Home life

Okay, a potential stud, according to Thoroughbred Times.com. Regardless, Smarty Jones got Laurel to do some things I never believed I’d see her do. Like, ask “Where is the sports page?” this past week and then actually read the section that heretofore had as much interest to her as the classifieds. Also, sit down in front in the TV this afternoon and watch a sporting event, the Belmont Stakes. Of course, today there is no joy in Hinesville, for Smarty Jones pooped out on the backstretch. But we enjoyed our brief excursion into the land of horseracing, which probably was…

Meditation? Tai chi? Prayer? Bible study? Nature walks? Yoga? Nyahhhh…too much trouble, too time-consuming, too unreliable. For my money ($59 at Costco, to be exact) the best way to get in tune with the cosmos is Casio’s Tough Solar G-Shock Atomic watch. I picked one up at the Costco store in Bend last Sunday and ever since have been feeling much more grounded to the rhythm of those amazing cesium atoms in Boulder, Colorado. This is my second atomic watch. Since Casio makes such reliable watches, and watch batteries seem to last for years and years now, I suspect that…

As soon as I walked softly over to Laurel’s desk and peered over her shoulder at the computer screen I knew that my life had changed irrevocably. Understand, this shocking revelation wasn’t a complete surprise. Looking back, I clearly should have seen it coming. But every husband thinks that somehow it won’t happen to him, that his wife will be able to resist the temptations that so many other women succumb to, now that the Internet makes it possible to establish connections in cyberspace that previously you’d have to engage in face-to-face. Look, I’m no Internet virgin myself. So I…

click to enlarge I just finished a grueling three-hour black belt test, and for some reason what pops into my mind is…Could I now be one of the most dangerous authors who write about Greek philosophy? Here’s a hot-off-the-digital-camera photo of Mike, me, and Dave, trying to hold each other up after the testing was over and belts awarded. It’s been a long, hard, grind. About nine years in traditional Shotokan karate, where I made it up to a brown belt rank, and now over three years in a mixed-style school of Wu Shu Tao, which we translate as “way…

The big moment finally arrived for Laurel yesterday—our Sleep Country 30 day try-the-mattress-and-see-if-you-like-it period ended. Laurel knew that she didn’t like the Spring Air mattress after the second night, but Sleep Country wanted us to live with it for a full month, just to be sure that we weren’t having some sort of slumber time spat that would blow over after a while. Well, it didn’t, so there we were back at the Sleep Country store on (ugh!) Lancaster Drive, sales slip in hand, ready and eager to exercise our mattress exchange rights. The salesman from whom we had bought…

Yes, yesterday the Salem Statesman-Journal published a letter to the editor from Laurel about land use issues, putting it smack dab in the middle of the main Opinion page, so the signature “Laurel Hines” leapt out at you. By contrast, ten days ago my own letter about gay marriage was relegated to the bottom of the second Opinion page. Oh, well. I get to use this weblog to trumpet my own horn, so it is fair that the newspaper gave a more prominent position to Laurel. All this recent letter-writing got me to thinking about how we’ve become more active…

click to enlarge It's our 14th anniversary today. We had the smarts to get married on St. Patrick's Day in 1990, which means that as soon as I start seeing mention of green beer in the newspaper or on TV a small still voice in my head starts speaking... “Anniversary, anniversary, anniversary.” The photo above shows two people who had known each other for about eight months before they got married. And I proposed to Laurel after only about three or four months. The exact date is lost to my memory, probably in part for psychic protection reasons, because the…

It’s nice to know that after fourteen years of marriage Laurel can still get me breathing heavily in our bedroom. Also, on the stairs leading down from our bedroom…in the living room…and in the guest bedroom way at the other end of the house. Yes, that was quite an encounter between Laurel and me after we torn off the sheets and got all sweaty with a mattress. Next time, though, I’m hoping that we encounter each other on a mattress, rather than on other sides of a mattress. For we have begun the quadrennial (approximately) ritual of finding a better…

It was a big day on the Comments front yesterday. First, I was thrilled to find that Keith contributed the first comment to appear on this new home of HinesSight (on my Paris Hilton posting, accessible in the “Recent Comments” section in the left column). Then, I checked my email and found that on my old weblog I'd received another comment on my American Splendor/I learn to wash lettuce posting. This wasn't quite so thrilling, as the keywords “Laurel Hines,” “exaggeration,” “poetic license,” and “evil eye” leapt to my attention--notably the “Laurel Hines” identifier, she being the owner of the…

King of the world, that’s who I am all right, in my own mind at least (where it counts). For I have replaced a rusted-out leaking drain on our laundry room sink, notwithstanding my normally plumbing-challenged handyman skills. There was something tremendously fulfilling about successfully dismantling the decrepit parts and installing the fresh new parts, adding the dollop of plumber’s putty, tightening the, um, whatever-you-call-its that needed to be tightened, turning on the water, and hearing the water run down the drain with nary a drip. The list of those I’d like to thank for enabling me to achieve this…

Woke up this morning to alarm clock beeping…no reason to set it, except to be up in time by noon to watch Rose Bowl…no, didn’t set it…slumber thoughts slowly awaken: electricity is off, again!...then on, then off, then on, then off…now on, perhaps the Electricity Goddess has heard our prayers…must pray harder…would offer first-born son if had one…will you take a daughter, Goddess? Name is Celeste, lives in North Hollywood (just kidding C.; actually have offered to loan you to Goddess until cold weather is over)…already being blamed by Laurel for this snow event, just like last time: “You were…

It took almost all of 2003, but on December 30—yesterday at 5:00 pm—I found my true love. And the greatest thing about it is that Laurel embraced her also. A threesome! Cool! Also hot, because sparks fly when you touch her in a certain way. Her name? Electricity. Along with tens of thousands of other people in the mid-Willamette valley, we lost our power about 3:00 am early Monday morning. We got it back at 5:00 pm Tuesday afternoon. So we had some 38 hours to ponder how much Electricity does for us, and how under-appreciated she had been in…