Today, a quiet one. Worked the past few days, some long and far too busy, others long and far too quiet. Plans to go to a friends today for dinner & a movie thwarted by my "I'd prefer to be by myself" disposition. I don't know if she'll understand, she's unemployed and would love to hang around people. I'm employed and love my solitude. It's the holidays and I'm "that" friend you can't rely on.
Outside it's raining. This, the new season, replacing winter, "Atmospheric River".
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Facebook; a posting of a person I recognize, "street-elder", now deceased at 66. I'd see him daily, first on a cane, then on a mobility scooter, this - the scooter, it's the end. When the community - be it church or otherwise - buys you a scooter it's time to throw it in. It's always this way.
It gets me thinking - of the people I haven't seen the past few days, weeks, months. Few out here get an obituary, really, and so what has become of them? It's a long list. Gabe, Sasha, Bee, countless others really, and it's as if the environment around you is deteriorating, being replaced, slowly, surely, without your noticing....
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L*****, local homeless resident and loon, being gifted an abundance of outdoor-living supplies for Xmas. Sad to say the next night I'd passed him he had none of it - and while it would be easy to suspect it was stolen, it's just as easy to imagine he woke up, looked at it, and then just moved on.
He's like that. He used to try and corner me for a conversation - that's his thing, but after a few false starts I learned the drill and to keep walking. Not to be cruel but he has nothing kind to say, he's unhoused for a reason.
Still, you have to love a town that does this for it's most vulnerable residents.
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What disappears is replaced. In this instance a pair of - what I'm guessing are - "twins", beautiful women; one blonde, other brunette, that resemble each other in person but also in manner. New arrivals at my morning cafe, to watch them talk is a delight, they mirror each other's every gesture, word, I imagine them to be in their late 30's, early 40's, who knows, but I've run into them a few times, they're in their own world. I can't eavesdrop, and don't for a moment suspect they're discussing anything of intelligence, merely the trifles of the day, but they are so animated and invested that I can't help but being amused...
It's their "rapport". You seldom see that nowadays, people in sync, on the same page, topic, that's what makes it such a delight.
Today they're interviewing a third person - another fit thirty-something woman in exercise gear; together on the same side of the table opposite their friend/prospective employee/client, who knows? But that they are so thoroughly on the same page is amusing and I'm distracted from my book. Not to be too obvious but it's a curious thing.
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And - so far, this is the news. Nothing new, a quiet day, a load of movies downloaded, a very fine book that I'm close to finishing, a host of Christmas Cards that need drawing and colouring and why do I have all these fine art supplies and not a single Crayola crayon???