Snippets of Today
Tuesday, November 5, 2013 at 11:30PM 
Snippets of today...
Something beautiful:
Sometimes I look at the sky and wonder if anyone else loves it as much as I do. Then I get on Instagram and know that the answer is yes, they do. One of the best skies around these parts can be found above a shopping plaza with a Lowe's, a Target, a Giant Eagle grocery store, and a gas station. Weather seems to roll in from behind the Lowe's, and I've seen some amazing thunderstorms come rumbling into that parking lot from beyond the distant treeline. Today, as I stood in that plaza and pumped gas into my car, half of the sky was dark hazy blue, an early twilight. The other half was bright gold and clean blue, wisps and streaks and tuffs of white clouds, all of it bedazzling in the late afternoon sunlight. It was the golden hour, infusing even a concrete jungle with magic.
Something true:
The elderly woman who works at the library spent a long time explaining to me the process by which books flit from city to city as part of the county's interlibrary loan system. I thought at first that she was lecturing me, scolding me for wasting the librairians' time, since I'd put a few books from another branch on hold and then forgotten to pick them up. But her eyes were dancing and her voice was kind, and I realized that she was just keen on how it all works: the lists that print out each morning, the green bins of books sorted by branch, the van that shuttles all those volumes from place to place. I didn't quite know what to say, but I wish I'd thought to tell her: "You do good work here."
Something funny:
Tonight, a friend pulled a hand-crocheted something from a plastic shopping bag and handed it to me, saying, "Here. Give this to your husband." Before I tell you what that something is, you need to know the back story. My friend's father-in-law used to work at a nursing home. When one of the residents, whom I've decided to name Edna, passed away, she left bags and bags of yarn behind, which no one claimed. The father-in-law said he'd take the yarn home to give to his wife, an avid knitter. That's when they found, amidst Edna's bags and bags of yarn, a white plastic Walmart bag filled with these crocheted things. They came in various sizes and colors, including rainbow, camouflage, red and white striped, and a soft ivory. A note in the bag read, simply, "22 25 Peter Heaters." Yes, Edna had crocheted more than two dozen coverings for the male genitalia: one tubular compartment connected to two round compartments, adorned with pom-poms at the end of two long tassels*. Sweet goodness, I have so many questions for the dearly departed Edna! Including, but not limited to, what prompted her to decide that 22 just weren't enough Peter Heaters. And if she'd lived longer, would she have crossed out that 25 and kept adding to the collection? I want to know: What was your story, Ms. Edna?
(*And no, I won't post a photo of it, but if you do a web search you'll find plenty of similar visuals for your amusement.)
Reader Comments (4)
"Edna" sounds like a fascinating lady - I wonder what other fun secrets she had laying about.