Social Butterfly? in Everyday Ramblings

I was making the bed day before yesterday and so I moved the second cat bed up on the workstation and turned around and…That is Carlo on the left and Diego on the right.

After some investigation I discovered that trek pole snow baskets (for snowshoeing) could be purchased separately for not that much and I wanted to get one of those reflective strip vest things that you wear over your clothes. It is not really a vest but a group of highly reflective strips that you hook on over your coat. Pedestrian deaths are up a bunch this year and the main cause is distracted drivers so I walked across town to REI yesterday morning.

I arrived just after it opened and as I was wandering around where the trek poles used to be I came across a bent over woman much older than me asking a fellow if he needed help and after he declined I said I did. She was great. Pointed me to all the places I needed to go and that included a back stairway I had no idea was there.

When I went to check out there were three young healthy tall cashiers with nothing to do and the middle one flagged me. He is gorgeous; so gorgeous I was almost speechless… and that does not happen to me often these days. :)

He reminded me of Eric from True Blood, Alexander Skarsgård, not my type but then neither was Mr. Finch (ha!) and he told me his mother’s name was the same as mine and we got talking about names and skipping generations and what was old fashioned becomes hip. He told me his mother was in her 40’s.

It was a very pleasant experience.

On Wednesday I took the bus down to the grocery and a woman next to me complimented the color of my jacket, (it is lovely, a burnt orange) and we started talking. She has 5 kids, all natural births and is about to turn 53. She had her first at 14. We got onto menopause and she told me that there was no way I looked 65. I laughed, she was just lovely and strong, how can you not be incredibly strong with 5 kids and 4 grand kids at 53?

As I suspected I am having way more positive human contact now that I am not working.

After REI I went to Powell’s City of Books. I haven’t been there in some time. Mr. Finch and I used to go there every Christmas Day afternoon. I was thinking of that when I went back to the poetry section to hang out.

So I heard this science story about how the reason smells evoke memories instantaneously is that in the brain we don’t filter and organize smells the way we do sight and hearing. It is a protective device to help one get out fast if there is danger.

I sat down on a bench with a lovely book of criticism by an author I admire and read the first half of an essay but what I was really doing was being flooded with memories. Powell’s, even in its sleek new iteration has a particular smell.

It was something.

Then I went to an art gallery close by where the partner of one of my students (who has occasionally come to my class) had a joint show. She is a photographer and the show was about the natural world.

It was fascinating to me because I have shot at many of the same locations as she has. I send out reminder emails to my students twice a week and often include a nature photo.

Technically her skills are better than mine but compositionally… no way. She gets bonus points though for following through and getting and mounting the show. Some of the prints are going for $400 each.

You have to be really really good to get those kind of prices for a photo someone else has taken.
This morning Mrs. Sherlock and I talked about this as we walked with Frida.

Mostly I took photos of trees we were trying to identify. The light is so low the pictures turn out blurry.

But still it was nice to be out and about. I’ll keep my bird feeders in for a few weeks and then put them back out and see what happens. I think someone complained about birdseed on their car or something I would never do.