Out of Your Mind

Usual weekend morning with waking at sunrise, then going back to sleep until ten. A quick scan of the news telling me I’m glad I’m not in Egypt while strapping on my shoes and tying up my hair. A brush and spit then turn off all the electronics and check the front yard. Someone has been by because the storm door is not completely closed and the gate is ajar. Those are just the things you notice when you see the same scene everyday. Nothing else seems out of place so I convince myself it was the wandering witnesses. The yard is quiet this morning with the weather changing. You can feel the moisture coming and even taste it. Grey Jay reminds me it is time for a feeding, so I pedal off. A few joggers are out with the cooler weather along with some nice ladies walking their dogs with big hunky security. I roam the food land to decide what I will feed myself today. Today, I think, I will have fish since I haven’t had that in awhile, so I stop to see the frozen options. (Why not get fresh, you say? Well, I don’t want to think about what I’m really eating.) Faith and her smiling face and girlish giggle that make my day see me on my way. Seems like an ordinary day doing the ordinary routine but then I notice.

As I put out the grub for those grey robbers who drop out of the trees, I talk to them. Not just a quiet whisper, but also a loud “Come and get it” or “Do you want a peanut?” comes out of my mouth. Like I am talking to someone who understands my vocabulary, I talk to these creatures that chew on my house, run amok through the ivy and even enter my space to steal peanuts.

So I step back inside, scanning the neighborhood for folks who may not understand and maybe calling 911, then close the door and peer out the window to see who comes to feast. I speak out to them then catch myself saying, “Why am I saying this out loud?”

We all do things that are out of the ordinary, so I can rationalize this action as just hearing my own voice since I don’t talk to many people. Then again this is a conscious decision to talk out loud to these critters rationally knowing that when they stop and look at me they recognize my voice and make an association with flying peanuts.

So with all your intelligence do you laugh it off like the person passing by speaking to themselves with their hand up to their ear or do you wonder? I am just going out of my mind.