Monday

I was grouchy this morning - the back to school blues. I had no appetite. So I took a very long walk with Lily not the usual way but down Privilege Street to the park with the little waterfall. I climbed up the hill labeled No Trespassing imagining getting arrested and I bushwhacked along the tall chain link fence out to the street. I walked the neighborhood and came upon all the elementary school kids from Edgewater Drive waiting for the bus. They all know Lily. They gathered around and she sat down in the middle while they all were petting her on the head. She'd be purring if she were a cat, I said. The girl with corn niblet teeth laughed and the girl with mini silver Christmas ornaments for earrings said her little sister in the car was going to throw up. Then the kids yelled bus, bus and the big school bus came around the corner and hauled them all away. I kept walking. I ran into the elderly lady wearing her fur-rimmed hooded white coat walking her tiny dog Oreo who was wearing a little red coat. She told me her 89 year old neighbor died. He's lived here over fifty years, she said. I ran into Riley the golden retriever and his mom. By this time I was so hungry my stomach was growling, and I began imagining my next meal. When I got home I fried two eggs in a tiny piece of bacon fat, in my mini skillet and I made toast and coffee. A good morning after all.