Signs and Portents

* I bought this Tom Peterson clock at a bankruptcy sale. He was a fixture on late night TV for many years. He would rap on what appeared to be the inside of the TV screen and say something about waking up to savings. The clock, which was given out free with furniture purchases, was supposed to say "Wake up! Wake up and have a happy day!" for an alarm, but it never worked. When I came in from my run, Tom was talking.

* Last week, when I was running I saw a license plate lying in the blackberry bushes. It read 666 DAL. From my time writing a series with a main character who worked with license plates, including Circles of Confusion: A Claire Montrose Mystery, I thought the state automatically excluded numbers and letters series that might upset folks, like FAT. Guess not.

* Where some see hope and joy, others see darkness and fear. At first I thought this post on Verla Kay's blog was a joke, but sadly, it is not. She compares Obama to Hitler. [updated to add: and she later took out parts of her post] I never went to the Blue Boards (I didn't hear about them until long after I was published), but sometimes I send new writers there. Is this a mistake? Is there political stuff like this over there?


* I found this tape in the gutter where the remains of a windblown tree had been taken away. I'm sure it will come in handy someday.

* I always like to find money, and I look for it everyplace I go. First of all, it's rare, at least in my neighborhood. I walk and/or run every day, but sometimes months will go by where I don't see anything. Second of all, money says "In God We Trust," and it reminds me of my need to trust. Lately, it's been freaky. I found two pennies one day, three another, and then last week I was walking to the post office and found 20 pennies glinting under a pine tree. Trust, trust, trust.