Early In The Morning

I missed a post yesterday because I was working on a small sewing project that I got caught up in and couldn't pull myself away from. No worries, you didn't miss a thing.

Okay, I am officially a morning slacker. I awoke at 7:00am this morning with the sun shining as bright as it could through the solar screens...enough to awaken me. What did I do? I snuggled right back up under the   comforter and promptly fell back asleep until 8:30am.

Hubby claims it's because I'm cold (we don't sleep with the heater on because I'm cheap and I hate being hot when I'm sleeping ) and if I were hot I would be up in a flash. I think this may be one of those times he is right. Speaking of the cold, lately I am finding that I prefer being cold over the extreme Summer heat that Central Texas delivers. I find myself almost dreading the warmer temps for the first time in my life and have even been daydreaming about living on the upper East Coast of Connecticut, Rhode Island or maybe even as far as Massachusetts. What in the hell has post menopause done to me????????

We opted to stay home today and rent a movie and eat pizza. LOVE these laid back kind of days.

Later on in the afternoon I took Bo for a sniff and pee walk while Toby rode his bike beside us. We noticed a clan of sheriffs congregating around one of our neighbors a few houses down. Being the nosey neighbors we should be we kept an eye on what was going on. We heard the sheriffs finally go to the back door and kick it in.

The home is a residence of an older man. In the five years we have lived here so has he. I have always taken note of him and have even asked other neighbors if they have ever spoke to him or vice versa.  Nobody has ever spoken to him, not because we chose not to but because his scarcity never gave us the opportunity. Other than seeing him cut his grass and come home from work I have never seen him except once when I was in HEB he was in line in front of me. I noticed he was purchasing a single steak and a six pack of beer. He seemed lonely..or maybe I just assumed he was lonely.  I thought about chatting him up but then got the impression he was aloof  and  unapproachable. I also took note that  he was wearing an Austin postal uniform which led me to believe he worked for the Postal Service.

Over the years I have often thought about that old man as I drive by his house. I have never seen anyone visit him..ever. I see him arrive home from work at the same time every day and  he doesn't come outside unless it's to cut his grass every so often in the Summer. Many times I wondered about his life. Did he have family and they just didn't live nearby? Did something tragic happen that made him reclusive? As far as I knew he didn't even own an animal. I never saw one. Did he just not like people at all? Maybe he just liked his privacy? Maybe he enjoyed not having human or animal commitments?

In the end, apparently it was only his place of employment that noticed he was missing. We vaguely heard the sheriffs talking about how they had not seen him since last Friday so they called the authorities to go check it out.. Sad that man was in his home for almost a week and nobody but his employer noticed...and I'm sure only because he wasn't fulfilling his job requirements of delivering mail. It was obvious the man was found dead in his home. I silently wondered;  Did he end his own life? Was he murdered? Did he die alone in his home of natural causes? I don't know....

All I know is that day I was behind him in the HEB line was an opportunity missed. What if I had took that plunge beyond fear and chatted him up. What's the worst thing that could have happened? He may have blew me off?  What if I had given him hope in a friendship? Or in mankind? Or maybe he just would have thought it nice that someone even paid attention to him or gave him a kind smile.

I think these subtle happenings in our life are meant to change who we are and evolve our consciousness as humans.

From this day forward I will never second guess myself when I feel the need to speak to someone. It may be the last opportunity I ever have.

Funny...I'm going to miss that old man. I even shed a tear for him....I may be most likely one of the very few, if any,  that did.

RIP