Uh Oh

     Go up up up up doooooooowwwwwwnnnnnnn roundabout up up dooowwwnnn (scream [or, if manly, yell]) up spin round and round swirl down (scream/yell) and up up down turn round loopty loop (scream/yell) upside down slam brakes.
     And that, my friends, is what is entailed in a rollercoaster! A most enjoyable experience if I do say so myself. Which is why Six Flags is so awesome. You just hop on a rollercoaster, then hop on it again, and again, and again. Once you’ve tired of it, you go hop on another, then another, and another. And you do this all day, or until the park closes. It’s awesome!
     Unfortunately for you lot, though, I am not in the mood to stick to one subject. So we shall not be discussing Six Flags, awesome as it is. Instead, we shall be discussing toadstools! Wait…no, we won’t. I know nothing about toadstools. That was just the first word that came to mind. What is a toadstool? Perhaps a stool for a toad. But that makes no sense. Why would a toad need a stool? Ah well, I’m sure there’s a perfectly logical explanation out there somewhere for its name. I could no doubt find it, but I’m too lazy to go Google it now.
     Why don’t we talk about lettuce instead? Yes, that is again the first word that popped into my mind. But hey, y’know, random words can make for good discussion. Take lettuce for instance. It’s green, and it’s a vegetable, which means that it’s good for you. Yes, yes it is. Some may try to deny it, but lettuce’s wholesomeness is undeniable. Bunny rabbits like it too. So do guinea pigs. And all those other vegetarian animals. They see lettuce and are all like “Omnomnomnomnom!” Humans like it a bunch too (adults anyway). But they have to load it down with all sorts of fixings and flavors. Just plain lettuce isn’t good enough for them. It’s good enough for the critters, though, so I’d say they’re happier.
     Speaking of which, have I ever mentioned how darn cute guinea pigs are? If I haven’t, I’m sorry. If I have, I’m still sorry, because I’m going to mention it again. Those little buggers are beyond cute and they do love a good leaf of lettuce. They also like carrots, grass, leaves, celery, and basically anything that’s green and vegetable-like. You should go Google pics of the little buggers and go “Oooo” and “Aaaahhhh” over how cute they are. Then go buy one of your own and feed it wholesome goodness. Train it to squeak too. They’re even cuter when they squeak.
     Besides cute critters there are barrels of crackers. You’d probably want some cheese to go with those crackers though. Just plain crackers can be rather dry after a bit. Unless they’re Ritz crackers, which are awesome with or without cheese. But the barrel of crackers I was actually talking about was not a real barrel of crackers. Oh no. I was speaking of Cracker Barrel, which, if you think about it, is possibly better than a barrel of crackers. They definitely have better pancakes than a barrel of crackers does. Hhhmmm, a barrel of crackers with pancakes. I think I’m on to something. Possibly some syrup too. Mix it all together and serve with milk. Maybe orange juice, or apple, depending on your preference. You’ll definitely need something to drink with that. Just make sure they aren’t salty crackers. If they are, then you’ll be in trouble which I’m not sure you’ll be able to escape. It will hunt you down and force salty crackers down your throat if you try to escape it. Not a good thing. So just avoid those salty crackers with your pancakes and syrup and you’ll be all good.

Galactic Travel and World Domination

   (When we last left Fred, he, Anthony, and Alexander were about to go places unknown in the alien saucer)

