I'm Sorry it Had to End This Way

Whoo...took me a few days to simmer down from that inspired political commentary from a few nights ago, but I'm back to my cool-headed, apathetic self now. Today was our first day back to work after the Golden Week holiday. I had the crappiest night sleep I've had in a long while last night, most likely due to the large coffee I drank around 8 in the evening, coupled with the fact that my body is used to staying up until 1 or 2 in the morning recently. So, I felt about how you would imagine I would feel going back to work after a week vacation, having hardly slept the previous night. But I survived the day, which can't be said for all the creatures that will be featured in this blog post.
I left work around 5:30 this afternoon and it was just pure spring, warm, the sun making it's way down towards the horizon, mosquitoes swarming about, bats eating mosquitoes, things like that. So I strolled home, camera in hand, and dug it all.
Japan has lots of small, single lane, winding streets, and blind intersections. To avoid would-be accidents, they put convex mirrors on corners to you can see if anyone is coming around the corner in the other direction. If you come to Japan for any length of time, you will eventually try to take some artsy-fartsy picture using one of these mirrors. Today was my day. The picture is pretty crappy, but this was a nice double mirror combo at a blind t-intersection, allowing you to see down the intersecting road in both directions. Sweet!



Now I had the abstract bug in me, and I was on the prowl when this next shot presented itself. Can you tell what the hell it is? No? That's because it's abstract.



I got a little more grounded in nature as I was crossing over the river, where I saw two ducks communing with each other. Cute, no?



There's a little, not very nice playground right next to our place, and as I approached my apartment I wandered through it looking for a photo opportunity, or 'shutter chance' as it's known here. Low and behold, I found this threatening sign encouraging local residents NOT to let their dogs crap in the playground, lest they want their neighbors to get struck by lightning. That, by the way, is the universal Japanese icon for poop, regardless of what beast it came from.



And then I was home, but little did I know my most dramatic shutter chance was about to unfold. The other night when we were returning from somewhere, and fiddling with our keys on the front step, I swore I saw a lizard. Chieko suspected cockroach, and I didn't put up a fight, mostly because I didn't care what it was really, as long as it stayed outside. Plus, I hadn't seen any lizards here in Kanazawa before, so cockroach was a more likely culprit.
But as I went stood on my stoop this afternoon, surveying the eaves to see if any spiders had taken up residence yet, I saw the little lizard peaking out from the crack between the door. You know where this is going already I suppose. When the lizard didn't immediately make every effort to get the hell away from me, I inspected a little closer, noticing two things: first, it's mouth was wide open; second, it had no eyes.
When I opened the door, down his flattened body fell. I'm guess either Chieko or I smooshed the poor little guy this morning on our way to work, because it had yet to develop riger mortis (how do you spell that, by the way/). Which led me to wonder what was up with it's lack of eyes. The three scenarios I'm envisioning are that when it was crushed by the door, it's eyes just popped right out, or some other creature came along and ate the lizards eyes, or perhaps it just never had eyes to begin with. Anyway, it's a mystery to me.



I used my umbrella to usher him into the gutter in front of our house. Sorry little lizard.



And now, I suppose I have to at least mention this:



Unless you live in a cave, and/or don't give a damn about baseball, then you've heard by now that Roger Clemens chose to sign with the Yankees rather than the Red Sox in his annual comeback from retirement. My reaction to the news is a big 'meh.' I'm finding it hard to muster any emotion about this really. I'm confident enough in the Sox team not to feel like we've missed an opportunity, though I wouldn't have had any problems seeing him in a Red Sox uniform either. I do find it humorous that Red Sox nation was all ready to welcome Roger back with open arms, and to pardon him on all counts concerning his post-Red Sox past, but now that he's a Yankee again, we've immediately reverted to vilifying him. But as I said before, 'meh.'
So, time for me to head off to bed. Have a wonderful day/night, where ever you may be.