DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

One of the area’s aging hippies approached me in the checkout line, gave a playful tug on my son’s foot, and confided with twinkling eyes, “My ‘little one’ just turned 33!” He wore denim overalls, and his grey-white hair was pulled back in a rough ponytail. I’d hate to draw too many parallels between my life and a Bruce Willis movie, but I thought: minus the beard, that’s me in 2038.

“If you ever doubt you have what it takes,” he went on, “know that you do. Or else you wouldn’t have been given a gift like this!”

And I said, “What, the frozen asparagus?”