   Alexander reared up and pushed a few buttons on the console.  There was a flash, and the screen in front of them was filled with a bunch of stars zipping by them faster than a bunch of zippy things. 
Fred stared at the stars, mesmerized. “Whoa, that’s so cool.”
   Then there was another flash and the zippy stars were replaced with zippy lasers, spaceships, and explosions.
   “Holy moly!” Fred yelled. “You’ve brought us to a battle zone, Alexander!”
   “Yah!  Blow ‘em all to bits!” Anthony yelled.
   Alexander nodded and lasers began to shoot out of their saucer, blowing other ones to bits.  Something flashed nearby.  Their ship shook violently, throwing them all to the ground.  Except Alexander of course.
   “We’ve been hit!” Fred said. “We have a breach in Hull 9!”
   Anthony and Alexander stared at him.
   “What are you talking about?” Anthony asked.
   Fred shrugged and grinned. “I’ve always wanted to say something like that.”
   Alexander rolled his eyes and went back to blowing spaceships out of the sky.  Under his brilliant piloting, the rest of the ships were soon debris.
   Fred surveyed the scene with satisfaction. “Good work, ol’ boy.”
   Anthony also looked around. “Now what?”
   “Er…” Fred looked around. “I dunno.  Take us somewhere else, Alexander.”
   There was a flash, zippy stars, and then a big, green and blue globe right in front of them.
   “Wow!  Look at that!” Fred shook Anthony’s arm. “An alien world!  A whole new world for us to explore!”
   “Uh, Fred—“
   “Break out the spacesuits, Alexander.  We’re heading down!”
   “Fred!” Anthony grabbed Fred’s arm as he was heading off. “That’s Earth.”
   Fred did a double take and glared at the globe. “Darn it.  You’re right.  Why’d you bring us back here?” He looked at Alexander accusingly.
   Alexander nudged something, bringing up an image on the screen.  One of Jonathan seated on a big ol’ throne with all the world leaders bowing to him.
   “Holy cow!” Fred exclaimed. “Jonathan’s taken over the world!  But how’s that possible?  We just left a few minutes ago.”
   Alexander nudged something else, bringing the date up on the screen.  6/6/66. 
   Fred’s jaw dropped.  “You cannot be serious.”
   “We’ve been gone fifty-four years?!” Anthony asked. “You never said space travel had a time draw thingy, or whatever they’re called, on it!”
   “I didn’t know!” Fred protested.
   “Alexander!” They both yelled at the same time.
   The alligator gave a sheepish shrug and small grin.
   Fred took another look at the screen. “Y’know, Jonathan’s looking pretty spry for a hundred or so year old man.”
   Anthony took a look too. “What are you saying?”
   Fred looked at him blankly. “Huh?”
   Anthony rolled his eyes.  “Fine, I’ll take charge then.”  He struck his own noble pose. “We’re gonna save the world, boys!” Then he stumbled forward.
   “But, but, but,” Fred spluttered. “Didn’t you see the date?”
   Anthony regained his pose, trying to remain dignified. “Yeah?  So?”
   “Can’t we take a vacation and come save the world tomorrow?”
   “No!” Anthony jabbed a finger at the screen. “They need us!  Tomorrow will be too late!”
   “Why is tomorrow always too late?” Fred grumbled. “They’ve done without us for forty-four years, you’d think they could go a day longer.”
   “What was that?” Anthony asked.
   “Nothing,” Fred said innocently.
   Anthony looked at him suspiciously, but didn’t pursue it. “All right, Alexander.  CHARGE!”

   To be continued…

Imagine

     Have you ever thought about what it would be like if you were the size of an ant?  Or maybe a squirrel?  I have.  Many times.  It’s weird.  All those small thoughts running through your head, then you look around and everything is so big!  Just think how big everything must be to an ant.  If Mr. Ant was just walking along one day and out of nowhere a leaf falls he’d be all like “HOLY COW!  The sky is falling!”  What if he actually saw a cow?  Then he’d be like “That ain’t no cow.  That’s a giant, black and white monster that goes moo!  Not to mention its terrible spelling skills and vendetta against chickens.”
     Now squirrels, squirrels are different.  Being a squirrel could be fun.  You’d get to run around trees, gather nuts, and be all cute and stuff.  Sounds pretty sweet, huh?  The only downside is all those predators that would be thirsting for your blood.  Just a small downside though…
     All in all, it’s funner to imagine yourself as a super hero or something.  Well, not a super hero in particular.  Just a personage with super powers.  Then you get to run around, blow stuff up, save the screaming people, beat up the baddies, and all that good stuff.  That’s lots of fun.  When you stop that imagining that one, you always gotta fight the urge to see if you really do have those super powers.  ‘Course, I always give in anyway.  That’d be pretty sweet.  Just a normal Joe one minute, then “I GOT DA SKILLZ!”
     But don’t any of you come crying to me if this whole imagining thing doesn’t work out for you.  You’ve got to have the right kind of mind for it to work properly.  The kind of mind that can see things in a way other people would probably just call weird.  In other words, the mind of a genius.  Everyone knows that geniuses are always viewed as weird, and are weird in some cases.  I’ll bet Albert Einstein counted roosters instead of sheep at night.  That other genius dude probably rode his bicycle to work as he was inventing the automobile.  Then there’s that other guy who eats plain ol’ wheat oaty cereal stuff with no sugar.  Bleh.  Nasty.  That dude really was weird.  They should’ve stuck him in a mental hospital.  Well, maybe not.  He probably wouldn’t have made whatever invention he did if they had done that.  Pity.
     However, regardless of how pitiful it is, I have established that geniuses are so cool that people think they’re weird.  And that you need to be a genius in some way to have these super awesome imagining sessions.  So if you aren’t, and therefore can’t, you have my deepest sympathy.  But if you are, and you can, huzzah for you!  It means you are awesome and shall go far in life.  If you don’t believe me, just ask one of them famous, brilliant, genius, er, dead dudes.  I’m sure they’ll tell you.  And how!

