Behind the Scenes of Reality

questionoftheday asks: Do you have any glitch in the matrix style experiences? Have you ever experienced anything that seemed to break reality?

My answer: Unlike some of my previous skeptical answers on these questions, I don't really have a great explanation for this one. If you're at all familiar with the Jacksonville area, you might know about St. Johns Towne Center, which is a large outdoor shopping complex/mall of a sort. It's spread out, with shops clustering around parking lots, and central to it is an apartment complex/hotel with a roundabout where there's a fountain, koi pond, and the best shops (IMHO) are located - Barnes & Noble, Teavana, California Pizza Kitchen, etc. This is a pretty upscale area. There's an Apple Store, a Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn Kids, Lululemon, all that shit. And it's usually busy.

So one morning Kitty and I went that way to do some shopping. They also have a Target, PetSmart, Staples, and some normalish stores. Since she had her power wheelchair at that point it was best to find a handicapped parking spot that would allow me the space to unload it and all that jazz, so I'd drive around scoping out spots, looking for relatively central location with decent space on either side. We ended up going towards one less-developed end where there were some computer and electronics stores and small cafes - one was a Bento Cafe, a local place that serves good basic Japanese food and sushi. There was no one out here.

I mean literally no one. No cars parked, no people on the sidewalks, no staff members inside the shops. The lights inside were on and in front of the cafes, there were tables outside. A few doors were propped open since it was a nice day. But there were exactly zero human beings around. Kitty and I kind of shrugged at each other and I decided to circle around one more time so we could take a closer look. At the time we assumed we'd gotten there TOO early and everything was technically still closed.

When I pulled around again there were people, cars, everything was normal. There was no way that in 90 seconds all these people had suddenly flooded in, parked, and started walking around. It was absolutely bizarre. To this day I have not come up with a reasonable explanation of what happened. I've been back to St Johns Towne Center many times since then - hey, they have a Barnes & Noble - and I've never had it happen again. The only time I've seen it even remotely that deserted was the morning of the Kilwin's 5k Ice Cream Run, which was held at seven in the morning. But even then there were spectators, and people had come down from the apartments to watch so it wasn't totally empty.

And yes, we got free ice cream at the finish line. ;D

My Floppy ...

 earlobes. LOL. I've been stretching my earlobes for years now - my skin doesn't stretch well so it takes me longer than most people to be ready to go up a size, and the dictum that "if it hurts you're not ready to stretch again" doesn't apply to me because no matter how long I wait, it hurts. Well, except now. I've gone from 9 to 10 to 11 millimeters with no trouble between stages, where before going up a millimeter was an agonizing act of sheer will. I'd grab a Nylabone I bought myself just for this, stick it in my mouth, count down and CRUNCH the new plug in while biting down on the dog toy. I was repeatedly told I'd blow my ears out doing this, but it didn't seem to matter how much time I gave it, it always hurt. Anyway, I'm glad that now it's mildly uncomfortable at best to go up a size, but the plugs are getting more expensive. I'll probably go up from my current 7/16" in spring next year.

For now I bought myself some silicone "earskins" for running. The glass plugs will fall out, and I've already lost one running outdoors. And with nothing in the holes they tend to flop around, which feels weird. Anyway they came today, just in time for the 10k! Huzzah. I bought a closeout seasonal color from fall 2017, teal. And it's ... Jacksonville Jags teal. Like that bright-ass NFL jersey teal. I can't stop laughing because it looked darker on the computer screen, and I know things will look different in person but holy crap, this color! 

It actually shifts a little depending on what you pair it with, so with different colors of shirts, the teal is more blue, or more green. Just with my normal skin tone (cool-tone caucasian) they look much more green - the kind of teal green that makes me think of mermaids, Caribbean waters, and flip flops. So not a bad color at all, just that Fox is going to tease me about being a Jags fan now. XD

I'm about to try them out running. I have some treadmill sprints to do, and honestly I'm procrastinating right now. I'd much rather just stay here and read a book, but as I'm fond of saying, miles don't run themselves, it'd be weird if they did.

These things would be comfy on the plane. I could probably put the side of my head against the seat. I'll just pack the glass plugs and put them in at the hotel.