Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

adrian_turtle and I just came back from a walk, with an assortment of groceries we probably don't need, from the Middle Eastern store downstairs.

There was no heat or hot water this morning; Adrian called the maintenance people about the problem before we went out, and it was fixed by the time we got back.

One of her neighbors was getting out of the elevator as we reached it. Sbe stopped us to talk about the hot water and such, and then as the door was closing, said "So, you're husband and wife?"

I said "Not actually married, but yes" rather than bothering to sort out genders, and as we went up in the elevator, Adrian said "Welcome to Massachusetts." I'm not actually sure whether she read one of us as male, or if "husband and wife" is her phrasing for "married."

I had conversations with two complete strangers on the way home from Moshe's last night.

The first was very brief, on the bus to the train: someone got on, sat down near me, and commented on what a relief the air conditioning was. I agreed, and we chatted a bit about air conditioning and the difficulties of unreliable elevators.

Then I took the train into Manhattan, and talked to my friends. After Ed got off the uptown local at 86th Street, I played Bubblet on my Palm for a bit. Then a woman came in from the next car, carrying a bag, sat down next to me, and said she was glad of the AC--the car she'd gotten onto hadn't had any. I said something about them usually only having one bad car on a train. This went on a little; I wasn't sure I wanted to continue talking, since I was getting "not quite all there" vibes, but then she saw my tattoo, and asked what kind of bird it was. From there, she went to a dead bird she'd seen that afternoon, which I identified from her description as a young starling. So we talked birds for a bit, then she asked how much tattooing hurt. I gave the standard answer, which led to her complaining about the dentist having just messed up her appointment. That got us to 137th Street; she left the train, and I went back to Bubblet.

Language is a wonderful thing--I can identify birds I haven't even seen, and she satisfied her deep need to complain.