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Echoes From the

Loafers’ Club Meeting

My doctor says I need to listen to my body.

That’s a good idea.

Not really. All I get are complaints.

Driving by Bruce’s drive

I have a wonderful neighbor named Bruce. Whenever I pass his drive, thoughts occur to me. The wind blew with a villainous gusto. Its voice had been a demanding one all night. It was cold but not cold enough to be a bother. Sharpened corn leaves flew across the road like machetes thrown by the wind. The woman ahead of me ordered coffee by giving the barista a dozen modifiers. I had a short order, “Breakfast tea. Hot.”

Thanksgiving is the taste of memory. We had some Thanksgiving leftover lefse this year. How sweet that is. Lefse is an entrée, a dessert, a napkin and is available for emergency note-taking. It’s just the thing to resurrect an appetite in need of rebooting after feasting like a king. Life is good. I missed Black Friday sales again this year. I’ve never made purchasing a flat-screen TV a traditional part of Thanksgiving.

It’s the Christmas season. I know because I heard Burl Ives singing, “Have a holly jolly Christmas. It’s the best time of the year.” I drove home in some nasty weather. It wasn’t raining cats and dogs, it was snowing weasels and snowy owls. Some of our species of weasels don a white coat in the winter and become ermine.

A peripatetic galoot

A fellow airline passenger was wearing his good luck socks. I know because when he removed his shoes, his socks read, “Good Luck Socks.”

I walked around Juneau, the capital of Alaska, with no roads connecting the city to the rest of Alaska or North America. There were suits (men wearing suits and ties), but it was apparent that backpacks are replacing briefcases. I seldom hear that impressive clicking like the door of a Mercedes when briefcases are opened or closed.

A young woman carrying a clipboard near the multi-user, all-gender restroom at Sea-Tac Airport. I’m not certain, but I suspect she was a survey taker asking questions about what people thought of the large restroom that opened this year. I’ve encountered no  survey takers outside a men’s restroom at an airport. If I did, I’d assume they were from the Pew Research Center. Later, I read a newspaper referencing a survey of white-tailed deer. It surprised me the deer would respond to a survey. It didn’t involve restrooms.

I strolled around Haines, Alaska, late at night. Haines is where pedestrians have the right-of-way. The town was quiet. I wanted to applaud the silence. For a Minnesotan, Haines is a bit out of the ordinary. There are mountains. I walked alone with my thoughts and those mountains. Anne Lamott wrote, “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.”

I’ve learned

Each time I ring the bells for the Salvation Army, I find inspiration in others.

As we age, our bones soften and our arteries harden, so it evens out.

The electrician hadn’t shown up. I wondered why until I saw his picture on a milk carton.

You should do something every day that frightens you. So answer your phone.

Bad joke department

Who was that ladle I saw you with last night? That was no ladle, that was my knife.

A dollar store wig is a small-price toupee.

What is benign? It’s what you are after you be eight.

Lena fell into a wishing well. Ole said, “I didn’t think it would work that fast.”

Ole and Lena were walking down the street when Lena said, “Look at the dog with one eye.” Ole covered one of his eyes and said, “Where?”

Nature notes

Some oak and ironwood trees hang onto their brown and curling leaves in winter. This is called marcescence and usually occurs on the parts of the tree that haven’t yet formed flowers. Commonly, trees exhibit marcescence when young, but lose this characteristic when older and usually the rattling leaves remain on the branches closest to the ground. Younger oaks may keep a full complement of dead brown leaves. People speculate the retained leaves may deter browsing animals, such as deer. The dried leaves may conceal buds from browsers or make them difficult to nip from the twig. Research has found the dried leaves less nutritious. Another reason trees might give for holding their leaves is it allows them to keep and recycle their nutrients themselves. During winter, birds perch among marcescent leaves, finding refuge from the wind.

Meeting adjourned

Tell others what you love, not what you hate. Be kind.