Effulgency

Effulgent:  Shining; resplendent; radiant  (Ed. Note: I don't think I'm going to be able to get this word into the text today - I'm saying this upfront - but it's a great word that I looked up recently and if I don't use it real quick-like I'm going to lose it).

So I'm still trying to get my stomach, my bowels, and my sleep patterns back onto Vacation City time.  My bounce-back-ability is not what it used to be.  Oh yeah, and my Buddha-like, Zen-erific sense of calm and peace, an unflappability unheard of in the modern Western world, keeps dancing just out of reach.

I drove over to my favorite coffee shop yesterday to get a cup of overpriced specialty coffee.  I pulled into a spot on a public street across from the shopping center and de-energized my engine, eschewing the parking lot.  I do this sometimes - I have a dark car which I knew would bake in the hot sun and there are a few big shade trees on the verge of this street.

As I get out of the car the front door of an apartment nearby opens and a woman says: "Are you going over to the shopping center?"

I knew this wasn't going to lead anywhere that I wanted to go.

"Yes," I replied politely, eschewing my initial inclination to say something along the lines of "Fuck is to you?"

"Then you need to park over there," she said.

I paused.  (Ed Note: "Nothing pays off like restraint of tongue and pen.  We must avoid quick-tempered criticism and furious, power-driven argument."  Go look it up.)

"Really?" I said, dubiousness dripping from my sulking and silently scornful lips.

"Oh, yeah," she replied.

"I don't think so, " I said.  "This is a public street."  (Ed. Note: My brain was trying to relay a message down to my mouth along the lines of "Shut the fuck up" but it was being derailed by my Id or something effulgent like that).

I don't recall whether she spoke again or not but fortunately my brain managed to get a message that at least approached reasonability down to my mouth.

"I'll move," I said.  "I don't have any problem moving (Ed. Note: Big lie there.  Big, big lie.) but I really think you're wrong."

I swear to god she didn't say anything else but clasped her hands together and began nodding in a vaguely "Namaste" fashion.  

"This is a public street - I really think you're wrong," I said again, uselessly, redundantly, my mouth trying to seize control back from my brain - you'd think the brain would be in the superior position considering it's dealing with the mouth but you'd be wrong a lot of the time.  I was so right and I wanted credit for my magnanimous gesture.

I moved the car.  I was under a Boil Watch for a half hour or so but the heat got turned down.  

When I left I noted that there was no car in my vacated spot.  And that the sun had shifted so that my car would have been in the full sun.