Strange Thoughts of a Strange Man

ore or less every morning I walk from Charing Cross to Bedford Square. My brain goes into a little world of its own while I am doing this and thinks of all sorts of strange and random things.

Today for instance, I was thinking of a series of books by Robert J Sawyer called The Quintaglio Ascension. I probably have mentioned them before. They're about a race of intelligent dinosaurs who discover science. There are parallels to Gallileo and Darwin among others. The most striking thing about the series of books is that they are among the few written works to ever make me break down and cry. The death of Afsan, the patriarchal figure, came too soon after the death of my own father.

So I was feeling a little down about that, even though I haven't read those books in years. As I walked along, I passed a transit van parked in a side road. Inside was a man, obviously waiting for something or someone to arrive. He was sprawled out with his shoulder against the window frame and he was reading a newspaper. There was a little Jack Russell terrier sitting or lying behind him with its head resting on his belly.

The dog's head on his belly like that just looked so sweet that it jolted me out of gloom and put a smile on my face.