Verdict In

Canadian geese have been stopping by all week, making momentary roosts in their layover pine trees. Cozy, hotel-like places, where the evergreen needles still provide them a little shelter from the wind. At night, I can hear them out over the lake, and in the darkness their calls almost sound like coyotes howling at the moon. It makes me laugh some, because come winter, after the bay freezes, there will actually be coyotes out there on the ice, howling at the moon in the dead of night. Same place, same sound, same time of day– completely different season and species.

Woke into one of the worst inexplicable moods I’ve encountered in a while yesterday. Dreams were unpleasant, but thankfully unmemorable. A moment later, as I’m stumbling through the process of preparing coffee, my phone starts blowing up with an emotionally distraught friend of mine whose uncle apparently passed away just then, and she needed someone to cry to. I did what I could, but eventually that emotional wrecking ball started coming after me, so I finally had to just give up, and tell them to fuck off and leave me alone. Indeed, the "friend of the year" award will surely be mine. Hopping online while I’m having my coffee, and I discover that a local patron and friend-of-many-friends, left the bar the night before, and never showed up to get her kids from school the following day. Around midnight, the web board that was hosted in a desperate attempt to find the missing woman was abruptly terminated, with only a "please stop leaving messages here" admin message showing up for a few moments beforehand. Her apartment, which is a block away from mine, was walled off, and filled with fire trucks and police cars. I’m guessing they weren’t all there to welcome her home.

When has anyone ever gone missing, and then been found alive again? As far as I can tell, going missing is pretty much a death sentence.

EDIT: http://www.petoskeynews.net/mobile/breakingnews/story-0/