Observations and Ramblings

I have only to look outside the window and be cheered immensely by the clear blue sky and glistening heavy snow on leafless trees and sleeping fields. Such warmth is deceptive though, as it is waaaaay below zero (-27 this morning!) and enough to freeze your nose off! It is a strange sensation, my friends, to feel the insides of your nose freeze!

I've been avidly pursuing my favorite hobby these past few days, namely, people watching. I like to see crowds of people pouring out of trains in the morning, or patiently waiting inside the station for their bus to arrive before they dash out into the frosty air, so cold that when anyone breathes, little clouds of steam appear and disappear at regular intervals. I like to observe people in cafés and in shops in the small daily routines of life. I wonder what the young man on his laptop is so diligently studying with little flashcards, and who the little baby is in the photo of the young gypsy girl's pink wallet.

An elderly couple sat directly opposite me on the train on Saturday night, headed into town for the second time that day; the first had been to a funeral, and now for an evening theatre presentation. The man had such a personable face, just the kind of wrinkled face with bushy eyebrows that I would want to have if I were an old man! And he had a shiny dark brown fur hat that crowned his white hair and slightly bent his ears out! His wife looked a few years younger, with red lipstick on her narrow lips and a navy blue fuzzy coat to keep her warm and stylish. Her bifocals made her eyes look larger than they really are. They talked about some of their acquaintances and I didn't pay too much attention to that, because my mind wandered somewhere down the road of the future, wondering if one day, if God so allows, I would grow old and gray alongside someone else, as comfortable and "known" to each other as this couple in front of me. I hope so!