for 8 OCT 05: LONG TIME, NO SEE

(BLOGGER'S NOTE: You may find this humorous, serious, or a little of both - but from time to time, we offer things to reflect upon as we keep the seventh-day Sabbath.)

A woman knocked at my door one morning this week, and I scared her a bit when I appeared. That'll teach me to take off my T-shirt for the rest of the day at home, after a morning run.

"Do you know if a Nancy Stevens lives here?" the woman asked rather nervously. The name was unfamiliar to me, but I admittedly don't know the names of everyone at my apartment complex.

"I haven't seen her in years, and I was told she might live here." I had the feeling they were related somehow. Yet I didn't know the name -- and to me, snooping in other people's mailboxes is the stuff of "Desperate Housewives."

"She's a blonde woman," the woman said trying again. That seemed to settle the issue -- as I've been the only white resident at this apartment complex for years, and female visitors might be more likely to dye their hair purple.

That marked the second visitor I'd disappointed in a couple of weeks. A few days before, an older woman walked toward my next door neighbor's apartment. "Miss Lola?!" she asked.

The woman apparently hasn't heard the news, so I was the one to break it. "She died back in January. The first week of January." [8 Jan] The visitor walked away looking stunned, and probably torn apart inside. This may have been her annual trip, and I tripped up her plans.

These two cases left me thankful I went to Kansas to see my family this year - but it was my first trip there in three years, due to work commitments and other factors. My youngest niece moved to California during the summer, but I have yet to hear from her. Sometimes bloggers can create guilt clouds, you know....

But I admittedly don't keep in touch as well as I should, with friends from years gone by. I mean to do it after I attend high school reunions - but it's a rare day when I even take advantage of my cheap-level membership to classmates.com .

If there's a lesson in all of this, I suppose it's that we need to make time to keep in contact with those we care about most -- whether close relatives or old friends. For instance, this blog allows readers to know what's happening in my life. If only my friends remember how to spell my last name, when they Google me....

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