Song: Comfortably Numb (Studio Version)
Group: Pink Floyd
Although I thought today was just going to be a normal day
of eating out and then doing some shopping...
everything just seemed so strangely perfect today.
It started last night...
right after I had triked up the mountain with Bandi.
I came back, stretched, and took a hot shower...
and then...
even though I hadn't fallen asleep until about 4 AM...
I had some solid sleep (my blackout blinds allow this)...
until 2:30 PM.
I woke up feeling fully rested...
and feeling especially good from the previous night's workout.
Exercise always makes me feel so good...
for days at a time.
But...
this was just the beginning of this perfect day...
as other things would work out...
of how other events just seemed to fit together so well...
with new and extremely pleasant experiences built upon the next
to magnify the following experiences...
until everything just seemed so strangely perfect.
My wife and I stopped in to our favorite Mediterranean restaurant in Woodland Park.
I love their decor...
as I have always loved stained glass.
They were also selling stained glass lamps.
I saw these and thought how I had finally seen some artistic sense
in a world filled with such artistic nonsense (majority of modern "art").
Although I had been there before...
this was my first time I had their beef plate.
OMG...
it was so delicious.
At first...
I noticed how strangely they had cut the spiced beef...
but upon taking one bite...
I realized how tender, juicy, and out of this world flavorful it was.
The spices used in the meats of Greece, Turkey, and Persia...
are like nowhere else I have tasted.
It is beef perfection.
And everything else was also just so tasty and perfect.
I gobbled up my first meal...
and started on my second one.
This was the second pleasant surprise of the day...
an incredibly delicious meal...
of which made me feel like a young child filled with excitement and joy
which seemed to flow throughout my body.
After I had eaten...
I then finished everything off with a double shot espresso shake.
This was not only the best espresso shake I have ever had...
but it had cost half of other places.
Then...
jazzed on caffeine...
I was extra sensitive to all experiences...
with my mind on hyper drive...
but my body in a serene state from the previous night's exercise.
I had also gotten a beef and falafel gyro.
It was also very good.
My wife had gotten a variety plate...
and she liked everything as well...
but she especially loved the Baba Ghanoush.
I had initially dropped off my wife at Walmart so she could shop at her leisure...
whereupon I then went to a car wash...
only to find that they close early on Sundays.
And so...
I just drove back to Walmart to wait in the parking lot
for my wife to finish her shopping.
Just as I had pulled into the parking lot...
the above song came up on my playlist.
As my windows were down...
and as my music was on pretty loud...
just as I was pulling into the slot I had chosen...
a woman about my age was loading her groceries into her car next to me.
Just as I had begun my turn into the slot...
she looked up at me and smiled...
and I smiled back.
It was then that I had realized that she had heard the song I was playing
(Comfortably Numb)...
and that for that brief second in time...
she and I had both found a musical kindred spirit
(Comfortably Numb is one of the greatest songs of modern music history...
by the greatest group of all time...Pink Floyd).
It...
again...
felt strange that I had shared that moment with someone from my generation...
and that she had appreciated it so openly.
It had never happened to me before.
This made me strangely happy as well.
As I waited in the parking lot...
I was treated to a wonderful view of a nearby mountain ridge line...
with the sun setting behind it.
I just played the song over and over...
and enjoying it so much that if I could have sung better...
I would have openly sung it right there in the parking lot...
and I am talking getting out of the car and belting out my best
David Gilmore impression :)
(yes, I was that jazzed by this song at the time)
The clouds were partially misted...
and so...
added to the play of the sun upon the clouds.
I deeply felt...
the soulful playing of the bass guitar of Roger Waters...
the beautiful lilting melody of the keyboard of Richard Wright...
the masterfully simple and expertly punctuated drumming of Nick Mason...
and the absolutely majestic guitar playing and pure vocal tone of David Gilmore...
of which all add up to the perfect song...
one which there is no room for improvement
(with the exception of their live performance...Pulse concert 94'..
of which was of such musical perfection
that it shall stand in legendary status for all time).
The temperature was in the mid fifties...
and there was a slight breeze which just made the mood all the more magical...
as the buffeting of the wind upon my face seemed to be in time with the music.
I had such a great time just watching the clouds before me...
listening to the perfect song...
my mind reliving my greatest memories in life...
of having the deepest feeling of how it was such a perfect day...
and as ludicrous as it sounds...
all in the parking lot of a Walmart!
Many of the most colorful clouds are on the opposite horizon of the sunset.
They often glow with a deep amber or pink so vividly that they seem
to have been artificially lit.
On the drive home...
I kept thinking about why I had felt so extraordinarily good (even for me).
While I am almost universally in a good mood...
today was so special in that not only were all my senses on high alert...
and all shapes and colors seemed to come alive...
and of how my mind flew on a flight of fancy through the clouds
and back through time to my most magical times in life...
but of how my body felt so serene and mellow through it all.
I was like a young child who had
experienced the beauty of life for the first time.
Everything seemed so fresh and new...
so beautifully in harmony with everything else.
---------
The only thing I could come up with
as to my extraordinarily magical mood...
was it was the combination of:
a good exercise session the night before...
which led to a deep and restful sleep...
and with me only awakening when my body decided it was time...
after having slept a good and uninterrupted 10 straight hours...
followed by having had such a delicious meal which had so satisfied me...
that I felt an inner joy throughout my body...
and then having topped it off with something I had never had before...
a double shot of espresso.
Although I am extraordinarily sensitive to caffeine...
and while it was a contributing factor...
I don't think it was the main factor.
But...
I do think I now know.
After reviewing my sleeping pattern...
what I had been doing was falling asleep with the windows open...
and then when the morning light shined through...
I got up and closed the windows and the blinds...
and fell back asleep...
which led to broken sleep.
Last night...
especially now that the temperature has been steadily dropping...
I had closed the windows and blinds before bed...
and so...
my sleep was full and uninterrupted.
Deep restorative sleep is so important...
but I already knew that.
I had allowed myself to fall into doing what was most comfortable in the moment...
instead of doing what I knew was best for me.
Feeling the fresh mountain air upon my face as I got drowsy was so seductive...
that...far too often...
instead of getting up and closing the windows and blinds before I felt too drowsy...
I had allowed myself to fall asleep knowing I would have to get up once the sun rose.
But...
I will establish a new habit from which I will not diverge...
preparing for a full and uninterrupted night of sleep...
by closing the windows and blinds before I even settle into bed in the first place...
so the power of seduction will no longer be a factor.
I think I was getting lazy...
undisciplined...
and so...
I had too often missed out on a core necessity of life...
that of a deeply restorative session of sleep...
as an unbreakable daily habit.
I will now make this a new and rocksteady habit.
That is my strength in life...
I am highly adaptable.
I may do boneheaded things in life...
but once I find a better way...
I readily adapt myself to the better pathway for the rest of my life.
I just felt too good today to ever go back.
