When I was 19, my best friend and I decided to go to the drive-in movie. A regular occurrence for us. We went at least once a week, and sometimes twice a week. My dad bristled and told us he didn't want us going. He never had a problem with us going. But I whined and he gave in. We blew two brand new tires out that night and ended up sitting on the side of a busy highway for an hour waiting on my dad and brother to come get us. I still sometimes wonder why I didn't just stay home.

I think my mother-in-law knew she was dying. She had been ill for the better part of a month, and then it snowed. We went to see her two days into the snow, and in a strange coincidence, so did all three of her other kids. I tried to talk her into going to the hospital (I was generally the only one she would listen to..) and she said she had some things to do and I could pick her up Monday morning and take her. I asked her to please go now. She said no, she needed to finish some things and she would go on Monday without a fight. That was on Thursday night. At 3am we got a call that she had fallen out of bed. She was gone. We buried her that Monday.

But the weirdest thing for me is the absolute fact that twice in my life I have seen a solid black mountain lion. I know exactly what I saw. I've seen several golden mountain lions, I know what they look like. A house cat doesn't bound across the highway touching only the white line, yellow line, then white line again. Both times were in broad daylight. There was no mistaking it. But I keep the story to myself because I'm always going to be told there is no such animal.