Thanksgiving Tangents

A woman and a man came up the trail I was descending this morning.

We greeted each other while passing. Who wouldn’t? And then the woman asked me,

“Is it muddy?”
“Why. Because your shoes are so pretty?”

They were really pretty just-outa-the-box, silver-colored cross trainers, or tennis shoes, or whatever they’re called these days. I’m not up on all the current lingo.

And by the way, jsyk, it’s not “cool” to tell a woman that you like the frosting in her hair. “Frosting” is an old term as it turns out. Now it’s called “highlights.” And depending upon when you read this, they might be now called “Sparkle Streaks” or maybe “Spacy Fakes.” I’ll certainly never know. But yeah, she was worried about her shoes.

It matters at this time to mention that it’s never what you say, but how you say it that’s critically important. The way you say stuff has everything to do with how your stuff will be perceived and received.

When I looked at her shoes and made my comment, that 35-year-old woman giggled like a child. I wasn’t making any fun of her shoes and she could tell by the way I asked. Body language, facial expression, tone of voice… all of this stuff is way more meaningful than your words.

Anyway, I told the both of them of a particular 12-foot stretch ahead and how they could both keep to the left without any shoe-soil incident.

Earlier, I had a run-in in reverse with a guy in a giant Indiana DNR truck.

I was on the side of the road, in a park, out of state, and trying unsuccessfully to photograph plant life under overcast skies.

Come to think of it, why was it cloudy? The weather forecast was Sunny. Not “kindof” sunny, or “maybe” sunny, or “we really have no idea” or even the more catch-all midwest forecast of “Partly Cloudy.” No. The forecast was for Sunny today, which is why I made the trip in the first place. And yet, it was not Sunny.

Anyway, he pulled up, slowed down, then stopped right next to me. I thought he’d say that I wasn’t allowed to park on the side of the road. What’s the big deal? There’s nobody out! I was prepared to defend myself and my actions.

The guy was about my age. But big. Really really big. He had the window down and leaned his left arm on the door frame while facing me. I have a 400mm lens so I knew I might be able to take him if he’s not happy with my parking prowess, but then I saw it. On his face was a BIG ol’ smile. He actually looked a little like Santa Claus’s younger brother.

“Isn’t this just a beautiful Thanksgiving morning?”

Squirrel at Feeding Station at Pokagon Windows on World

I briefly remarked to him precisely how beautiful it was, and why, and then he agreed and wished me to have a good one and drove off.

So yeah—this post was going to be about something else but instead, it isn’t.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. Got your coats out? It’s time for coats!

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