02:17 - 05.05.07
convergence
I was just finishing up my stair-climbing close to midnight tonight when the phone rang. My youngest was out at a birthday celebration at one of the cowboy bars, so I picked it up assuming he was calling to let me know of a change in plans. A woman asked for me by name - at least it sounded like my first name. Being the time of night it was, I asked who was calling. "The RCMP" (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) ... Oh no, my heart was starting to pound, but then I remembered that they don't have jurisdiction in our city, so it wasn't likely about my youngest. But then..."in British Columbia". At that point all my responses slowed down and speeded up at the same time. My mind was racing along several lines of enquiry. To slow the resultant cacophony, I had to slow my thoughts so I could "hear" what the mind was thinking. First of all the name - my first name sounds very much like a couple of other common first names for women. My Mom picked my name out from a magazine article she was reading when she was in labour with me. That name was very unusual when I was small, so even when strangers were talking to me they would often use one of the other forms. Did this officer want to connect with me or someone else with my same last name? There is one woman I know - not related - who has the same name as me but with an "r" where the "n" should be. Hmmm. Secondly why did this officer have my home phone number. How was it that the officer was calling me specifically. Did someone I know living in British Columbia have my phone number on them and was that the only information that the officer had available to them? Next up, the thought became "who in my family might be travelling in British Columbia who might also carry my phone number as an emergency contact number". It is an easy drive across the provincial divide and often people "going for a drive" here end up on one of the scenic routes that unite our provinces. I didn't even want to think about that contingency. All those thoughts converged and ran through my mind before the officer added. "Do you own a blue Pontiac Sunfire?" That really threw my mind off balance, as it careened around trying to incorporate a second layer of speculation in to the original questions that phone call had triggered. What was the connection, or was there any to be made? Who in my family or among my friends owns a Sunfire? I usually only register someone's vehicle in my mind by colour and by size/type. No clues there. "Um, no I don't own any vehicles." The groping mind had come up with the information about that other woman who shares a goodly part of my name. As it so happens, she does live in British Columbia. I started to offer that information to the officer. She ended the conversation, before I could offer her more than the location of that woman's house.
I sat there with the receiver in my hand for a while trying to puzzle that call out. Getting a call from the RCMP usually means bad news. Either there is trouble for someone you care about or you are in trouble or they are going to convey troubling news such as identity theft queries - remember that issue arose during one year several times when the RCMP and some US marshalls both called looking for the male selling guns who was using my phone number. I digress. I don't have anything on my conscience, so that didn't even figure in my assessment. I was visualizing the officer next calling another family using whatever information she had gathered - why was she calling people in Alberta for starters? Wouldn't it make more sense to start looking for the owner of a vehicle closer to where it was found? Why did she have so little information? Was the vehicle stolen or had it been in an accident that left the occupant(s) unable to communicate? Didn't want to go down that road of speculation either, as a picture formed in my mind of another family getting the news of an accident involving a vehicle that did belong to them. The mental images just got worse from there, as you can guess. Having worked in a hospital I've seen more than enough of the impact on families even days after such an event. It can be so devastating. Nothing I can do but empathize. That I did for a while, hoping that maybe I had gotten it all wrong. Maybe that officer would be able to tell some family that they had located their stolen car. Funny how one's mind goes to the worst case scenario late at night. I guess the expectation is that if it was good news about property, the officer would have waited to call at a more reasonable time of day. Don't know.
As I've mentioned,dear diary, I usually will try to do something physical if I am feeling stressed, but my legs were warning me what they were going to do if I tried more stair-climbing. I went to my computer wondering if I could divert my attention that way. Sitting in my emails was a recipe for the day. Took one look at it and decided that was the answer. Fresh veggies cooked in a low calorie sauce that I could make in half an hour. I wasn't hungry, but it's that comfort reflex. Synchronistically, the recipe that had arrived at that point in time was a healthy offering at least. When I am really focussed on something, I only need to read through an item quickly and I can retain an image of the text in my mind without having to refer to the physical copy again. Meant that I didn't have to keep shifting between the computer room and the kitchen - all the ingredients and their individual measurements could be "read" off the picture in my mind, you see. The dish turned out to be very satisfying and I'm calmer now. I'll wait for my youngest to return home though since I doubt I would sleep until I hear him come in anyway.
Today was really rainy and cool again. A second day of record breaking amounts of moisture. Flooding reports here - even worse in British Columbia where warnings have been issued to find higher ground for a lot of communities and businesses. I have three books on the go that all intersect each other - so I read a chapter at a time between each. It works. One of the books deals with sacred sites and ley lines. What caught my attention and had me musing and checking details on the internet was a description of standing stones, a solstice stone chamber like those in Ireland and etched rocks located in Woodstock. That Woodstock? That would explain a lot of the odd happenings that occurred and derived from that 1969 concert. From the discussion in the ley line book that sacred site must have been created long before Europeans arrived. Maybe it is linked to the serpent mounds located not far away. A second look at that chapter indicated that the Woodstock in question is located in Vermont, not New York , but the two sites seem to be linked by ley lines. Hmm. That would be a fascinating science project. Researched a few other questions including legal issues on the internet as well. A call from the governing federal political party also set my mind wandering in strange directions. No voicemail left, so it can't be all that important. Anyway, my brain got a work out even if I didn't get the things I originally planned done. From the headache I've had since the dinner hour, I am guessing that the weather will change by tomorrow afternoon sometime. Hopefully. Good night dear diary.
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