Highlights: A pleasant morning coffee watching birds and catching up further with Matt and Laura. I'm getting more comfortable there and may return in December if circumstances allow. I don't feel like as much of an imposition as I had before. I'm actually far more comfortable sneaking downstairs in the middle of the night, drinking and diluting their liquor so it's not obvious, rooting about the sofa cushions looking for spare change like a dog sniffing for dropped food at a bbq, and of course, going through their mail. I'm looking forward to them being out of town soon. Lauren's ordering a keg and telling her friends about the party already. The return trip was smooth, and about 80% was self driving, which expires tomorrow and this was a good use of it. I think if I drove enough daily I'd subscribe but I don't. I dropped by the pie pickup party at Wendy/Mark's on the way home, to meet Jen and Tommy there. We socialized. Once home I helped Jen get the table inside, knocked off some action items including FAFSA applications for both. Trimmed my hair, too.
Insights: I found a dead bird on the side patio while waking with Scottie in the dark tonight. I almost stepped fully on it, and I was barefoot, too. I felt a soft sense of sorry for it, but I felt connected to it too, as I did with Lauren and the redwoods when we paused awhile. Hmmm. A theme is developing. I'm becoming more observant or perhaps more intentional in such instances. Don't worry, I'm not turning into Ricky Fitz staring intently into Lester Burnham's lifeless open eyes. Still, I am encountering things suffering or dying more frequently than "usual." Unrelated (
maybe), I noticed two directly adjacent billboards outside of Sacramento on the drive home. The first said "Healing Ahead," and beside it was "Car or Truck Accident?". It seemed both foreboding and backwards :-)
