Sometimes small things happen in my life that make me appreciate human beings in general and rekindles my hope that we, as a species, are going to make it and be all right.

Mary Ellen and I signed up for a free evaluation for solar energy. (We are considering going solar for our electricity needs.)

Well, the fellow who came out to our house was a middle-aged man named Ken. He was fairly short, balding, a little paunchy, and he had a fairly permanent, dour expression on his face. He showed up with all sorts of instruments and equipment so that he could walk around our yard and compute how much direct sunlight our house is exposed to on the average day. He was standing about ten feet away from the horse barn when suddenly my Palomino stuck her head out of the stall window, looked squarely at him, and shook her head.

(Now, remember. Ken was a perfect stranger to me. We had met for the first time not five minutes earlier.)

Ken didn’t miss a beat. He looked up from his instruments, glanced at the golden equine head that was staring at him, looked over at me and said, “Helloooooooooo Willlllllllllburrrrrr!” And then, without saying another word, he immersed himself once again into his readings.