A strange day of rain.  The rain itself was not strange; its geophysical dropping is what made it strange, as this is by far the mildest winter I have ever experienced. (Today, case in point, is bright, sunny, and about 60 degrees).  I know that when Californians talk about the weather in wintertime it is usually destined to receive:

a1) good-natured ribbing

b2) outright scorn

c3) barely-disguised jealousy

from almost everyone north of 39 degrees latitude, but I don’t bring up the weather for any of these purposes. Rather I bring it up to inflect and inform the rest of the story, which is actually shorter than my discussion of the weather (and if _that_ isn’t midwestern, I don’t know what is.)

Anyway, I took advantage of a break in the rain to walk down to the local grocery store, which is a cross between high-falutin’ (I assume for the summer tourists), fancy (for the corporate raiders who can afford to buy up here now), and average (for everyone else). I was purchasing ingredients with which to make chili, which, although it always contains the same ingredients, always turns out differently from the time before.

At any rate, I had my standard moment of indecision when faced with joining a checkout line. 2 checkers, one line decidedly longer than the other. The shorter line had Chatty Checker, a younger woman who has the knack for launching into random conversation with every customer. Tossing my lot in with luck, I joined Chatty Checker’s line, only to patiently witness a conversation between her, Customer John, and another checker about how long they’ve all known each and the best way to broil eggplant and tomatoes.  I finally ascended to the front, only to somehow become ensconced in a conversation with Chatty Cathy about a movie. _I_ thought she was talking about the movie ‘Up’, which, if I had had a second to think about it, would be weird because it’s been out for quite awhile (but which was fresh in my mind, having just seen it via Netflix the night before).  I said, “Oh, yes, I would’ve figured that kids would be totally bored by it, but the animations were pretty incredible.” She cocked her head like a spaniel being addressed by its owner through a thick wooden door, and said, “Well, I thought George Clooney did a pretty good job….”  Oh, right, that _other_ movie called ‘Up in the Air’, that’s actually out right now and thus a reasonable subject for random stranger conversation. For some reason, I couldn’t explain my momentary confusion, so now Chatty Checker thinks I’m a certifiable nutter.

Oh, well.