A bird, the police, and a bat
Today was supposed to be kind of a quiet day. My daughter in law and grandchildren were here this weekend and we had fun, mostly playing with the kids around the house, but also we walked two blocks into town for ice cream. They left early this morning and I went to lunch by myself to explore a little. I walked a block away to a local restaurant and got the usual friendly and curious (who is this American?), but not impolite, stares. I had a beer with grilled chicken and watched fútbol (soccer) on the big screen with everyone else. At the end of my meal, my server asked me (in English) where I was from. He told me he knew a little English and some French and liked to learn languages. I introduced myself and headed home.
At home I entered the kitchen to place my leftovers in the refrigerator and a dove flew violently around the room startled when I entered. Is that a juxtaposition (a dove doing something violent?). I must have terrified the poor bird, but I think it startled me almost as much, as I definitely jumped.
I spent the rest of the day researching how to establish domicile in a U.S. state and how to obtain a drivers license there. It’s important to have a home state when you are an ex-pat as well as a US address. I decided on Washington State for several reasons. One advantage Washington State has is that there is no State income tax. This is a big deal if you are an ex-pat moving to a country that may tax not only your earnings in their country, but your worldwide income as well. In my case, El Salvador, it is likely, though we have not yet met with a Salvadoran tax accountant, that my Federal pension may be taxed if I live here more than a given number of days per year. I will let you know when I figure that one out.
While I was working on that I heard a siren outside and saw red and blue lights. I went to the upper outdoor balcony and looked down to see a “National Civil Police” vehicle outside and an officer yelling something up to me about the car we had parked on the street. My wife spoke with them and it turned out that we needed to move the car off the street because of a parade coming through tomorrow.
In any case, later, while working on the computer in the study later that night, a bat flew into the room with me! Now I need to pause and tell you a story from my childhood. When my brother and I were not yet teenagers, we were playing a board game in a somewhat small room with a closed door. There was a space about an inch between the floor and the bottom of the door itself. All of the sudden, a bat, using its claws, pulled itself in through the narrow crack into the small room and then began flying around our heads. As you know bats fly using sonar and so it must have detected an adequate gap to be able to fly under the door, but then discovered the space was too small, so had to use its claws to pull itself through. In any case, we ran screaming out of the room and our father had to chase the bat out of the house with a broom and something he held to bounce the bat’s sonar and channel it outside. I think we forgot whose turn it was in our boardgame! In any case this bat tonight definitely startled me and after a second of being completely startled I remembered what my father did and thought of using a lightweight chair to “push” it out the door. It guided itself out the door before I could do much but be startled, but I definitely thought of my brother and father tonight.