No eggs

Thursday was very busy with school Open House. Friday dawned with nothing breakfastablish in the refrigerator or bread box.

Stopped at Sonic for a breakfast burrito ($1.83) on the way to Albertsons for lettuce, eggs, and pickle relish. Something bright red caught my eye, and it wasn't the skirt of a roller-skating carhop. At the back of the lot a woodpecker was bopping around the clock eating bugs on three small trees.

Not a ladderback. Probably a red-bellied woodpecker rocking to its own beat in spite of the Sonic soundtrack of pink Cadillac and blue Pontiac oldies. The morning sun gave its red head a neon cherry limeade glow.

Beyond the trees, an old man performed his tai chi exercises around a black SUV. The SUV just received a carwash next door, and a youngish power couple set their briefcases out on the pavement while they took digital close-ups of its lights, tires, license plates, and bumpers, all the while talking on their cellphones.

Closer to the street, an elderly gentleman sat in the back of a truck attending the donation site for clean, used clothing and other household items. He could not see the tai chi, or the SUV, or the dawn day-glow Red Dye No. One hairdo. He couldn't see the breakfast menu combos with tater tots and OJ. He could only see the gas pumps on down at the 7-11, and the new pop-up branch bank being built across the street.