Grayed Out: A Small Tale

The day starts out miserable looking. The sky is a pale uniform gray that seems to leech the color out of the surrounding buildings and foliage. It is thick enough that I can't pinpoint the sun at all. No variation in the clouds to show they're even moving.

I perch on my chair by the window and spend a few hours reading. The time passes quickly. When I finish I get up to stretch and move a bit when I notice something. My pj's have become lighter in color, less vibrant. And the dark green cover of my book has developed streaks of gray. I look outside once more and notice that everything nearly blends with the grey that covers the sky. I consider this a moment and shut the blinds. I don't need my hardwood to lose its multi-stained look.

Tomorrow calls for sun. Hopefully I'll remember to put my book on the window ledge to return its green cover.

Drain: A Small Tale

While I was out walking along the pathway yesterday I saw a hole in the ocean. It was not a terribly big hole, but it was wide enough that I could see down. Farther down than what could be considered a normal depth.  I think it's a hole in the world, draining out into some star system in the universe. Or perhaps opening up into another section of the world and falling back down like a waterfall.

Temporal: A Small Tale

The city looks small from afar. It still looks pretty small even once you reach the border of it and drive in. But surprisingly the town holds more within its borders than the average passerby expects.

Despite the town's relative small size it has an odd knack. No matter where you needed to go in the city or elsewhere it would take 15 minutes. Just need to take a quick jaunt to the nearby store? 15 minutes. Freeway to get to the other side of town? Also 15 minutes.

Rumors abound of people trying to break the 15 minute limit. They are for the most part urban myths. Supposedly one person did it. And supposedly wanders the streets, unknown and unrecognized by his former friends and family. Haunting the streets of his city.

Reflections: A Small Tale

I window shop during the holidays. It's a favorite pastime. Every shop pulls out all the stops to become an eye catching commodity. The windows become brightly lit dioramas, showing you a glimpse, a moment, of something unique.

But as I walked passed something felt off. I paused in front of a particularly festive window. The lights were twinkling in time to some music, but it was not the decoration that was wrong. It was the reflection that I was looking past.

I stepped back a few feet, and watched the reflection of the city-scape sharpen. But is was not the same cityscape. The buildings were all wrong. Some were shorter, most were of a different color than the uniform gray. And the people, were not the people walking past the sidewalk behind me.

I stood there for a long while, unable to turn around. I can't say if it was the desire to stay in what I knew, or hope, for a moment, to see this new city that suddenly looked more like home than home did currently. I wasn't sure which one I would end up in.

Birdhouse: A Small Tale

It sits innocuously on the shelf. A birdhouse. It could be thought of as a curio piece. Except that I have birdseed and water attached that are clearly not fake.

The question I get, is why do I have food and water indoors?

It is set up for birds, I reply.

Well then, why isn't it outside for the birds to use? 

I have house birds that live indoors. 

Then either derision or confusion, since no birds can be seen twittering about the house. It gets chalked up to whimsy or eccentricity.

I don't mind though. The birds are shy and don't flutter about the house when strange people are about. They come when I least expect it. I can see them best in the morning or late afternoon. When the light strikes them just right and facets of light bounce, creating beautiful rainbow shades.

A Sweet Present Unveiled

I've been neglecting my blogs for the past month. I did not mean to, I've just been a bit busy lately. I've been collecting paperwork and helping get things ready for an awesome new change in my life.

We bought a house!

This is a big thing for my husband and myself. Up until now it's been renting apartments and houses with roommates. I thought we would be renting until retirement. But we finally decided that if we're going to keep tossing money at housing it might as well be something we can invest in. 

I already have all these thoughts, ideas, and plans for what I want to do. I have no idea which ones will stay an idea and which will become reality but I am so looking forward to it all. I can change the paint color if I want to. Rearrange the furniture because I won't be reduced to a single room to use. Create a unified theme of decorations throughout. Or at least attempt to. And build an entire wall of bookshelves to place books and random stuff on.

::sudden epiphany::

I can start doing all those crafts I've seen online that I've always wanted to make. All the things I've been waiting for to do that space constriction necessitated that I wait on.

So no more waiting.

No more trying to keep stuff neatly organized between my space and theirs.

No more keeping it all in small spaces, boxes, and out of sight.

No more telling myself that the thing I wanted to do wasn't feasible.

Because the entire space is mine mine mine!

::kermit flail::

Yay!!!!!

Wait....

So what does this mean in terms of my blog?
Well I can finally unpack those boxes of books that have been hiding away in storage for a year and a half. I can go back and hold my books in my hands.

I'll be busy the next few weeks moving stuff and unpacking. But I'll do my best to keep my reviews going.  If I veer off and start talking about something other than books forgive me. I'm just really excited by all this. 

So hold on. This ride is going to finally take off after so much mechanical delay.

Spider: A Small Tale

I see the webs constantly. I just think it's just an unusual season of bugs.

The spiders are trying to tell me something. I don't even realize this at first. All I notice is that I'm finding cobwebs in the oddest of places. My car window, the bathroom, across the back door.

I would dismiss them as nuisance were it not for the webs themselves. They've gradually become complicated creations, with strange knots and whorls. Sometimes when the light strikes them just right I can even see different strands of color.

I don't know what the message is.

I'm worried I won't figure out the message in time.

Wind Chimes:A Small Tale

It's called the music house. Wind chimes hang all around the front of the porch. And more hang in the back.

Dozens of them in metal, wood, and one rumored to be glass. They twinkle and jingle quite merrily when the wind comes to play.

Some days it's a soft lullaby. Others it's a jangling chorus. But even on the stillest of days, one is always making a sound.

One in particular stays eerily quiet. The one that looks of glass. A friend once asked me why it never chimed like the others. I simply smiled and replied that the right wind hadn't come around yet.

Herding: A Small Tale

I  like to go hiking into the mountains to get away from the city for a time. I encounter many unusual things when I'm there. Things that city logic tell me shouldn't be. Some of it I tell my friends, but mostly I keep these events to myself.

They look like sheep from far off. Small fluffy objects being herded this way and that by a shepherd with a stick. I don't see a sheepdog helping or here the sound of bleating. It isn't until you get closer that you realize those are not sheep.

It seems impossible to believe, but there they are. Small clouds are being herded about the grassland. They prefer the high altitudes where the air is thin. The lower elevation is too heavy for the fragile baby nimbus.

They're not sheared, not precisely. The wisps are gently gathered and spun into fabric so fine and light that they'll float away if not weighed down.