Now and Zen

I tell myself I'm a practitioner of 'get along by going along' and 'live and let live.' I had a painfully timely reminder the other day that I am an awful liar on both of those points.

I shower at work when I arrive for the day. Let me back up for a moment. I set my alarm for 0330 and tend to get up at or about 0300 so that I can be at the fitness center by 0400(ish). I have sadly discovered merely having a membership doesn't help me live forever, which is #mygoal, but going in may say some scientists help me do that. So far, so good. So what, you say. Fair enough.

I get to work around 0530ish, depending on traffic, which does seem to get out of the way when I put the flashing red, rotating light on the roof of the car ($49.99 on Amazon (plus CT sales tax), two day delivery with Prime). The siren is on back order and I can't wait.

I no longer bound up the five flights of stairs in my building (right now it has somebody else's name on it but that's more out of habit I suspect) as all the years have taken their toll on me and by the time I get to the third floor landing I am winded and look for the elevator which someone always leaves on the 5th floor and it takes a moment, mulling over its decision to descend before arriving where I am and taking me upstairs. 

I hit the shower with the same vim and vigor I always have, repetition doesn't seem to dull my enthusiasm but I was startled the other day, as I closed the shower curtain (the last thing I take off are my glasses) and encountered a spider whom, in retrospect, I realize was just as startled if not frightened to see me as I was her/him. 

I wonder if we look as ugly to them as they look to me. "Eeek! Only two eyes! And only two legs!?! What's that about?" I can imagine one of them yelling followed by a series of very loud 'crunch' noises as I step on them repeatedly and with ever-increasing amounts of force.

That's not what actually happened in the shower as the spider was on the shower curtain and was heading south even as I started waving my arms attempting to fly. After an hour of cardio on the treadmill, it was nice to get some more in I guess. 

Showers are not as well-lit as a spider-avoider like me would prefer, but I was able to see a small blob, that I think was the spider, slide on a water stream across the floor of the shower and then disappear down the drain. 

Mindful of Itsy-bitsy's legendary climbing prowess, I allowed a large amount of hot water to cascade across my head, shoulders, and torso while silently hoping the spider had not had SEAL training. 

I keep checking back in the shower, throwing back the curtain and peering at the drain. So far, so good though (and it may just be my imagination) but it looks to me like my conditioner is a bit low and spiders do have hair on all eight legs, so I remain vigilant.
-bill kenny