AMBULATORY

It was not actually a Holstein cow bicycling across the intersection upside down, but a some fellow with black and white clothes and a pink backpack. Life, sadly, is not at all like a Gary Larson Farside cartoon. But it should be. Bicycling cows would make it more engaging, and milk would probably be impossibly expensive. Because, of course, the cows would not work for peanuts anymore.

But other than that, it was the usual walk with a pipe in my mouth.
Good tobacco, with piles of dog pooh, and grey dawn.
The caffeine slowly taking over.

Many of my routines could be enlivened by cows. It has been ages since I've seen cattle. Outside of a plate. In Valkenswaard, a ten or fifteen minute bicycle ride would bring me easily within view of cows, because the centre of town was actually three streets away from the southern edge; most of the town lay north and eastwards. My grammar school was two blocks from the beginning of farmland.

The old railway station and the post office were considerably further away, and the sixteenth century cemetary was a bit of a hike. To get to the new school and Saint John's you had to go past there. We did not consider it ghost-ridden.

The entire place was slightly more like a Monty Python set than a Gary Larson scene.
Northern European urban industrial settlement, nearby agriculture.
Silly walks, twits, and gumbies.

On the whole I think I'd prefer people walking their pet moo-babies in the early morning to techno-yuppies with their dogs. A digestive tract terminating in a hyperactive colon on four legs, a part to sniff, a waggy bit, and parts that bark. Not always an engaging personality.

As I said, it has been several years since I saw a cow. And I rarely eat beefsteaks.



After waking up in the middle of the night, I read about disease bacilli for a while to help me fall asleep again. It didn't quite work. I am conscious of my thoughts doing queer things now because I didn't get enough rest. And I had vibrant dreams. Probably more because of the blood pressure meds than anyhting else, though. I am not infected.




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