The Flight of the Alligator

   (When we last left Fred, he and Anthony had been abducted by aliens and discovered that Alexander was an alien too)

    Before Fred had a chance to that ominous sounding statement, several loud thuds came from above them, followed by several more.  Then the green light around them turned a flashing red and a deep, cool-sounding voice like from the Sci-Fi movies sounded.
   “Warning.  Intruders.  Warning.”
   The little alien glared at them, then turned and exited the room.  The door shut behind it, leaving them stuck.  Outside Fred could hear muffled shouts, thuds, zaps, and bangs. 
   “What’s going on out there?” Anthony asked.
   Fred shrugged. “No idea.”
   After a few more minutes, everything went quiet.  Then, there was a loud bang and a circular piece of the wall flew inward and conked poor Alexander on the head.  Actually, it broke into fragments on his head, so forget the “poor” bit.
   When the smoke had cleared, in walked Jonathan, followed by a bunch of dudes in battle-spacesuit thingies. 
   Jonathan smiled. “Hello again, Fred.”
   Fred stared at him. “You!?  What are you doing here?”
   Jonathan looked around with a triumphant gaze.  “Securing Earth’s first alien spacecraft.”
   “Yeah?  Well we got here first, so it’s ours.”
   “You were abducted.  That doesn’t count.”
   Anthony stepped forward. “Who is this guy, Fred?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “I don’t care who you are, Mister.  This is our spaceship now and you can’t take it from us.  Not with Alexander on our side.”
   Jonathan laughed. “The alligator?  What’s he going to do against this?”
   He motioned with a hand and the men behind him pulled out big guns and pointed them all at Alexander.
   Fred grinned. “Well well well, not so all knowing after all, are you Mr. Jonathan?”
   Jonathan’s eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about?”
   “I’ll let Alexander show you.” Fred turned to the alligator. “Get ‘em, boy!”
   With a roar, Alexander jumped forward.  The men shot at him.  He ate the bullets.  The men ran. 
   Jonathan stared after his men, then at Alexander, and sputtered for a bit before getting his words out. “W-pht-what happened there?”
   Anthony laughed. “Alexander, that’s what.  Get him out of here.”
   Alexander pushed something on the wall and a hole opened right beneath Jonathan.  Fred and Anthony peered down, watching the man fall.
   “You should probably stop him before he hits the ground, Alexander” Fred said.
   Just before Jonathan became a stain on the ground, the green light jerked him to a halt and lowered him to the ground.  Fred waved and the hole closed.
   “Are the rest of those guys gone too?” Anthony asked.
   Alexander bobbed his head.
   “Nice.” Anthony looked at Fred. “What do you think we should do now?”
   Fred shrugged. “I dunno.  But now we really can do anything.  We have a flying saucer and a super alligator.  Who can beat that?”  He looked down at the alligator. “Hey Alexander, you know how to fly this thing?”
   Alexander nodded his head vigorously. 
   “Right then, lead the way to the cockpit.”
   Alexander nudged something else on the wall and a door opened.  He trundled out with Fred and Anthony right behind him.  They went through a few short and narrow hallways before entering another room.  This one looked just like the other one they had been in, except it had some cool looking consoles and a big screen. 
   “All right, Alexander,” Fred said. “Take us where no man has gone before!”
   “Aw man,” Anthony groaned. “Do we have to do Star Trek?”
   Fred thought for a second. “Nope, I have a substitution.”  He struck a noble pose. “Alexander, take use where no alligator has gone before!”

   To be continued…

World Domination

     I’m gonna take over the world!  And there ain’t nothing anyone can do about it.  Yes, I do realize that was a double negative, but for me, a double negative still equals a negative because it’s just so awesome. 
Anyway, if you try to stop me and I’ll…I’ll…I’ll do something!  I will!  Don’t try me.  Because I, and this is my ace up my sleeve, I am in league with the wind.  Aha!  Weren’t expecting that, were you?  Now you know that there is absolutely nothing you can do to keep me from conquering the world.  For with the wind comes the allegiance of the grass, trees, Bigfoot, aliens, and all sorts of good stuff like that.  Not to mention dirt.  Oh man, you’d better be fearing that dirt.  Oh wait…we established that dirt was harmless, didn’t we?  Shoot…
    Forget dirt then.  Forget everything.  I don’t need it when I have, drum roll please…Fluffy, the Destroyer of Worlds!

