Sat. Morn. Coff. + Err. R.

Just sitting down at the library now, nearing the end of my Saturday Morning Coffee and Errand Run. Took a nice and fun 7 miler to get to a little coffee nook. There, I drank a lot of coffee and read from "The Four Loves" by C.S. Lewis. I then went on a nice 3 to 3.5 mile run past the bank (which was closed), ending up at a tea/fudge shop. When downtown, it is a nice store(s?) to stop in and gawk at tea paraphernalia of which I will never be able to afford and have a saunter past glorious piles of decadent, gourmet fudges. Passing by the heaps of sweets in the fudge portion of the store, I pretend myself a serious patron and conjure up a rather sincere, though feigned, interest in purchasing prodigious amounts of exorbitantly priced candies. The confectioners then offer samples upon samples (on good days - bad days I am stuck with one) of their finest sweets. Upon completing my faux patron act - an act replete with oohs, ahhs, technical confectionery jargon, and lots of pointing - I allow actual, serious buyers to slip in front of me, thus distracting the fudge ladies, while I innocently slip back into the tea shoppe, ogle expensive superfluous tea equipment and leave. Today, I had a nutty raspberry fudge. It was divine.

While waiting to enter the library, just now, an older gentlemen, perhaps 70, and I nearly got into it. He approached me, complaining about the homeless man, who essential lives at the library - it is his place of refuge from open to close, every day - making comments about how the police should remove him, how he should be thrown in jail, etc. He spouted out several conventions and ranted for awhile about how Missoula and Billings wouldn't allow homeless people to roam so freely. Frustrated a bit by this, I went on to explain, what I know of the homeless man's situation, how the library is a public place, and he is less disruptive and more peaceful than most folks in the library. He is no harm to anyone. Period. The irate man wouldn't have it. He continued repeating the same things about how the police should be called, etc. Doubtless, this was a lost cause - arguing with this man -, he had most certainly made up his mind and was unwilling to by sympathetic to a fellow human's cause. So I walked away and so did he.