Signs and Portents

I really wish I had a photo to go with this post, but no such luck.

Yesterday, late afternoon, the kids (Sophie and Owen) went with me to do some errands, ending at the grocery store close to our house.

After finishing, we wheeled the cart out, I put the kids in, and turned around to start loading our bags in the van. Not more than 10 feet away from me, perched on a stack of firewood bundles (for sale on the walk in front of the store) was some sort of raptor (the bird-of-prey kind, not the Jurassic Park kind). It was not a red tail hawk, and it was not huge, but clearly a raptor. It had a nice snowy breast. It just sat there looking at me. I turned to the kids to tell them about it, but in their car seats, they had no line of sight to the bird.

I dug my cell phone out of my pocked to take a picture, and when I looked up, it was gone, in utter and complete silence. I looked, and it was way across the street, perched in the top of a dead tree.

Not sure what it all means, but it was some sort of serious sign, eh?