My pager had gone off in the middle of the night again for the third night in a row. Some produce company in the bowels of Syracuse had lost their phone service and it was time to become SuperTech; no time for tights, no time for a thunder clap, a flash of lightning or an orchestral accompaniment as I made the change, I’d had to act fast and I had to do it in the buff.
After burning what’s left of my eyesight out staring into the bright LCD in the dark of night, I did what I needed to do, involved the people that needed to be involved and forwarded said produce company’s main phone to a cell phone, I kicked back on the futon, hoping to catch the last hour of sleep before having to really get up to start the day.
It was then that I thought, “you know, it’d really suck if I were to die in my sleep right now.”
I realize that a thought like that is quite morbid, but when you’ve been jarred awake for the past several nights by the shriek of your friendly work pager, odd things start floating around in your brain.
It’s not that I’m afraid to die. At all. Despite what the bible beaters will have you believe, I just know in my heart and soul that there *has* to be something better than this on the other side. I just know it. This can’t be all that there is because, well, that would really suck. Think about it; if the meaning of life is making money for “the man” and trudging around with a bunch of basically insane lunatics in every facet of life, then life would suck royally and I don’t believe that the Universe would have it that way. No I think this is a proving ground. You do well, you go on to a better place. If you have more lessons to learn, well, then it’s try, try, try again for you.
After having these thoughts all race through my head, I decided that I would skip the futon, take my chances with another jarring pager announcement and snuggle up next to Earl. Because if I go, I’m going to go a happy man.