the Travel Trac trainer I'd set up after dinner last evening. I enjoyed her excitement, enjoyed how she was dressed as though she were out on the road. Siegfried was on the cushion alongside the bicycle to watch (and be near mama). I took some pictures.
    I put out bird seed. Distracted (I think) by the knowledge of that "Possible Opinion Column" email awaiting me from the editor, I poured all of the hulled sunflower seeds in the container into the first of the three feeders. Fine, I thought, give our birds a bonus today. The thought cheered me; I'd been feeding them half as much for several weeks, after realizing that I needed to cut back on expenses now that I'm retired. I fetched another handful of seeds for the other two feeders.
    I emptied the vegetable compost container into the outside bin.
    The weather was fine.
    My wife had told me she saw two hawks on the dead tree on the other side of the pond. It didn't matter that I didn't have time this morning to set up for digiscoping. There's still tomorrow, and will be for yet awhile....
    I was looking forward at 8:30 to taking our still new car to a body shop to have my touch-up painting buffed up. We parked in a narrow lane a few weeks ago, and a tough bush had clawed a small patch of ugly, deep scratches into a rear passenger door.

But the opinion column, the opinion column! Let's read it.
    I liked the way it had been titled, more informative than the title of the blog post it was developed from. The attribution was good, especially the mention of the blog I "maintain." A few more readers maybe.
    But best of all, the offer of a regular column....
    I opened the email and read it.
    Oh, s--t!
    I wasn't being asked whether I'd like to do a regular column at all. The subject line had been there through several exchanges, I remembered now, and referred to the specific "column" we'd been communicating about—today's.
     The editor was just replying to Wednesday's email, to tell me that it sounded good that maybe some of his readers would see my "attack ad challenge" and submit some ideas for it. (That would be good.)
    Oh well, never mind. I can still submit the odd article from time to time. The Herald-Sun will either publish it or not.
    The editor took the first one I offered. Maybe the second...?
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June 23. Belated, but nevertheless heartfelt, grateful acknowledgment to Ken Marks for copyediting the article.