Spent most of the day outside, shaded for a bit by bamboo in a metal bin in an urban garden, and then in a block coned and barriered off for a block party. It was good to be anyplace, even as weather wore me down and I wound up out of position for the day’s wildest story, but the needful beckoned.
Kind: Articles
Punt
Stay in, stay out, rest. Fret. Putter. Drink water, read, look in on work that by all rights can wait until tomorrow. Punt on the call. Listen to the new Duran Duran album. Bookmark two dozen albums to listen to over the next few weeks. Consider making a haircut and maybe another thing happen soon.
Registers
Wandering around in a bookstore to get toys for a four-year-old boy who likes cars, and of course passing up the mega-IP-franchise material, and stopping in my tracks at the talking ATMs and cash registers and electronic alarm safes before settling on two books, a puzzle and a penguin hand puppet.
Outage
No giving without taking, them’s the rules. I couldn’t get a new device in hand and a smooth transfer of enough of its data without a multi-hour neighborhood outage. We’ve had no wifi since very early today. At least there’s, you know, power and water, and no obviouses like weather or the E-word.
Overlaid
Out in the world, not trying to turn things around so much as document what went terribly, and the alerts start coming in, a drill, a let’s-pretend. Sobering to see what we were preparing for, overlaid with what was: the open doorways, pedestrians, cars, our workaday Wednesday no worse for wear.
Tinkering
Grasping at straws, fidgeting through tabs and screens, grumping through it. But there was wind in my sails, the coffee worked and there may be something new in a day or two to make me distracted, if not satisfied. Maybe I can make it on through, straighten up and figure out some margin tinkering.
Razor
A break in the rain, with the attendant pressure rise and clearing clouds, brings a little clarity. Things seen at distances look closer. Perspective turns deceptive. One swings a razor around and cuts oneself shaving. Maybe last night’s sleep wasn’t at issue; maybe it’ll be tonight or tomorrow’s.
Present
Bodies moving through space and time, occupying public land not so much out of commerce or tourism or capital, but creativity and invention, coordinated effort in service to curiosity and joy and beauty, or just taking time to make noise and tell stories about surviving the past and being present.
Earnest
Barely barreled through the pages this morning, then did the home things in earnest, carrying around for books to hold or turn back in early. Then we stopped by the spot for our usual on the way to our reading about the Great War (shout-out to Hochschild), crawled past the lake and made it home.
Chair
A little time today in the chair, mouth open and biting down on a guard, tools strewn across a clip-on bib across my chest, as the Great Work continues apace and is set to continue next month with a cleaning and a full set of X-rays, and likely stretch well into the new year’s spring.