     That’s right.  Just look into his eyes.  Do you see any sympathy there?  I don’t think so. He’d blow this beautiful green earth to pieces without a second thought.  It is only my guiding hand on his rather wild mind that keeps you safe.  If I took that hand away, he’d go berserk and everything would be pulverized. 
But don’t worry.  I kind of like it here.  So if you meet my demands, we can all live happily together.
     First off!  You must release all my friends that you’ve thrown in prison.  You cannot silence us.  Our voices will be heard!  Hang on a second…forget that.  I always work alone.  Don’t know what I was thinking.
Second off (or first again, since the other first didn’t really count)!  You must deliver all the treasury funds of the world into my hands.  That’s right.  The solution to all those government problems.  If they can go into debt with zero money, well then the people they’re “paying” are really stupid.  Either that, or they’re scheming and taking the “money”, which they know doesn’t really exist, just so that the governments will be in debt to them, and then they can take over the world.  Well I hate to break it to you, guys, but you’re too late!  I got here first!
     Third off (or second again, since, well, you get the idea)!  All nuclear weapons will be destroyed in the most environment friendly way.  Because, I mean, if this world’s gonna get destroyed, I want it to be clear.  None of this nuclear waste junk.  Fluffy can make a nice, sparkling clean wipe.  So much better than nukes. 
Fourth off (or, you know the drill)!  Aliens will be declared to be at the top of the public enemies list, with Bigfoot running a close second.  If any are spotted, they are to be tickled to death.  If anyone is found to be harboring aliens, and/or Bigfoot, they will be sent to the glacier of perpetual tickling and they will not be happy.  Or, rather, they will be so happy, they’ll be sad. 
     Fifth off and lastly!  You will read every new post that comes out on this blog (Mondays and Thursdays) so that you can see and acquiesce to any new demands I might make.  Like if I want a cheeseburger or something.  I don’t want to have to blow up whole cities to get your attention.  Just reading this blog is a lot easier, don’t you think?

It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s a—

   (When we last left Fred, Alexander had been defeated by slugs and now he, Fred, and Anthony are all in the hands of the PEANUTs)

   Fred, Anthony, and Alexander were escorted outside.  Several yards away stood a large, armored truck.  The armed men started pushing our boys toward it.
   A brilliant red flash lit the sky and hit the truck, completely demolishing it in an impressive display of flames and shrapnel.  For some odd reason, though, the shrapnel only hit the armed men.  It took all of them out, but didn’t touch Fred, or Anthony, or Alexander.  As Fred was looking around looking around in confusion, a weird whirring sound filled the air. 
   “What just happened and what is that noise?” Anthony asked.
   A flying saucer appeared above their heads, answering both questions and pretty much any other question he might have had.  A strange, green light shot out of the ship and enveloped them.
   “We’re being abducted!” Fred yelled.
   Alexander let out an odd yelp/cough/hack and began to float upward.  A second later both Fred and Anthony followed him into the air.
   “This is just like the movies,” Anthony said.
   Fred watched the ground nervously. “Let’s hope not.  The aliens are usually after human blood in the movies.”
   “But there are some peaceful ones, right?”
   Fred shrugged. “I guess.  Everything’s been done these days.”
   As they neared the bottom of the saucer, a circular space opened for each of them.  Fred had a moment of panic as he entered and lost sight of his friends, but then his head came into the green lit interior and he again had Anthony and Alexander in his sight.  Once they were all completely in, the doors shut below them and they dropped to the floor.  A glance around the place showed that it was nothing more than a bare, metal room. 
   Anthony looked a bit disappointed. “Where are the aliens?”
   A door opened in the wall and a little, green man entered. “They are standing in front of me.”
   Anthony jumped a few feet into the air at the sight of the alien. “Whoa!  Alien!”
   “That’s right, you are,” the alien agreed.
   “Huh?”
   “I was simply agreeing that you are indeed aliens.”
   Anthony looked confused. “Wait, but, you’re the alien.”
   The alien shook his head. “No, you are.”
   Anthony shook his head harder. “Nu uh.  We’re human.  You are not.  Therefore you are the alien.”
   The alien shook his head harder than Fred had thought possible. “No.  We are Vilon*.  You are not.  Therefore you are aliens.”
   Anthony finally realized he couldn’t out shake the alien, so he settled for glaring. “You were alien first.  Right down to your saucer and green beam thing.”
   “You are alien right down to your clothes.”
   “Well you—“
   “Give it up already, Anthony!” Fred interrupted.  “He’s an alien, you have no idea how long he could go on like this.”
   Anthony grumbled, but didn’t say anything out loud.
   Fred gave the alien an apologetic grin. “Thanks.”
   “For what?” the alien asked.
   Fred gestured to down below. “For saving us back there.”
   “It was no our intent to save you.  We were simply retrieving our alligator.  But he would not come without you, so we had to bring you.”
   “Oh,” Fred looked down at Alexander. “Well in that case, thanks Alexander.”
   The gator looked up and the tip of his tail twitched back and forth a few times.
   “Now,” the alien began. “The question is what to do with you.”

