When the owl appears

While I was driving to work this morning, just a minute after leaving my unheated home, an owl swooped out of the the trees and flew directly across my path at windshield level. I had just enough time to brake to avoid hitting it. 

Once I made it to work, the furnace man called and said he couldn't help me and that I was basically on my own. My desk phone rang. A local hospital was on fire. All the patients had to be evacuated. Fourteen or fifteen are coming your way even though you don't have the staff you need to take care of the ones you have. 

A text message came in while I was on the phone dealing with that informing me that an acquaintance of mine had been found dead outside a shelter this morning in another part of the state. He used to call me "Big Brother."  A good man who never really had a chance. He once told me that he wanted me to help him write a book on deinstitutionalizing the mind. 

Yeah, I'm definitely in a coma on some back ward after a collision with a semi in Kansas. This is just a long, weird, multi-phasic dream.

Many hours later I drove home. 

On the drive, I was thinking things have really gone south, sideways, pear-shaped. I couldn't remember how long ago it started heading that way. Then an owl swooped out of the trees and flew directly across my path at windshield level. I had just enough time to brake to avoid hitting it. 

I almost laughed.

It was 30 degrees. It started to rain just as I pulled into my driveway. The rain turned immediately to ice on the ground. I bowed a little. Thanks.