On a day like today, it was pretty obvious and fitting that there would be a great deal of blood shed. Of course, it happened to be my own, as one might expect to be the case. For much of the day, in addition to the normal course of work, the creation and pulling of reports, and the like, I was also having to keep track of the fact that my nose was constantly on the verge of bleeding. It was difficult to say exactly what led to the curiously intense nosebleed, although I hope it is not a sign of a new phase in the long battle between a virulent fungus I have been fighting off for years and my longsuffering nasal cavities, which have not been having a good time of it recently. Having had periodic nosebleeds for as long as I can remember [1], it is something I have learned to recognize the signs of, and also handle in a fairly sanitary and surprisingly quiet manner. I try to draw as little attention to it as possible, and go about my affairs.

In many ways, today was a strange day. In the morning I got a strange Facebook friend request from someone who has not hitherto been friendly to me in person, and then I found that I got a LinkedIn friend request from someone in the same line of business, which led me to think that perhaps it was not entirely a coincidence that I was drawing that kind of attention, although I’m not sure exactly what would have prompted it. At any rate, it was a puzzling day as far as communication goes, especially considering that someone had to let me know that our practice had to be rescheduled because he had forgotten the birthday of his son. There are some people I know whose birthday I only know inexactly, but to forget the birthday of children or parents seems very strange to me. One would think those would be written on our hearts, after all, and deep into our memories.

Of course, as I had planned to practice music on the other side of town, only to have Thanksgiving tomorrow on this side of town, I wished both to spend more time around friends and also to be somewhat efficient about how I spent time by spending the night at my friends with whom I will spend Thanksgiving tomorrow, and so, even though the practice was canceled, I decided to go through with the trip anyway, and enjoyed conversation as well as company, even if the drive there reminds me that I do a lot of driving on lonely roads in the dark. As is often the case, the threads of my life twist and fold in on themselves, making for a complicated picture. At the very least, it provides an interesting context for days like this, as the blood seeps from my nose, as I ponder the timing of people wanting to be friendly, and where I drive lonely roads in search of friendly company. Our lives are full of ironies, too many to grasp or appreciate

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2014/02/27/safety-valve/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2013/11/27/the-nose-knows/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2013/09/08/stool-pigeon/