42 - They were wearing matching masks. joneworlds@mailbox.org I'm out for a walk the other night, and there's this mini-mall out past the old town hall that caved in the other year. Not really any stores left in that mini-mall I think, well maybe old Turk is open and trying to sell some junk when the gout's not so bad. But anyways, there's still a street lamp lit by the turn-in, and as I'm walking past I see someone walking out of the mall there. And I see it's elf, and they're walking a dog on a leash. And they've got this red wool cap on with blinking micro-LED christmas lights pinned onto it. The kind what runs off an AA or something. And I'm thinking that's pretty cool, when I notice there's more. This elf is wearing a covid face mask -- and get this, the dog, which is some shaggy black poodle or something, is wearing one too! A matching one! And you know, the Olds can't get the covid, so this one's just rocking the mask for the style of it. (And of course the dog too.) But I never used to see elfs with dogs years ago when they first started appearing around here. I think it's just another of those bits of homo-sap culture they've sort of picked up and made their own. Like with clothes. They take human clothes, and mod them up until they're new and cool. Once I saw some elfs who'd took all these colorful mens' ties, cut them into pieces and sewed them all dangling from their shirt arms, like feathered wings. Or they'll hang a digital wrist watch on their head with string somehow, so that the time part is hanging in middle of their forehead. And they've totally gone to town with the vanity covid masks. Rhinestones, embroidery, shiny foil, all that. Maybe one day we'll stop wearing those, but I bet you the elfs never will. But the christmas-light hat tonight, that's a new one to me. I got to get me one of those.