Re-leaved!

A bit of wind is trying to re-carpet the freshly raked lawn with leaves. Already, I hear the crunching of pine needles underfoot when I walk on the driveway, swept clean just last evening. There is no keeping up with the trees this time of year. I do like the look of the street when it is paved in brown and gold, though. It looks all warm and shaggy, as if wearing a big sweater. I'm wearing a big sweater right now, myself. I'd like to be drinking tea, too, but it's too near bedtime for that. I just sit here poking the keys with my half-numbed fingers, which would feel so much better if I could wrap them around a hot teacup. The good news is that the virus appears to be vanquished, or nearly so. If I don't turn the heat up, it won't remain so, though. Say goodnight, Sluggo.

Raccoon Dream

I woke up too early. I woke up before noon! There was a dream. I've forgotten the early part of it. The part I remember begins with me accidentally shoplifting two golden delicious apples (a faint blush of red tingeing their perfect skins!) from a supermarket. I had the apples in a plastic produce bag, and got lost, ending up walking out the automatic door and onto a narrow pedestrian street that was where the parking lot would have been expected.

When I realized that I had left the store without paying for the apples, I tried to get back in, and was scolded by an employee, a woman with gray hair, for trying to go in the "out" door. I explained my purpose, and she, with a skeptical look that said she believed me to be a lunatic and a thief, let me back in and pointed me toward the checkout stands. The lines at the stands were long, snaking back through crowded aisles, and I remember thinking no good deed goes unpunished. Instead of waiting, I decided to look around the store.

Then I found myself in a sort of annex to the store- a big room with asphalt floor and lots of empty shelves. A few zombie-like people pushed shopping carts around, but the room was otherwise deserted. Wandering through the room, I came to a shelf where raccoons were on display. They were actual, live raccoons, though they had a rather Koala-like look to them. I thought it outrageous that raccoons were being sold in a supermarket. They were in pairs, one sitting on the lap of another behind it. One raccoon took a liking to me, and licked my hand. I picked it up and put it in a shopping cart I had suddenly acquired. As I began pushing the cart back toward the part of the store where the checkout stands were, the raccoon opened the bag of apples, which I had also placed in the cart, and began eating one. I was thinking Well, at least I won't have to pay for the apple, but I wonder how much the raccoon will cost? I never found out, because I woke up. Despite the fact that I had only slept for a bit more than four hours, I was unable to get back to sleep, and eventually got up and spent the afternoon dusting and cleaning the house, and changing the bed. But I kept thinking about that raccoon. As far as I can remember, this is the first time I've ever dreamed of a raccoon. I've visited that supermarket in my dreams before, or one very like it, though. I probably will again. Maybe I'll find out how much they charge for a raccoon.