Dead Butt

I guess I really don't pay attention when I get into my car. About 2 weeks ago I took my knitting bag to work with a project in it that I needed to crochet on. When I got it out I couldn't find the crochet hook. I looked and looked. I took everything out of the bag--twice. No crochet hook. I searched when I got home, no G hook. So I bought another one last weekend. Yesterday when I was getting into the car to go walking with Dusty I glanced down at the driver's seat and there was my crochet hook nestled in a seam of the seat. It had been there nearly 2 weeks while I got into and out of the car, in and out, in and out, and I never saw it or felt it. Evidently I have a dead butt. (In my defense I have been wearing my winter coat lately so that's an extra layer of padding, but seriously?)

November 23--Lake Toya, Hokkaido, Japan. Autumn comes early high in the mountains on Hokkaido. The leaves of the maples ringing Lake Toya flush bright red in the thin clear air. The lake is a caldera, the waters warmed by the intense heat of the magma below, never freeze. The old man had lived his while life near the edge of the lake. He used the water to nourish his crops. some years the plants flourished and some years, the years when the water smelled like an old duck egg, the plants died and left him hungry all winter. The fish that lived in the lake were not like any other fish. They had bright colors sometimes and then the next generation would be gray and colorless. The old man and his wife never had children. They hoped and prayed for one strong son but their prayers were never answered. He loved her as she cried and withered too soon. He held her as she coughed up her life's blood into rags until there was nothing left. He lit joss sticks every day, sending news up to the heavens to hear on the coils of smoke and the red leaves fell into the lake, turning brown as they floated away.

Well, that's kind of depressing. Not exactly what I expected to write about a blue sky, a smooth lake with mountains ringing it, and a maple tree with fiery red leaves, but you take what comes. It's kind of poetic in a dark way. Stay awake today!
--Barbara