Life is what happens when you are busily planning for it!

The last few days have been yet another reminder about the unpredictability that life is.

Strange events have made me stay in, and familiarize myself with, Seattle.  Not some suburb, but Seattle.  The city from where Frasier pontificated after returning from Boston.  With the little I have understood the city, it seems like I am not too far from where Frasier's fictional home might have been located.

That is life.

The summer sun finally broke through on a wonderfully sunny and pleasant Fourth of July.  I walked over the nearby lake/park.  Under the mid-afternoon sun, there was so much of life all so sudden that it was quite overwhelming.  Older adults taking in the sun while making sure they don't harm their skins.  Young women feeling immortal and warming up under the glorious rays.

And, of course, the kids.  They were having fun like nobody else could.  The best part: without any unnecessary shrieking.  Perhaps because it is the Pacific Northwest?

I spotted a number of toy sail boats whizzing by in the fountain/pond.  It was a pleasant sight--the simple toys and their "owner" kids rushing around with their remote controls.

A kid with his head overflowing with blond hair eagerly pointed out to me his boat.  And then added, "you see that blue one there?  That is a monster.  It keeps hitting other boats."

As much as I love interacting with kids, these days, when I walk around as a single man in a public place, I am increasingly worried that paranoid parents might think that I, with my strange appearance, am one with whom kids should not even talk.

So, I merely "aha"d, which didn't make the kid all too excited to share his joys with me.  Soon, he rushed somewhere else where, I suppose, he could find people who would be animated along with him.

That is life.

Not what I had planned for.

It is another day, and it continues to be sunny and pleasant.  I am glad I brought along my hat with me.  Surya, my friend from the Neyveli days, who is always delighted with photos of me in a hat, and keeps referring to Indiana Jones, will be happy if I had taken a photo of myself, I suppose.

I walked the ups and downs of the city under the warming sun.  I saw a steep series of steps going somewhere.  I climbed them. Panted quite a bit after reaching the top.  I kept walking.  I crossed the bridge when I came to it.

It was a lovely scene.  Cars and trucks whizzed past.I wondered whether the drivers even knew how lovely the world looked.  Did they care?  Were they bored with the cityscape already?

I looked at the other side, past the traffic in between.

"Suicidial?" asked a sign, and included a hotline number.

Not me. I am curious to find out what other surprises life has in store for me, even as I develop plans for the rest of this summer, the rest of the year, and the rest of my life.