Good Grief

 Last week I turned on the TV to see Jimmy Kimmel deliver a moving tribute on the death of a beloved childhood friend who had remained, with his family, entwined  with the Kimmel family for about half  a century, and who had died too young.  He was visibly affected by the  tribute of memories, but mostly retained his  composure in honor of his longtime friend.

  A few nights ago, I caught John Stewart's show, and saw him shedding actual tears. He who covers every event, of tragic or horriffic happenings, with his usual brand of sardonic humor, was openly crying---over the death of his dog. ...I changed channels, and not out of sympathy for him.

 But in calculating words for the November 30,000, I have not kept track  of how many I've written, probably a few thousand, which outnumber my spoken words, of only a few hundred. 

 The other night I dreamed that my car was stolen from my driveway. I had called my family and some were here; we were all calm and collected while we assessed what steps to take. When I woke up, I looked out the front window, and my car was still there. I'm undergoing the process of finding a new insurer, because my long-time insurer, Main Street America, is switching to only commercial coverage, so maybe that's why my mind was on cars. So another car theft image arose. One warm sunny day in September, a couple of years ago, B. called me, as was her new custom. She felt alone and bored in her house, as school had started and the neighboring kids were no longer playing on the street. I told her to come down, and we  could chat or she could watch the traffic go by. So she came to my house and we were talking and watching TV when she suddenly asked me to look out the window to see if her car was still there. I said look out yourself if you're worried. She said her neck was stiff and she couldn't turn her head. I said the chair swivels. So she looked out the window and her car was there, right where she had parked it a half hour or so before. Imagine that. (It's now 3:15, so Spelling Bee will be available. Good night for now.