Tom, like Andy, is an article junkie. He told me about one he read that talks of how they discovered another reason why animals sleep and that’s to “clean up” dirty brain cells. Well, if that applies to people, I must’ve had a really dirty brain yesterday cuz I slept for 11 hours! Went down another half a pound, too.

I went out at around 2pm today. It was a bit warm in the sun, but nice. Hazel, as I would soon learn her name was, was out sweeping away, as usual. This time, she was sweeping a small leafless area on the strip of grass across the street that borders the park from a regular neighborhood. I was surprised I didn’t hear tons of barking. Just some kids were all I heard.

I walked and jogged the 4 or so blocks to the lake and the usual dozen or so ducks that live there. There are two white ducks, but one, the largest duck of all, seemed the most curious about me. I got some good pics of my “Sugar” duck as well as the rest of the group and the lake itself. The ducks don’t just quack, but they also make these grunting sounds and this laughing sound that almost sounds like HA HA HA!

So as they laughed and cooed, some in the lake, most by the water’s edge, I saw a guy with a walking stick sitting on a bench across the lake. He got up and walked around to my side and introduced himself as Ron. Ron’s been here 20 years. He moved in when he was 55. We talked about the park, the economy and things like that. He said he’s put about 55K into his house and would be lucky if he could get 30K for it now. He said he didn’t care, though. He’s not going anywhere.

Just like us, his son and DIL used to be big spenders, taking trips to Africa and living large, till the economy sent it all crashing down around them and onto unemployment for 3 years. California is the most screwed up state, Ron said. Yeah, the state every little boy and girl from New England dreams of moving to. rolls eyes

“Kind of changes the way you handle money and makes you want to save it after a downfall like that,” Ron said.

“Oh yeah,” I told him. “My husband makes a lot of money nowadays but I’m afraid to spend a penny of it on non-necessities, even though we do have fun and have a life at least a little bit.”

He said there were also turtles that you could sometimes see on the rocks bordering the lake, but I didn’t see any. He confirmed it’s not very deep. You could walk out to the 3 fountains in the middle that were on at the time, shooting up a gentle spray of water that sounded like light rainfall.

I love it here! Best place I ever lived with or without Tom. Where could I walk safely before? In Springfield and Phoenix, there was the potential for loose dogs with a temper as well as people with ill intentions. In Maricopa there were rattlesnakes. In Oregon, there was extreme cold and snow. In Auburn, there were skunks and possibly bears. Here, I would have a better chance of winning a million dollars than being attacked by a crazy loose dog or by a gangbanger. I don’t take anything out with me but my keys anyway, but next time I go to see my new feathered friend I’ll bring him some bread.

So Ron and I were chatting when a frail woman, also with a walker, came and joined us. She appeared to be in her 90s. Her lavender pantsuit with its embroidered flowers was lovely, though I didn’t see how she could stand to be in long pants and long sleeves.

Dorothy, as she introduced herself, asked where I lived and I told her. She didn’t seem to know where that was at first till Ron said it was over by the entrance to the cemetery. Dorothy has been here for 7 years. As soon as she mentioned being worried about Hazel, who had been out sweeping till after midnight last night, I knew who she was talking about.

Enjoying the chatter, but not wanting to sit the day away and neglect my other duties, I said goodbye and left them in each other’s company, passing Hazel on the way home, methodically sweep, sweep, sweeping away.

I love walking and running out there, although it doesn’t do much for my arms and abs. Still, whenever my schedule and weather permit, I will be out there. Went out again at sundown so the sun wouldn’t be glaring in my eyes. Hazel was still sweeping and I asked if she ever got tired. “Yeah,” she said with a smile, “but I do it till it’s done.” LOL, well, if it keeps her busy and happy, why not? Hell, the woman (in her 90s?) has a better body than I do, though with little muscle and lots of wrinkles.

I could tell the ducks were used to being fed cuz they started quacking up a storm when they saw me approaching the lakeside, which was deserted and about 15° cooler. My sugared duck ran right up to me, haha. Guess he knows he’s my favorite of the bunch. He’s also the bravest so unless there’s something about me he likes, I guess that’s part of it, too. Or maybe he’s the group leader. Not sure what type of duck it is. If my research meant anything, it could be some type of mallard and has a lifespan of about 20 years. Hope Sugar Duck is young! I’ll enclose his pic in my Blogger and OD blogs. I uploaded about 15 pics on FB.

I was only at the lake for a few minutes the second time around. It was getting chilly fast and I didn’t have my glasses so I couldn’t see well. I headed back and said goodnight to Hazel, still sweeping those leaves, some real, some imaginary.

Later…

Poor Nane’s been sick with a “magen darm” virus. Of course I had to Google this to know it’s a gastro-intestinal virus, the poor girl. That’d really suck to have and I hope she’s better real soon.

I’m excited about going for this year’s NaNoWriMo with my favorite writing buddy. This runs throughout the entire month of November, so people might not hear as much from me since I’ll be aiming for about 1200 words a day on top of everything else I do. I even got a story idea after a long dry spell. Here’s the possible synopsis.

Cassandra accidentally hits a young woman with her car. She feels terrible about the incident, but she can’t report it because she’s a wanted woman. Or at least she might become wanted if she were unlucky enough. Not wanting to leave the poor woman bleeding in the street to possibly die, Cassandra’s solution is to take her in and nurse her to health on her own. Being a registered nurse makes this easier to do.

Cassandra soon learns that her patient’s name is Leanne. Leanne has some secrets of her own. As the days pass by, a strange and interesting relationship begins to develop between the two women.

I was thinking of Hit but Don’t Run for the title.

Mac OS’s are now free so we’re going to upgrade me from Snow Leopard to Maverick. Tom tried it out and said it’s pretty identical to the old version. What snagged my interest is that it seems to have the best speech-to-text program ever. It wouldn’t be good for stories and probably not even journals, but for emails and Facebook messages, it should be great.