Owls and Pussycats

That was a busy week. Most of it is a blur, but I had a few thoughts that stand out.
Like rotten meat. Ryanne traded in her back pack for an over the shoulder bag that is big enough for Mom to use on a trip across Europe. It has flaps and side pockets and zippers and compartments that hold way more stuff than a fifth grader needs. Ryanne is very proud of the fact that she has it so full that it weighs half as much as she does. I don't know what is in it- that's private- but she assures me that there are no rocks.
But there was meat. She described a disgusting and dreadful lump of a greenish color. When I told her I would get it out, she said I had better use tongs.
It turned out to be less dramatic that the image in my head. Over the holidays she had tucked a couple pieces of summer sausage wrapped in plastic into one of the book bag pockets and it had been lurking ever since.
Of course it wasn't rotten, even the meanest bacteria couldn't survive on summer sausage, but I wasn't going to suggest that it was edible because who knows what had bumped around with it these last five weeks. Ryanne likes to keep her collections in her pack, and not all of her collectibles are dead. But considering it was sausage....
And speaking of food. When I was in a book store today, I saw a salad recipe book. Because I didn't know that salads required recipes, I picked it up and the pages fell open to announce a squid and endive salad. Note to recipe book writers- if you are going to use squid for food, find a different word for it. Take your cue from sweetmeats and chitlins cooks.
Also this week. Jerry got a library card. Those who know that he hasn't read a book since he was forced to in grade school might be surprised until I tell you why.
When Jerry does his mall walk, he sometimes goes past store sales that are too good to be true. In this case, a GPS gadget for $25.00. Normally it costs closer to a hundred and fifty, but it was probably mismarked, and that's what he paid for it.
While he was having lots of fun getting directions to different places around Bellingham (a small town that he has lived in for over forty years not counting when he delivered packages here as a teenager) he discovered that among other things, he could download books with it. To prove the point he downloaded Black Beauty off the internet. (I never realized what a goofy story that was.) So when one of his coffee-klatch buddies told him how to download library books, my husband turned literary.
So, there's that.
Remember those old made for TV movies based on real life murderers? The kind that Farrah Fawcett and Elizabeth Montgomery did so well in? Did you ever wonder what those 'borderline personalities' did to earn a living? What if someone like that was a waitress at one of those casual chain restaurants that Jerry and I go for dinner every week and we got seated in her section when she was in a mood?
The owl is back in the Douglas fir tree. It serenades me in the early evening. The odd prolonged call that made me think of a sick horse has been replaced with a more serene whoo whoo.
So that's all I have energy for now, but I will leave you with one more thought: cats are predators that, if hungry, would eat you without remorse.
Nancy Sherer