The things I mean to do

Timing is everything. It really is. And good fortune, I think, exists in how you look at the series of events that've led to where you are. People are lucky in retrospect, always.

For instance, because my life to this point has been built on a foundation of spring weather in Macon, baseball and driving, I found myself experiencing total euphoria as I rode home from a late dinner with my girlfriend. She'd just given me a copy of the 2007 Great American Short Story Collection, a gift she picked up in Indiana. Thanks to her generosity and the fact that Braves games are being broadcast on 105.5 The Fan, I drove home with the windows down, smelling the clearing humidity and basking in the still warm air, thinking that nothing else could be as nice as that.

If I could have, I would've bottled it. I would've shaken that bottle up and taken a big drink, and then I would've drawn my own blood, laced with the feeling, and I would've dried it out so I could smoke it. Then I would've mixed the ashes with water and shot it into my veins. It felt that good.

For the past two afternoons, I've gathered with the Macon Improvement Authority for softball practice. Boy howdy, nothing compares.

After a couple of practices at other fields, we've settled into a routine at the Masonic Home for Children, which is one of Macon's hidden gems. Hidden in that you drive through Shirley Hills thinking that the rows of nice houses will never stop until you're face-to-face with this hulking brick building and acres of land you never knew existed. Its neighbor is the backside of the Barnes Estate, a near-mythic ode to garishness, glimpses of which you can see through the brush and collapsing fence around the property.

This land is my land. This land is your land. This land is weird as hell, and we don't recognize that enough. If you haven't made friends with resident aliens--people who have come to Macon from somewhere else--do so immediately and get them to point out some of the things you've been missing. It's totally worth it.