{"id":228,"date":"2023-07-26T16:47:14","date_gmt":"2023-07-26T16:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/?page_id=228"},"modified":"2023-07-26T16:47:14","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T16:47:14","slug":"brown-matter","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/?page_id=228","title":{"rendered":"Brown Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"

I noticed a brown spot on the ground near my house this morning. Maybe it was dog poop. Like someone had stepped in it. Unaware.\u00a0 Slid across a section of the sidewalk.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I did that in our dining room late one night. Our old dog had an accident. I know the feeling.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I moved on, played ball with Jere.\u00a0 Avoided the smear on my walk home. Weird.\u00a0 After a hot day, the spot didn\u2019t dry out.\u00a0 If anything, it looked bigger.\u00a0 I guess it was too attractive for other dogs to pass up.\u00a0 They must have piled on.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

I saw the brown spot again this afternoon.\u00a0 It\u2019s been a few days.\u00a0 No need to go back in between days.\u00a0 No reason to obsess.\u00a0 Someone else’s mess.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe a mind trick.\u00a0 The spot looked bigger.\u00a0 Raised up off the ground. Not a lot, but more than I remember.\u00a0 It was a more of smear and streak before.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

At lunchtime today.\u00a0 Riding my bike home.\u00a0 Someone had put a cone next to the brown spot.\u00a0 Like one of those traffic cones.\u00a0 Maybe an underground leak?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Whatever, it looked a lot bigger.\u00a0 Like someone had shoveled sand on top of a pile of mud.\u00a0 I used to do that in reverse.\u00a0 Taking down sandy ant hills with splashes of mud.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a few days. The spot was sectioned off by cones for about a week.\u00a0 Now it has overtaken the cones.\u00a0 Crept up across the sidewalk and into the yard a few houses away. \u201cCrept\u201d is not the right word. This thing isn\u2019t alive.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Like someone inverted a sinkhole.\u00a0 Gashed a hole in the road.\u00a0 The sludge is oozing out into the flat sections. Now, it is working its way uphill?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I hope they figure it out soon. I think other people are getting worried; our street is pretty quiet.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week.\u00a0 The spot was still pretty small. A few blocks away.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now. It moved next door to my house.\u00a0 Covering yards and steps of neighbors. I have not seen them.\u00a0 Maybe they are using their back doors. Enter, exit, avoid.\u00a0 I would avoid that thing, too.\u00a0 Just keeps getting bigger.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Weird.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Each morning I wake up.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, it seems like the world is getting smaller. My neighborhood used to seem so small. Now, we are expanding.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Making everything else seem small.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, it\u2019s nice to be part of something.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I noticed a brown spot on the ground near my house this morning. Maybe it was dog poop. Like someone had stepped in it. Unaware.\u00a0 Slid across a section of the sidewalk.\u00a0 I did that in our dining room late one night. Our old dog had an accident. I know…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":191,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-228","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":229,"href":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/228\/revisions\/229"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}