   To be continued…

*Pronounced, V-i-lon

Epic Stuff (And Other, Not So Epic Stuff)

     You don’t have any friends.  Nobody likes you.
     …Dobby!  Dobby likes us!

     Those, my friends, are some of the funniest lines from an extremely funny award presentation for Gollum, from Lord of the Rings.  If you haven’t already, watch it now.  “Gollum gets an award” or something like that will no doubt bring it up on Youtube.  But read the rest of this post first, otherwise you’ll be laughing so hard you won’t be able to.
     Speaking of Lord of the Rings, that’s one epic trilogy, ain’t it?  Full of epic dudes doing epic things with epic stuff.  Can’t get much epicer than that.  And it teaches great lessons.  Such as “One does not simply walk into Wal-mart.  A great evil resides there” and “One does not simply stop procrastinating”.  Boromir was such a wise guy…before he gave way to temptation and died.  Ah well, he had a bunch of epic lines and died an epic death.  What more can a dude like that ask for?  An epic afterlife?  If it had been Star Wars, he probably would have gotten that too.  But it wasn’t.  So he didn’t.  Poor sap.
     But enough of that.  Lord of the Rings is old news now.  Now we got some serious hobbit business going on.  Not to mention dark knights that are rising.  And avengers that are assembling.  And, uh, that’s all I can think of.  But those are all gonna be pretty serious business.  With some serious smashing, and not just by the Hulk.  It’s gonna be all like…serious…y’know…
     However that there is a topic that hath runneth dry.  For me anyhows.  Therefore we must move on.  To new places where new things runneth over in multitudes.  Yes, runneth is a new word too.  Sounds catchy though, don’t it?  When you wanna speak all ancient like with the “thee”s and “thou”s and all that good junk.  So I think I shall consider it officially invented, because I do like a good jaunt in the stone ages every once in a while.  Where technology fails to runneth over.  Tis a sad state.  Poor wretches.  Luckily for them, they enlightened themselves and are now doing quite nicely, if I do say so myself. 
     This talk of old talk makes me think of accents.  Which makes me think of British people.  Which reminds me that I want to go to England.  I wanna go meet British people with genuine British accents and eat fish ‘n chips and talk about tea time!  Well, probably not that last bit.  Can’t imagine that’d be very entertaining…  But the rest of it would be.  I’d have to go see the palace dealybobber and the bloody tower place…or whatever it’s called…  Hm.  Maybe I should do a little research before heading to England.  Wouldn’t want to arrive there and not have a bloomin’ idea what I was doing.  Ooo!  I know what I’d do.  I’d go visit 221B Baker Street and have a powwow with Sherlock Holmes.  He’d no doubt be able to clear up that little mystery of the disappearing cheeseburger.  And mayhaps I’d have the good luck to run into some strange dude with a blue box.  Although, from what I’ve heard, he’s been in America a lot these days…

Reasonably Unreasonable

   (When we last left Fred, he and Anthony had just witnessed Alexander take out the PEANUT HQ single handedly)

