Decidedly Grim

I have been a horribly busy Comtesse lately – literally running around non-stop for the last few weeks – which explains why I haven’t been keeping up with the facts. It probably won’t get much better until the beginning of October when my life finally settles down. However, I will try to get a few random updates in between now and then…

I spent four hours this morning wandering through dew-covered, burr-infested meadows and woodlands in the Midlothian Meadows forest preserve near Chicago looking for a friend of my girlfriend’s who has been missing since last Sunday. There was a huge turnout – maybe about 100 people or more – and it was a well-organized search. He apparently just walked out of his house on Sunday night and hasn’t been seen since. Search dogs tracked him to the railroad tracks near his house, that run through the woods, and then lost his scent.

We didn’t find any trace of him, though I did find some other creepy artifacts in the woods (several of which I photographed), including the foundation of an old house, a creepy rocking horse and teddy bear in a clearing, an empty suitcase (you know I looked in it!), and a deer humerus that I thought at first might be human. (It will become a decoration on my bookshelf now.) I thought for sure we’d stumble across some human remains, even if we didn’t find the man we were looking for, but alas… we came home empty-handed. Every plastic bag was opened, every piece of canvas was overturned, and I am completely exhausted now. I’m off to sleep for a thousand years.

Here’s information on Tariq. I hope he turns up soon.
Tariq Ali

UPDATE: Tariq’s body was found in another nearby forest preserve about a week after our search. He had committed suicide by shotgun blast to the face. R.I.P.

Sundry