I tell middle school students during my author visits how I get inspiration for writing from the post office. I can say with all honesty that I have yet to visit my post office without experiencing an episode or character worth writing about. Today was like all the other days.

A very fit woman in her early 30s was in there with a huge service dog. He was a German Shepherd/Yellow Lab mix – beautiful dog! And very sweet. Another lady started asking the dog owner abut her pet. It turns out that her dog has such severe separation anxiety, that she followed the protocol to make him an official service dog just so she could take him inside public buildings everywhere she goes! He is not a seeing  eye dog, nor does he do any service work! And that big guy stares at his owner. He would not let her out of his sight for one second. When I asked the woman what happens when she leaves him, she told me that he “goes wild, runs in circles and basically eats all the furniture in the house.”

While I was having this interesting conversation with the owner of an out-of-service service dog, I noticed an exceptionally tall (at least 6 ft. 2) woman feverishly writing on a white label in the corner of a large moving box she was apparently going to mail. The line was long and without exaggeration, this woman was writing non stop for more than 15 minutes. I was trying to imagine what type of label she could be writing. Perhaps to 50 recipients? Naturally I am too short to see the top of her box to notice what she was writing. When the tall woman finally put her box on the counter for the clerk to help her, he said, “What is this? You cannot write a letter on a label and put it on the outside of a box in the corner where the postage is supposed to go. Plus there is no address on this box.” What was that all about?

Then I kindly asked a woman in line if I could use her pen for a moment to write a return address I forgot to stamp on my box. She threw her pen at me in anger and then threw her head back and said “hmmm!”  like she was furious for having asked. When she got up to the counter another clerk politely told her she addressed the package all wrong and had to redo it. She threw her head back again in disgust.

At that moment the  yawning “service” dog sprawled out in front of the counter and went into a deep, snoring sleep, somewhat blocking the patrons from exiting. The clerk that was helping the out-of-service service dog owner disappeared into the back room and did not return. What was his problem? The disgusted woman looked down at the sleeping dog, threw her head back and said “hmmm!” and marched out of there.

I was not far behind.

Thank God for weekends! Mine was relaxing. Here are 5 activities from mine. (Don’t get too excited.)

1. I went to a choir performance at my daughter’s high school. She is the accompanist. It was so incredibly enriching and relaxing, I could feel my blood pressure going down. There are so many students with incredible talents! Slept better than I have in months.
2. On Saturday my husband tried to clean out our leaf-filled gutters, but was unable to reach behind our awning. So little me was sent up on the roof to do the job. Wow! It is quiet and hot up there. I loved it. See photo below.
3. I took my first swim of the season after sweating up on the roof. The water was like melted ice cubes, but this is Miami, and I can take it!
4. I read a great book this weekend. Getting Lost: Mishaps of an Accidental Nomad by Dave Fox. I’ll be doing a book review on it soon!
5. I made an incredible salad for dinner tonight. Organic lettuce, grilled artichokes, grilled onions, toasted pecans, apples, raisins and a balsamic vinaigrette.

What did you do?

I picked this cherry tomato out of my garden today. I cannot bring myself to eat it, because it is too perfect.

I love to talk to my daughter about unusual topics. And I mean weird. Last night we discussed humans walking upright, versus on all fours. The other night it was all about how amazing our skin is, keeping us altogether, so to speak.

Here are 6 questions to pose for conversations that will really make you and your children think:

1. What if we could not read? What would be missing out on?
2. What if there is another planet out there, with humans living on it,  we do not yet know about?
3. What if every single person in America were well educated? Would that pose any challenges for our society?
4. What if everyone sees different colors, but we do not know it because we see what we see.
5. What if you could ask the President of the USA for one favor? What would that be?
6. What was life like before computers, cell phones, ipods and even CDs? (Tell your kids about typing papers in college on onion skin paper!)