Retail Therapy

I like cold weather, but the sudden drop in temperature from yesterday, along with the blustery wind, made being outside today a little jarring. It didn't help that I didn't bundle up as I should have when I took Luck for her afternoon walk, and we weren't far from the house when I had to fight the urge to turn around and head home. 

I didn't, but I did amend the route I had planned, and we walked instead through the small shopping area close to our home. Seeing the holiday decoration in progress was a good distraction. When Lucy put on the brakes to visit the drugstore, an establishment she frequents with Heidi, I shrugged, enjoying the warm blast of air when the automatic doors opened. 

We trolled the aisles for a few minutes until Lucy stopped short at a display of dog toys, nosing one that had little squeaky stuffed pieces of fried chicken in a bucket. I shrugged again, and off we went to the register. 

Back outside, the cold didn't seem quite as onerous as it had before, and I detached the toys from their cardboard, gave each one a squeak, and handed them to Lucy, who carried them all the way home.

Bowling Parties

We went bowling with some neighbors this afternoon to celebrate Heidi's birthday. The center was pretty deserted as our group of six settled into our two lanes, but the quiet didn't last long. A party of twenty or so started bowling down the way, and their cheers for each other rang through the center. Then a group of ten kids under ten took the lanes to our left, but they were more interested in us than we were in them. 

"Is that the lady who just bowled a strike?" a little boy of about eight asked me as Heidi walked away.

"Yes!" I answered. "But have you seen this guy bowl?" I pointed at AJ. "It's crazy!"

He had a style of hurling the ball two-handed from his hip, spinning down the lane with speeds of over 16 mph, and there was a satisfying clap and a lot of pin action when it made contact. It was also very effective: his high game was a 185.

The kid was only minimally impressed. "I bowled two spares already," he told me before trotting off to take his next turn.

A little while later, one of the moms was bowling alone, using the bumpers and cleaning up most of the pins on her second ball. "Nice!" I congratulated her as she picked up a tricky split.

"Thanks," she laughed. "All the kids are in the arcade, and I figured somebody should actually bowl!"

Hi Calypso

A sweet, earthy smell rose from the leaves crunching beneath our feet as we walked the trail around Royal Lake, and the golden light of the November sun turned the lake into a mirror reflecting doubles of the bare trees, geese, and blue heron. 

About a third of the way around this familiar trek, we noticed something new. One of the homes that backed to the trail had installed a horse fence, and a wee little Shetland pony craned her neck to watch us pass. 

"Are you allowed to have a pony here?" I wondered aloud. "It's awfully residential."

"Let's introduce Lucy," Heidi suggested, and so we made our way up the short spur to the enclosure. An informational sign was posted by the gate. "Her name is Calypso," Heidi read. "You can feed her apples and carrots," she continued, "but not from your hand, because that may encourage her to develop a nipping habit."

"I have some apple slices in my bag!" I said.

"You do?" Heidi was surprised.

"Of course! I packed snacks!"

Oh, But It's Cold Outside

"Sometimes it would snow on my birthday!" my Buffalo-born and bred wife is fond of saying. Over the years, I have tried to plan celebrations that might provide that burst of early winter cheer. In addition to actually returning to Buffalo, we have also spent some of her birthday weekends in Pittsburgh and other points north. 

But the snowiest birthday of all was the year we went to Santa Fe, New Mexico. There was a dusting of fine powder on the old plaza, and our breath blew icy plumes in the cold desert air as we walked to breakfast. The huevos rancheros, Christmas-style, warmed us almost as much as the suede Western jackets and scarves we had purchased the night before. When our plates were cleared, we drank one more cup of hot coffee, looking out on the snowy peaks of the Sangre de Cristo mountains.

According to the weather forecast, we don't even have to travel this year to experience an arctic blast. In the coming days, cold records dating back two centuries may fall. Will there be snow? Doubtful. But it will be cold! And there will be a fire in our hearth and warmth in our hearts. Happy Birthday, Heidi!

My Calendar is Clear

My sub job went to the end of the day, so I decided to accept a former student's invitation to the basketball game. As usual, the game was late to start, and I was one of the few adults standing on the sideline by the bleachers for quite some time. 

Eventually, a new teacher I knew joined me, and we chatted as we waited for the clock on pregame warm-ups to tick down. As we got closer to the jumpball, she looked around to see who else of her colleagues was there. "Wow!" she shook her head. "Not a lot of staff here."

"More people will probably come when the game gets going," I predicted.

"There's only like four of us here," she said with a little dismay. "And you don't even work here full time."

"That's right!" I laughed. "Which is why I actually have time to come to the game!"

Courtesy of the Supermoon

The supermoon in Taurus this morning, the full Beaver Moon of November and the brightest of the year, is said to bring abundance and connection, and I found that there was something to that today as I shopped for a few things for Heidi's birthday on Friday. 

When I brought my selection to the register in the first store, I had a question about another item I wanted to purchase. Their website stated that it was available, but I hadn't been able to find it. Lucky for me, the guy working the register was the manager. He looked up the thing on his phone after I showed it to him on mine and then radioed back to the storeroom. When they didn't retrieve it after a few minutes, he excused himself to go help. A little while later, another employee returned with the manager's apology: they couldn't locate the item, but, for my patience and inconvenience, they wanted to give me half off the thing I was buying.

Good deal! 

I went to another store for the second thing, and found it there right away. In line, I pulled up the app and my shopper barcode. Again, I was checked out by a manager, and when I confessed to not being able to find my coupon, he found it for me and then gave me another ten bucks that I was close to earning. He also offered a special treatment to help maintain my purchase; it cost 8.99, but he gave me five dollars off my next purchase to offset it if I was willing to try it. 

I sure was! 

In the end, I spent two-thirds of what I might have, and I came away with an abundance of appreciation for my fellow humans and the random acts of kindness to which I had been fortunate to receive.

Zowie!

The young lady sitting at the table, talking to my bowling teammate, looked familiar. Still, out of context, it was hard to tell if I actually knew her or if she just resembled one of the kajillion young people I've known in my career. I listened to their conversation as I changed into my bowling shoes, and she sounded a lot like the sister of a girl I taught a couple of years ago. "Are you out of school for the election?" I asked her.

She nodded.

"Where do you go?" I said, and when she mentioned our neighborhood high school, I knew it had to be her. "I think I know you!" 

"I thought I knew you, too!" she laughed, "but I couldn't figure out what you would be doing here!"

"Me?" I responded. "What are you doing here?"

"That's my great-grandma," she pointed to one of the bowlers, "and those are my great-great aunts." She gestured to my teammate and her sister.

"That's nuts!" I replied, and I meant it on at least two levels-- not just being reminded of the community connections that people so often unknowingly share, but also the impressive improbability of having a great-granddaughter in high school and still bowling on a league.