For Want

I had to buy a needle today. The last time I saw a needle was, umm, while in Nashville (2010.) The pins n needles display hung, like an afterthought, off the narrow end of the remnant rack. I chose a package in a cool circular blue – which was made of inseparable cardboard/plastic symbiotes. I was relieved the needles were in another plastic container within. This one was obviously approved & child-safe; for the life of me it would not open. Of course, just as I thought, “but when it does,” the plastic case parted by about two needles’ worth of space & two needles flew out like projectiles. I have found one so far.

Here’s my latest Weirds:

I bought a pair of beautiful “crazy jasper” earrings at the flea market. Thrilled with the great price & beautiful stones, I lovingly placed the little black bag with them deeply inside my carryall. I went off to less frivolous tables. Arriving home, I felt the two earrings in that bag, yet unpacked one earring from it. I checked: the car, my purse, all pockets, the floor between in/out/up (with a flashlight) to sad avail. I surrendered & made a pendant out of the one I with a simple twist of wire. I found the earring within 27 hours. It was inside the washer, lying bright & clean after the “cottons, warm” cycle.

I decided not to think about it. Too hard. However, two days later, the other pair of earrings purchased at the Flea separated themselves between wearing them into the house & upstairs. I went to hands & knees to check under the bureau (under which I had just recently found a “missing” ring of at least a year’s absence.) I pulled out a brother to the little flashlight of downstairs. Four hours later, long after the search ended, I found the earring in front of the dryer.

(I now know where the vortex tunnels to in the house. The laundry room. If any galactics portal into my home, they will likely present in my laundry room, which is not an impressive first impression.)

Pre-dating the above by a week: I bought a set of tires, but just two, & immediately one of the remaining two objected to being put up front…begetting a feeling of “the front of the car feels like a washing machine” (is anyone else catching a meme here?) Well, I hadn’t intended to buy two more new tires quite yet, but considering the alternative could be a spectacular newspaper write-up of bits of car strewn over a canyon off-road, I figured who can lose? Especially since the ones scraping me off the rocks would be former neighbors & friends. Nix that. Filling the set of four tires for me covers a lot of other people, it turns out.

I feel like I should be leaving little treats for my angels who have been punching in & out on a quasi-military beat to watch over me & they are pretty aware what happens when they’re late to work. There are times they can’t quite get much more than a feather or two between myself & the “Fates”, but damn, they show up every time!

(I picked up a loose nail which led to the first tire set. Looking back, that nail saved my life. It brought to mind an old poem which I now read with brand-new respect.)

My angels have some other offerings: I hear “diet” & “walk more” & “yoga” & “qigong”, something about tye-dying their wings…I’m getting some hair with SpIKes in it tomorrow, my best response cuz I just got settled again. And I have to keep an eye on the laundry room for after-hours arrivals.

For want of a nail, the shoe was lost;
For want of the shoe, the horse was lost;
For want of the horse, the rider was lost;
For want of the rider, the battle was lost;
For want of the battle, the kingdom was lost;
And all from the want of a horseshoe nail.