But How Observant am I REALLY? (A Horoscope Blog)

"My Car, My Garage," May 2009, Kate's LRDC (Taken to demonstrate just how close I can park to the side wall and still be able to get out, invoking the wrath of my Awesome Husband Greg.)


My horoscope in this morning's newspaper read, "You notice everything, including if people's shoes match their bags and who likes whom and how much. No one can keep a secret from you, even if they wanted to."

That first sentence is absolutely true. I also hear everything. Even when I'm totally immersed in conversation myself, I am able to follow a completely separate discussion between other people who happen to be speaking within earshot. Annoying or not, it's a fact. I attribute it to my ADD, and I consider it a gift.

(I'd like to think the second sentence is also true, because that would be really cool.)

Anyway, it's funny that my horoscope this morning should be about noticing things. Last night I had occasion to ask myself how much I had noticed about two guys I encountered on my evening walk...

I saw them as I was trucking along a curvy stretch of road with houses on one side and deep, dark woods on the other. Two young men, one with dark skin and the other white, both somewhere in their twenties and both carrying clipboards. They were walking towards me, and I heard one of them say, "Oh, a long driveway...I like that." I couldn't tell which one had spoken, but it was the white guy who headed up the driveway. The dark one stayed on course, and as he passed me, he looked right into my face and said, "Evening, Ma'am. How you doing?" I smiled, said "fine" and kept walking, wondering if they were census takers, or what.

Census Taker had popped into my head, I'm sure, because I had just been telling my sister about my having applied -- and been dissed -- for a job as one. She asked me what I would have had to do, and I told her that this phase would have been just looking at addresses and noting whether they were residential, vacant -- whatever. I would not have had to actually ring doorbells and talk to people. Hmmmm. So these guys weren't census takers...

Then, probably because I was walking all alone in Little Red Riding Hood's neighborhood just before dark, I decided to see what I could remember about those two guys -- just in case, you know...

I've already told you just about everything -- One white, one black, clipboards...The one who had spoken to me was wearing a light-colored shirt that buttoned down the front, but I can't say with any certainty whether it was yellow or green. And now I'm seeing the other guy in a white tee-shirt and jeans, although I had previously noted that both were nicely dressed. Anyway, if I hadn't seen stuff on TV and read articles about how people can be absolutely certain that they saw something, and yet it can be proven that what they "remember" isn't what they actually saw, I might have continued picturing those guys in my mind, and come up with a description on which I would have staked my life. But since I believe everything I read, I reckon I should allow that I might be off on a detail or two.

But how weird is it that it occurred to me to take inventory of what I had noticed, and then that horoscope this morning...

Here's something else I noticed: When I arrived home and walked through the garage on my way into the house, I noticed that my car was parked where it usually is -- So close to the wall that I had to squeeze past the mirror sideways just to get to the door.

My Awesome Husband Greg noticed the same thing when he went out a short time afterward to turn the hose on the plants out front. But when he went back about fifteen minutes later to roll up the hose, he noticed something else that made him call me to come upstairs immediately. And when I did, I totally noticed that my car was missing! Someone had come into the garage and driven off with it while MAHG and I were down in the office and Dominic was up in his room! None of us had heard a thing!

Now to be fair, no matter what I may or may not have noticed and/or remembered about the perps -- um -- I mean those two guys, it is possible that they had absolutely nothing to do with the disappearance of my car. I know that the police officer who came to get our information didn't seem overly impressed with the details. But together, Greg and I have come up with a plausible explanation of how they plotted and carried off the heist. I'm still working on a motive; when I come up with one, I'll record it here for posterity. Unless, of course, the police actually find the car before then, and can construct a better story...

My horoscope concluded: "Use what you learn constructively." That's all I'm trying to do.