Mental Meanderings

Dearest Rachel –

Some time between Saturday night and Sunday morning, I found myself in an interesting situation, but one that – for reasons that will become obvious in a moment – I can’t clearly describe to you. All I can remember of it at this point is that at the time I was thinking “I need to remember what’s going on here, so that I can tell Rachel about it when I get the chance.” I’m not sure I realized at the time that I was in the middle of a dream, but it’s gotten to the point where, anytime anything interesting happens to me, my first thought is that I need to let you know about it; it’s so much of an instinctual response by now that it literally happens in my sleep.

Unfortunately, by the time I woke up yesterday morning, put in my now-customary four miles of walking at the gym, wrote down my thoughts about latest passage I was going through in your study, got dressed, had breakfast, woke Daniel up, and headed off for church, the events of the night, such as they were, had long since dissipated. Whatever interesting activities or insights that had come to me at the time were long gone, overwhelmed by the typical cares of the waking world. Granted, for all I know, they may not have been much even at the time; they might have been utter nonsense when brought forth into the cold light of day. But the fact that I remember that I wanted to remember them preys a bit on my mind, especially considering that I don’t have a whole lot to tell you about this morning, apart from my usual mental meanderings.

But since whatever was running through my head some thirty hours or so ago has long ago departed, I guess you’re stuck with them. Sorry about this.

***

One of the first things to cross my mind this morning was how we’ve finally gotten to the point where August is recognizable as such, even first thing in the morning. After a week of walking to the gym in chilly overcast, this morning’s trek was sunny and bordering on uncomfortably hot, which is just what I expect from this month. Admittedly, I thought to myself about how I really should be more used to these temperatures, having spent most of my late winter and spring in semi-tropical latitudes, but then again, I still retreat every day into the climate-controlled coziness of home (and, apart from church and the gym, I didn’t bother to venture out from it all weekend), so maybe I’ll never be able to let myself truly acclimatize to this sort of heat.

Then again, maybe there’s no point to it, as the old phrase about liking the weather here is a matter of waiting a few minutes for something else to come along. By the time I was done with the day’s walk of ten thousand steps or so, and heading out for home, that bright blue, cloudless sky was mostly overcast – although it was still hot (which stood to reason, since, even though it was obscured by the cloud cover, the sun was now higher in the sky, and its infrared beams were still getting through that much more directly). At the same time, the clouds were mostly in the east and directly overhead – to the west was a clear bluish-white. Essentially, in the hour and a half I’d been out, these clouds had appeared from basically nowhere, crossed my visible hemisphere and moved on to shade other folks beyond me, leaving open sky to take over where they left off; had I kept working out for another hour or so, I might never have known they had even been there.

Of course, I would never have bothered to stay that long; I have yet to spend an entire ninety minutes in that place. Two hours would be interminable, as far as I’m concerned.

***

One other interesting thing happened on my way back, though, and while it wasn’t much of an encounter, it’s not something that happens much on our street. For all that we’re on a busy thoroughfare for cars, we don’t get a lot of foot traffic (you might recall our experiences – or rather, the lack of them – on Halloweens). On very rare occasions, my walk back will include my crossing paths with a jogger or someone on their way to the strip mall I’m just departing.

This time around, there was this old fellow heading north as I made my way south back to the house. As I usually do, I stepped aside for him when our paths crossed, since it was at a point where one of our neighbors’ driveways was – I was still walking on concrete, as opposed to someone’s lawn. However, rather than continuing along on his way, he stopped, turned to me, and in thickly accented English (I couldn’t tell if it was Spanish or some Asian dialect – and if he were Filipino, it might be a combination of both), asked if I could direct him to the Metra station.

I assurred him that, if he would continue for a few more blocks, up to Euclid, he would see the remnants of the old Arlington Park racecourse, and just beyond that, the Metra station he was likely to be looking for. I admitted that I couldn’t rightly tell him how many blocks, exactly, such a walk would be, but it was eminently doable, at which point he thanked me and continued on his way.

As I made my way home, I wondered about how I would do in a similar such encounter, since I’m still beginning to look into the possibility of getting a Japan Rail pass and making my way from one end of the country to the other. How would I do in asking for directional assistance? Would I be able to understand the information that I was given? Or would I just have to rely on my phone and an internet connection to make my way around? Admittedly, technology can take us far, but can it take me far enough that this sort of exchange wouldn’t be necessary? It’s the sort of thing that makes me think.

Anyway, these are the things that came to my mind this morning. I somehow doubt they’re as interesting as the other night’s dream, but it’s all I’ve got at the moment. Still, if you could keep an eye on me, and wish me luck, I’d sure appreciate it. After all, I’m going to need it.