   Suddenly, a voice boomed out. 
   “You have incurred the wrath of the PEANUTs!  You shall now die!”
   “Oh yeah?” Fred yelled back. “Just try it.  Alexander can whoop the lot of you!  With his eyes closed!”
   The voice chuckled. “But not if he is in fear of his life.”
   “Alexander isn’t afraid of anything,” Anthony yelled.
   “Except for…” the voice paused dramatically. “Slugs!”
   Fred and Anthony looked at each other, then busted up laughing.
   “Slugs?” Fred asked, when he had regained his breath. “Seriously?  He can eat bullets, he’s not afraid of slugs.”
   “A demonstration then,” the voice said.
   A slug came flying out of nowhere and landed on Alexander’s nose, and Alexander freaked.  He started jumping around and making weird yelping noises. 
   “It’s just a slug, Alexander!” Fred berated him.
   Alexander didn’t care.  After a few seconds, he managed to flick the thing off his nose and then went to hide behind Fred and Anthony.
   “See?” the voice gloated.
   “That doesn’t make any sense,” Fred protested.
   “Well neither does an invincible alligator!” The voice’s cool broke, along with his, er, voice. “An invincible alligator is impossible!”
   “Yeah?  Well I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation.”
   “There is no possible reasonable explanation.  Just like there’s no reasonable explanation for his fear of slugs!”
   Fred thought for a second, then his eyes lit up. “Maybe he was experimented on by aliens!”
   The voice snorted.
   “No really,” Fred continued. “And they used slugs on him, so now he’s deathly afraid of them.”
   “There are no aliens!” the voice practically screamed, losing all calm. “It is statistically impossible for there to be other life in the universe!”
   “Well it’s statistically and reasonably impossible for there to be an invincible alligator.  What do you have to say to that?”
   The voice spluttered for a minute, then regained some composure. “Be all that as it may.  It still stands that your invincible alligator is afraid of my slugs, and therefore you are now my prisoners.  If you resist, the alligator will be tortured by his greatest fear, and you both will be killed.”
   “I’ll die before I give in to terrorists!”
   “Yeah!” Anthony added. “Me too!”
   “Very well.”
   A bunch of armed men came tromping in through all the doors, guns in one hand, slugs in the other.  Alexander cowered beneath Fred’s legs.
   Fred’s hands shot up. “Wait!  I changed my mind.  I surrender!”
   Anthony’s hands joined Fred’s in the air. “Yeah.  Me too.”
   The voice chuckled. “I thought you might.  Take them away!”
   As the men lead them away, Fred whispered to his friends, “Remember guys, tis better to surrender cowardly and hope for rescue, then tis to die a horrible, terrible, awful death for nothing.”
   Anthony frowned. “Who said that?”
   Fred gulped as one of the men jabbed him in the back with a gun. “I did.  Just now.”
   Anthony looked up at the ceiling. “We’re doomed.”
   Alexander whimpered in agreement.

   To be continued…

Under the Trees

            Today's post is one of those rare reflective ones.  I'm afraid it will not provide any laughs.  But it will provide something that is, perhaps, more important.  It's something I wrote a while ago, something I consider to be one of my better pieces.  I hope you enjoy it.

It is fall.  The trees are changing colors, almost right before my eyes.  Winter is fast approaching, summer but a distant memory.  As I walk through the trees alone, I feel different.  When accompanied by a friend or family member on a walk such as this, I am, how should I say, buoyant, happy, maybe even joyous.  But when I am alone, I do not know, something changes.  I am not sad, nor lonely; it is a strange state of mind.  Reflective, some might call it, others might say brooding, but that would be incorrect, for brooding brings to mind unhappiness and I am not unhappy.  I think that reflective captures the mood the best.  Yes, I become reflective.  Of my past, others pasts, the future, even things beyond this world.

  I walk under the trees with a soft wind rustling the leaves and I think on these things with a rather detached air, as if I am but an observer of my own mind.  My emotions change as quickly as do my thought processes, but always the changing colors of the trees remain a perfect background, matching my thoughts, molding them you might say.  

A woman passes me with a polite nod, which I return.  Then she is gone, both from view and memory, like a passing thought that did not stay to ingrain itself.  And yet she leaves traces.  We have so many memories, as quick and fleeting as the woman was, or would have been to me.  I would never have thought of her again, but my mind attached a small significance to her and that little tag will create a small nook in my memory in which she will forever abide.  Had I not been alone I would not have even noticed her, she would have been only one of the countless people I encounter each day.  Another face to forget, or clutter the mind with as a well known sleuth may have put it.

The day is waning.  The light is fading as the sun slowly sinks beneath the horizon.  As the light disappears the cold asserts itself.  The breeze is no longer the soft flow of air that merely rustles the leaves.  It is swift and sharp, slipping through every crack in my clothing to find bare skin to chill.  I shiver and quicken my pace, my thoughts turning to more present events, thus ending the strange mood that comes when I walk alone, under the trees.