Randomness

Friday night while driving home from dinner, the car in front of us slowed down and stopped. We pulled over to the next lane to pass the car. There was a mound of something in the middle of the road but we couldn’t see what it was. Slowly the car proceeded and an OWL rolled out from under the car. I screamed very helpfully, It’s an OWL! I made my Sweetie turn around and go back to see if we could help the owl. I have no idea what we would have done with an injured owl at 9:00 pm but none of us could drive away. When we got back around another car had stopped too. S and a teenage boy from the other car approcahed the owl sitting in the middle of the road and the bird flew off to a wooded area. Just to be sure, we looped aroud again and found the owl sitting in the grass. He looked annoyed when S approached him again and this time flew off to the trees apparently unharmed.

****

Ever watch a dog dream? Sometimes they run, woof, or growl in their sleep? Well, Molly is the only dog I’ve even known to wag her tail in her sleep. She will actually wake me up in the middle of the night when her tail thumps on the hardwood floor.

****

Saturday the boys participated in Relay for Life and were gone for the afternoon and entire night. S and I weren’t really quite sure what to do with ourselves. We went to the movies, then birthday present shopping, and finally out to dinner. We encountered two very odiferous women at two separate places. While wallking into the auditorium at the multi-plex, an obese woman walked in front of me and she reeked of body odor. We paused before we followed her in. Once inside, we quickly found our seats while she and her husband wandered around. Then they decided to sit next to me. S and I got up and moved three rows back. Whew! Dodged that bullet. The second woman was doused in heavy perfume and sat at the table next to us at the Japanese restaurant. The perfume was cloying and made me cough and my eyes water. What do you do in a situation like that? There were other available tables. Do you ask them to move seats? S and I hurried up to finish our meal, paid the bill, and left. We were really enoying ourselves and it would have been nice to sit at our table and relax a little bit.

****

After hundreds of thousands of years of evolution, you would think that the big toe hair would have been eliminated by now. Really, what’s its purpose?

****

Lately I’ve noticed that my feet hurt after I’ve gone for really long walks. I came to the conclusion that I needed to get some new sneakers. S urged me to try New Balance shoes. He really likes them and they are still made in the US. I’ve tried New Balance shoes in the past at discount stores and I always found them too tight across my foot and not enough support for my high arch. But I agreed this morning to go to the NB store to get properly fitted. Well, the shoes still don’t fit me comfortably. The sales woman seemed rather annoyed that I didn’t like them. She even tried to convince me to buy a pair of orthodics to put in the shoes so they would fit better. Why, oh why would I buy $145 shoes and then put $60 orthodics in them? Instead we went to the Adidas outlet and I bought a pair of sneakers for $70 that actually fit my high arch without inserts.

****

Mr. A received his registration packet for the Naval Academy. The manila envelope contains an inch-thick stack of informational papers and forms. I just looked through it briefly. It was an overwhelming reminder that our son is not only leaving for college but also entering the military. Deep breath.

Photo courtesy of The United States Naval Academy. Class of 2014 Induction.