I'm gonna blow this damn candle out
I don't want nobody comin' over to my table
I got nothing to talk to anybody about

Yeah, I should probably write something about Rick Perry, Mitt Romney or Michele Bachman. Or maybe I should write about some recent meta-discussions on Facebook about when it is appropriate or not to read Facebook messages or who you should friend or unfriend.. Then, there is technology. I could write more about Empire Avenue, or maybe Google and Motorola. On the other hand, I could just not put up a blog post today. I’m pretty tired. I could channel Joni Mitchell and blow this damn candle out.

Yet just today, I was telling people about putting up a blog post everyday, even if it is merely the discipline of working on my writing. So, that’s what I’m ending up doing this evening.

I looked around the house. The last light of day was fading, but I could still see the rocks and trees out the window; nice, but not enough of an image to motivate me this evening. I’ve been very interested in reflections recently, those reflections that seem to float out of context; the reflection of a reflection, the reflection of my face on the cellphone as I’m bringing up the next app. This evening, it was the reflection of the stairs on the office window.

I started picking songs out and playing them on Spotify on my cellphone. “The Summer Knows”… “Dancing Cheek to Cheek”… and then it came to me. “The Last Time I Saw Richard”. I’ve been thinking a bit about Joni Mitchell recently since there was a segment about her on one of the NPR weekend shows. The person spoke about the cafes she mentioned. It struck me that cafes have changed a lot. Joni Mitchell sang about some dark café. Now, we’ve got twenty-first century entrepreneurs sitting in a Starbucks typing on their laptops in hopes of finding that next big deal.

The last time I saw Richard was Detroit in '68
And he told me all romantics meet the same fate someday
Cynical and drunk and boring someone in some dark café

My house guest this weekend left me a bottle of Jura Scotch. Isle of Jura Scotch is a rich smoky single malt scotch. The sort of scotch I used to enjoy a lot when I lived on a sailboat back in New York City a few decades ago. I pour myself a small glass and sit down to write. Hopefully, I haven’t gotten too cynical and drunk and boring you with this blog post. Probably I should stop before I reach that point.