Monday, Monday

Thought I might head to the SuperCenter tonight, but then I got distracted by a big ball of red-orange in the sky. Raced out to the lake, where I watched the sun sink out of sight.

You can actually feel time move, somehow, when you watch the sun set. When you can actually see it vanishing, before your very eyes, even if you don’t stop to consider all the implications of the revolution of the earth around the sun and the rotation on its axis and what-not, stuff we learned about in the fifth grade, if not sooner.

It was one of those sunsets that no photo can do justice to; hence, no pictures of this one, though I did snap a couple (of course).

Saw a deer on the way back. And smelled a skunk. (Not everything about nature is pleasant.)

: )

Managed to land on a “classic rock” station on the drive home and heard the familiar “A Little Help from My Friends,” Joe Cocker’s version, just like the one they play at the beginning of The Wonder Years.

All of a sudden, I was thinking about my favorite episode — the one that starts out with voice-over Kevin talking about how when you’re a little kid, you want to be all these different things, and how growing up is about giving up all those things, one by one, and then features Kevin taking piano lessons. Turns out Kevin is pretty good, once he decides to concentrate on learning to play and starts practicing really hard, and then he chooses Pachelbel’s “Canon” for the recital — as does Arnold Hershmuller (sp?), who happens to be the best piano student in the class and, naturally, performs the piece flawlessly during the big event, prompting Kevin to give up playing the piano.

And then I thought of Patti’s favorite Wonder Years episode: The one in which Kevin’s math teacher dies. And there is so much more to it than just that, but ... you’ll have to watch it for yourself to get it all. (I believe it’s my second-favorite Wonder Years episode ... though I also really really like the one where Kevin has a huge crush on his teacher, who drives a Volkswagen, and the Temptations’ “Just My Imagination” plays.)

For the record: My favorite episode of Northern Exposure is the one in which Holling and Chris take Fleischman hunting and he accidentally kills a grouse, and the show ends with Ed and Ruth Ann dancing on the mountainside; my favorite episode of My So-Called Life is the one that ends with Angela and Jordan walking down the hall, and Buffalo Tom’s “Late at Night” starts playing, and all of a sudden Jordan takes ’hold of Angela’s hand ... but I also really really really like the season/series finale, mostly for the look Angela gives Brain right at the end; and my favorite episode of Seinfeld is the one in which George is the bad seed ... no, wait, the one where Kramer brings the set from the Merv Griffin show into his living room ... or maybe one of the classics, like the one where they’re waiting for a table at the Chinese restaurant, or they can’t find the car in the parking lot, or they have a contest to see which one can go the longest without, uhm ... yeah.

: )