Salamander
Fire Walking

Yet a different day, yet a different Starbucks. This time I’m on Main Street in My Little Town. I’m positioned with my back to the counter, facing out through the picture windows. I munch a mini-scone while watching the mid-day parade. I’m the only computer user facing this way, so while I can identify the other brands of machine I’m comingled with (it’s a virtual orchard in here) I can’t see what anyone is doing. No matter, since the outside is far more interesting than the inside right now.

I amused myself for a while by counting the ratio of sedans: SUV’s: pick-up trucks: others that went by, until I started getting depressed. Then I switched over to noting how many SUV’s went by with only one person it them, versus how many sedans went by with more than one person in them, but that got even more depressing.

So, what else can I tell you about beautiful downtown Salamanderville? Immediately next door to my Starbucks is a Walgreens. Its flashing light tells me that the time is thirty-three minutes post noon, that the temperature is 57°F, that the in-store clinic will be glad to give you a flu shot for $24.99 (and why not $25.00 I wonder; have they an excess of pennies they need to dispose of?), that Wheat Thins are on sale for 2/$5. The sign lists the prices for toilet tissue, two liter bottles of cola, and a gallon of bleach as well, none of which I would think of purchasing at a pharmacy except under duress. Now the temperature has dropped to 56°F.

The trees along Main Street match the slowly falling temperature. The maple across from me is patched with red, orange and green, but the green is in the minority and destined to continue losing ground. The walnut tree behind it is nearly naked, save for some sickly yellow leaves clinging for dear life. Bunches of green orbs bend some of the branches downward, and a squirrel dances out towards the waiting nuts, bouncing up and down like a furry cross between a trapeze artist and trampoliner. The spindly cherry tree planted immediately in front of Starbucks hangs onto its green leaves as though it could hang onto summer itself. The poor thing is in for a rude awakening in a week or two.

Its not yet October, but the pub behind the patchwork maple tree across the way is festooned for Halloween. A plastic skeleton draped in a cape worthy of a Harry Potter dementor blocks the neon beer sign hanging in the front window. Its boney hands hold a five foot banner that proclaims BEWARE! ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK! Other canvas signs stenciled “BEWARE” dangle from fake scythes with their poles planted in the ground . The pub’s owners have draped a huge black spider web over the other front window, with a huge fuzzy spider in the middle of it. All I can think is that somebody who has read too much Tolkien and Rowling has a major time and money disposal problem on their hands. The place is scary, but not in the way the owner intended.

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Enough of the mood music. I note with interest that the condo across the way has a Welcome Basket hanging on its front door. I'm pretty sure that the new occupants move in tomorrow. I plan on spying if I can; I've been playing with that short story I mentioned in an earlier entry and I'm hoping to learn a little more about my new neighbors by observing. If the opening presents itself I may even go over and bid them welcome. I'm not a Welcome Wagon kinda gal, so that's going to force me out of my comfort zone a bit, but I can't see that being a bad thing.

In other news, I decided that I wanted a wedding band to go with the emerald and diamond "engagement ring" that The Prof got me seven years ago, when we thought about getting married after I was diagnosed with end-stage liver failure. I knew what I wanted, but didn't see anything close to it at any of the chain jewelry stores in the area. I went to a favorite artisan's store in the area today and found exactly what I had in mind, so I ordered it. I'll post a picture when it comes in a few weeks time.