I had a close call this evening, when I was almost made to look foolish (I've come to terms with being foolish, and now merely focus my efforts on keeping others from discovering my foolish nature). I went out to dinner with my mom after work, and forgot my keys. She went to talk to our neighbor for a minute when we got home, and I wasn't able to open the door. I didn't feel like talking to the neighbor, so I just decided to wait. Which was fine for a few minutes, but soon it became obvious they were going to have a long chat (she was apparently showing pictures of her daughter's wedding). But now too much time had passed for me to walk up and say I needed Mom's key, without looking like a fool (I faced a dilema similar to one faced by Sen. Larry Pressler after accidentally walking into a closet). And as more time passed, my dilemma deepened, as it became less and less an option to ask for Mom's key, yet it became more and more an inevitability that I would appear a fool when discovered waiting at the door (though just by one person, rather than two).

Fortunately, I was sent a savior, in the form of a neighborhood kitty who has recently taken a shine to me. I'd set the cat loose a couple times after being cornered by Tanner, so now we have some sort of bond, and in the last week or so, she's often looking for me when I get home. And after I'd been sitting outside the front door for about twenty minutes, my feline friend came by, giving me the perfect cover: I was sitting outside the door so that I could pet the kitty. I think Mom thought the scene didn't quite seem right, but I was not conclusively shown to be a fool, so I was happy.

I was also thinking that kitty needs a name. I think she's a girl (although the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence, she doesn't seem to have male genitalia), so I decided on the name Sable. I actually came up with a good name while attending a Dave Alvin concert last night, but couldn't remember it in the morning (yes, I stand around thinking up names for kitties while attending concerts by rock 'n' roll combos--yet another window into my soul, courtesy of Blogger). But whatever name slipped into the ether, I do think the name Sable suits her, even if does sound a bit like a stripper.