Another look

The organist played Bach for the prelude on the old pipe organ this morning at the Easter service. I don't know how many ranks that organ has, but in her hands it is really something to experience. I'm amazed how people don't notice the things around them. That organ is kind of hard to not notice, and yet people are talking and laughing as if this is background music in a department store. The skill level of this lady is, and the quality of the instrument is about as good as it gets. There was a time when the prelude to the service was a time to be quiet and get in the right mindset for what was about to come. I don't know what to think about these people now. It's friendly and everything, but it's a little disrespectful at the same time. What they should have for some of these people is "Easter Lite." Half the calories of the regular service for those who are on a diet.

My mind wandered after that. I kept looking at three pretty girls seated in pews in front of me. Other than the prelude, they were more interesting than the service. They were all charming in different ways. The one directly in front of me was beautiful in a very plain way. She came in late and took one empty seat. She must have been in college. Her hair was brunette, long and straight. It looked kind of greasy, but in a healthy way. The back of one of her ears stuck out of it from time to time. It looked to me like she didn't fuss too much over her hair. One time she pulled her hair to one side and I could see her neck. She had a long lavender skirt and a cashmere sweater on. Something I'd never think of dressing her in if I were to pick. But there was an honesty to her that I admired.

Saturday night I slept upstairs on a side of my mom's house that prevented me from hearing the party next door. The houses there are really close together compared to where I live now. People get used to being so close together. On one side of our house was a party with perhaps thirty or forty people drinking and laughing and on the other side a house with a man who was on his computer. I could see him through a window I guess he never closes. I wanted to go to the party and have a beer and then go to the other house and check my e-mail, but it had been a long day of skiing, so I read a couple of chapters in the book I'm reading, and then I zonked out.

I skied five of the last eight days. Here is a photo from Friday. Just some dead trees. They were probably in a forest fire at some point. Perhaps I'm seeing something that isn't there there anymore, the ghost of the trees, a record of two lives that once were.

After church, I started to put my skis and clothes into my car for the trip back home. A woman came down the street on a cruiser bike. It's such a cool town in a bicycle way. I really belong there. She was really pretty. I looked away as to not stare. Then after she went by I snuck another look. I caught her looking back at me. Nothing like that ever happens to me here.