Today I was at my tax accountant's office (not that I'm rich enough to require tax dodges; far from it -- it's just that I have no head for figures and prefer to avoid the drudge work) to pick up my copies of this year's tax documents. But there was a bit of confusion initially as to just where they were; the receptionist thought the accountant was keeping them in her office, and the accountant was certain they were in the file cabinet in the reception area.
It turned out my accountant was right; they were in the file cabinet. When the matter was resolved and the receptionist apologized for the delay, I jokingly said to her that it was all right, this sort of thing happens around me all the time -- it's because "the fairies are jealous of me" as I signed page after page of legal forms. It made the receptionist smile.
I thought it was pretty witty, too. I think it would fit in nicely alongside such other folksy Celtic expressions like "Och aye" and "She had me waiting for three mortal hours" (but I don't know why Americans tend to associate fairies with the British Isles so much, since other European countries have fairies, too). But on the other hand, I don't know if I'd use it again anytime soon -- the fairies must have heard me and decided to teach me a little lesson about being properly respectful, because minutes after I had driven away from the office, the accountant lady called me on the cell phone; it turned out I had overlooked one of the documents I was supposed to sign. I had to drive back a couple of miles and take care of it. I don't know how it could have happened, as the receptionist and I both checked to make sure I didn't miss anything -- but anyway, there you are.
And to make certain I understood it was not a chance happening but a trick played on me by them, the fairies left me with a little mystery. As I was driving away (the first time) I photographed some nice noonday clouds hanging over Westwood. Below are the first two photographs from that set, taken six seconds apart (12:55:09 and 12:55:15).
Notice the two little squiggly whatsis in the second photo, low in the first quadrant. They do not appear in the first photo, nor in any of the subsequent shots. I have no idea what they could be. They don't look like bugs or floating motes of dust (apart from their appearance, bugs and dust motes are not likely to come in pairs traveling in identical trajectories; althought it's certainly not impossible in principle, I've never seen such occurrences in either real life or any spoiled shots I've seen before). Nor are they spots or reflections on the windshield, since they do not appear in any other shots. Anyway, although I cannot be certain, for my money they don't look like they are inside the car; I think they really were 'out there'. Probably closer than the clouds, but certainly a goodly distance away from the car. For now I'm calling them UFLOs -- Unidentified Fairy-Like Objects.
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