Almost

"Wanna go to the movies?" I asked Heidi this afternoon.

We had already had the pleasure of playing pickleball with Bill and Emily for hours this morning, and Heidi was teaching water aerobics at 6:30, but the movies seemed like a perfect idea for a Friday afternoon in summer.

There was a showing of the new Mission Impossible that fit neatly with our plans for the rest of the day, so we just got our tickets and went to the movies. An act that four years ago might have seemed less than notable, was again today almost less than notable.

Almost.

Still Thinking

How strange to spend the earliest days of August windows open, a mild breeze wafting through the house! I nearly pinched myself-- the weather has been more like summers past spent in an oceanfront cottage in Maine, or in a cabin on an island in a little lake in Wisconsin, or even in a condo in Rochester, Minnesota. Going to bed without cranking the a/c dares me to dream of spending summers somewhere else.

But where?

(and what about those winters?)

Publicity Stunt

I'm not sure how I learned of the Frenchs Mustard-Skittles event, but when I did? I knew that our yellow-mustard-loving niece, Annabelle, was the target audience. 

Billed as a promotion for National Mustard Day on August 5th, Skittles and Frenchs chose three east coast cities to give away their bright yellow, limited edition mustard-flavored candies the week before the big day, August 5th. Those cities? Atlanta, Annabelle's home, DC, where many of her extended family live, and NYC, where she was born.

Unfortunately, we were leaving Atlanta the day before they were going to give away the special Skittles at Ponce City Market, right around the corner from my sister's house. Not to worry, though, Heidi and I headed downtown at 11 AM this morning for the 11-3 giveaway here in DC. Not gonna lie, the line stretching all the way around the block,  was daunting when we first drove by. And it took a minute for us to find parking, but when we did? We booked it the two and a half blocks to City Center Square to secure our place in line.

As we waited we admired the brightly painted vintage VW van and watched as those ahead of us tossed red and yellow bean bags at a target board for swag. The day was beautiful, too, low 80s with those big puffy clouds sailing through deep blue skies, and the mood of our fellow waiters was jolly. The guy behind us looked up the going price on eBay for the tiny bag of candy we were hoping to receive, and gleefully reported that there were several bidders above 50 bucks on the auctions he found.

It was fun to people watch-- notably the family of seven all dressed in mustard color t-shirts, but also the regular crowd of folks who might be there to shop at Tiffany and Gucci. About 30 minutes in, there was a rumble of disappointment, even as a celebrity chef arrived, posing for pictures with those a little farther ahead in line. A young woman with a bright yellow t-shirt and a sympathetic expression on her face began working the line to break the news that, according to their calculations, we wouldn't get any Skittles. Our consolation was a QR code that we could use to enter a drawing to win what we had already shown up to get.

Oh, the line held on for another 25-20 minutes, until the organizers announced that they were out of everything. Still a little loathe to lose our place in the line we had waited in for so long, we lingered, even as a couple in expensive suits walked by, loudly proclaiming how delicious the sweet and sour little yellow spheres were to all of us who would likely never know.

Crazy Odds, Part 3

 ...and we never saw a single white squirrel in Brevard.

Crazy Odds, Part 2

The shadows were getting a bit long when we pulled into Brevard, NC around 5:30 PM. Situated at 2,225 feet above sea level, the town of 7,775 is the seat of Transylvania County in the Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains. We were there for the white squirrels and their accompanying swag, but it was Sunday Night, and most of the merchants of Brevard had already rolled up their sidewalks. 

There were a few establishments open for business, though, and when we entered one of them a little after 6, I replied to the friendly greeting the clerk gave me with a terse, "When do you close?"

He laughed it off. "I'll be open for at least another 30 minutes," he said, and then waving to the sidewalk displays outside, he added," I won't even start bringing that stuff in for another half hour, so take your time."

I thanked him, but before I could follow Heidi deeper into the shop, he asked, "What brings you all to Brevard?"

"We're just passing through," I started, and then, in a quite uncharacteristic way, I filled him in on the fact that we were from the Washington area and we saw a white squirrel, so I researched them and found out about the colony in Brevard, then we were visiting my sister in Atlanta and decided to stop in Asheville on the trip back, so how could I not stop in Brevard?

He nodded politely, and when I was done he said, "My sister lives in D.C. and she has a white squirrel that she feeds. Are they common up there?"

"I don't think so," I replied. "I've never seen one before. Has your sister seen many?"

"I don't know." He shrugged. "It's kind of a long story," he told me. "I've never met her before. We just connected over a DNA test."

I nodded. "And white squirrels, I guess."

"Yeah, those, too," he said, and then he started in on the flying squirrels he and his wife have at their home outside of town.

Crazy Odds, Part 1

In addition to that statue of Grant we saw on our walk around the National Mall last week, we also saw this:

A white squirrel!

The sight was so unexpected that of course, I had to do some research on the phenomena. It turns out that there are two types of white squirrels in North America, albino and leucistic. Albinism is a congenital lack of pigment in eyes, fur, and skin, and leucism is a condition of partial loss of pigmentation, and never in the eyes.

Ours was clearly albino, its eyes were pink. Albino squirrels are exceptionally rare, occurring 1 or fewer times in 100,000 births, but my research revealed that there are several places across the U.S. known for their robust colonies of white squirrels, most of which are leucistic.

Coincidentally, one of these towns famous for its white squirrel population is Brevard, N.C.-- a community right on the way from Atlanta to Asheville, a route we planned to take on the way home from our visit with my sister. No question, we had to stop!

Change of Clothes

Never mind the Halloween displays in all the stores here in Atlanta, Even though school starts Tuesday, it is still July, and it was 94 degrees today. But the blazing heat and humidity didn’t stop a group of young people standing on the corner across from the mall from wearing their North Face down jackets. 

“Kids are so weird,” Heidi shook her head as we drove past. 

No question.