So far,i've had a great day. No, really. When I woke up today, something told me to just go with the flow and take one thing at a time instad of going at life like a damn freight train. No make-up or excuses.....Just me and whatever-the-hell-i-felt-like doing.

The town square of our little 'burg is historic and was mostly rundown and un-restored for a long time. Commerce thrived around those blocks for years at the dime store, several dress shops and a drug store or two plus the obligatory hardware hang-out. During my lifetime it has slowly begun to come back to life, mostly because the legal community restores and resides in the buildings surrounding the courthouse. From experience, I know that it's much easier to walk across the street with your attorney to do the bizness at hand than to truck it out past Wally World for your divorce.

Right off of the square there is a family owned feed and gardening type store. They've sold me many an annual and the supplies to go with. Today I needed some sunflower and thistle seed and some sevin dust. On the way out through sale trees I glanced at the used book store next door. How long had that place been there and I'd never darkened the screen door?

I wandered a bit and was greeted by the owners a decent amount of time later. One of the guys seemed to be out of place there, and I was referred to Reader who came lumbering from the stacks to answer my inquiries about Clyde . He knew who his publisher was. I was impressed, and gave him a list. I am ALL about some cheap books.

Chatting about the biz, he asked me if anybody else around here liked to read. I told him most folks go the local library or one of the glossy stores like Hastings. It didn't hit me until I got home and started making sauce for lasagna who was on my brain. Meg Ryan in "You've Got Mail." That little shop of hers and the dream that went along with it is my fantasy life.

We discussed everything and nothing. That first guy had never read much internet stuff....he'd "heard" of blogs. His parting remark to me was this..."Nothing will ever replace a book." And I had to agree. I remembered the days at book festivals where I heard and bought my favorite authors that friends Marti and Sally turned me on to. I was a woman on a mission on those trips. " What can I find during this weekend to treasure during the hard times?" We also did aerobics together and raised some kids and cut our hubbies loose. Such is life.

My newspaperman friend David told me awhile back that I had stories to tell. He would write columns about faith and hope and pushing the envelope in a way that made sense to me and inspired me to do better. He always responded with humble thanks and encouragement when I'd write to him and say " Yep...I feel that way too."

The serendipity? Well it's got something to do with a big old pile of my dreams coming true in the way that I least expect it. I've been down a lot of roads before and most of them have been a dead end in some respect or another. While there were blessings to be found most every day, I knew when the gig was up and moved on, sometimes not so gracefully.

Soon as the sun gets lower I'll water and fill the bird feeders. Finish that lasagna. Try not to kick any sleepin' dawgs while I'm keeping the faith.

^j^