A series of little, happy things

My hairdresser, Trond, is out sick. He caught the extremely contagious strain of pneumonia that has reached epidemic proportions in Bergen, and is on sickleave until February 1. So my hair was cut today by one of his other employees, Sonja. The only one who can cut my hair to my satisfaction, is Trond himself, but last fall I felt like a change was due. Sonja did a decent job (just a cut), but more importantly, we hit it off chit-chat wise. I feel at ease in her company, so I'll be talking to Trond about bringing her up to speed with my hair so that he has a "stand-in", and I'll have more options. Trond himself is always so busy.

So there I was in the city, with a fresh haircut, and realized that I'd left my camera at home. There are things to photograph that most people don't notice: Like the green, corrugated metal sheds on the wharf that have incongruous, carved, stone pillars. Or the handwritten "SALE" sign in an oriental shop done in such a way as to look like a Chinese pictograph. Or the many "zebra" pedestrian crossings made with cobblestones and other types of stone; I found myself wondering where the black stone comes from.

I was looking for pruning shears so I can hack off a dying branch of my yucca palm, and wandered into the rest of the hardware store and found some other items which add to the series of little, happy things. Like wooden clothes pins. I don't use them to hang up clothes, but to close bags (twisty ties and rubber bands are too much work) and tie back curtains. The plastic in some I've been using, has gone brittle so I've been breaking the clothes pins. But wood is so much nicer, and more suited to interior use.

I eventually found my way to the bus stop, and ended up waiting for over 25 minutes for the bus. I don't know if I had just missed a bus because my mood was such that I was in no hurry and didn't care to check the schedule. In fact, the 25 minutes passed and left me a bit surprised that I could just be standing around like that, observing people around me, and not once get restless or bored. But people are so interesting to watch. Like the young father tossing his little boy in the air; the boy laughed with delight. It took me a bit to figure out what the pattern was on his rubber pants, but then I saw it was brightly colored dinosaurs wearing equally brightly, but opposite colored rubber boots. I got a kick out of that pattern.

And once home again and surfing my regular daily diet of websites, another little, happy thing was today's APOD picture. You get that in lieu of a picture from me since I forgot my camera...