Here’s a picture Teej took last night of me as I showed Richard the ropes on the wormlips blog: how to write a new post, formatting standards, stuff like that. As you know, this was the first time I’ve shared my blog. You don’t think my presence is putting Richard under any pressure, do you?
An hour later, when I stepped into the country night with an armload of things to put in my car, I found all the doors had auto-locked. The keys lay safely on the front seat. Luckily I’d left the windows open so I could reach in, but no matter what I did I couldn’t get the doors to open. I pulled the lever to open the trunk, which not only opened the trunk but set off the car alarm. What’s strange is that I don’t have a car alarm. I climbed in the front window and started pushing random buttons and turning the car on and off, but nothing worked until Richard suggested I pop open the hood. Hark: there was silence as mysterious as the chaos of a moment before. Remember that trick when you try to turn off an alarm that doesn’t exist.
Not long after, heart still speeding, I crawled into bed with a borrowed book: The First Word: The Search for the Origin of Language. Just as I started hitting my reading stride, there was movement in my peripheral vision. You know what it was: a well-endowed, fast spider racing under my covers, bound for my legs. I leapt straight up twenty or thirty feet. Airborne pillows went east while the comforter flew west. In my panicked hands sheets snapped likes sails during a hurricane. But the spider had already sped to safety in some crevice of my mattress. I slept vigilantly.
Later I’ll post a video from yesterday of TJ calling spotted owls.