Just a quick note from Cozad, Nebraska

The last time I was in Cozad, Nebraska was about 1990, when my folks gave me an old 1984 Civic Wagon (ironically marketed as the "Wag-O-Van" for late models), and I was driving it to Salt Lake City.

A very good, but now estranged friend of mine named Lora Duda, though her name changed through marriage in the 90's, claimed that Cozad was the strangest place she'd ever been. She described an odd scene in a gas station (it's still there) where the clerks, at about 3AM, were hiding under the counter, and when she went in to pay for gas, they looked all embarrassed. In retrospect it seems pretty clear what was going on.

On my first trip here, I did see something strange... an orange kitten, maybe 4 weeks old... completely flat and embedded in the pavement behind that same gas station. I've seen plenty of road kill, but this kitten was the width of a piece of paper, and it had a sort of "oh no!" look on it's face. While it was quite horrific, it was also beautiful in a way.

I'm staying in a room with a leaky ceiling, a full size refrigerator, and some really fast WiFi. I am content.