I don’t know if I’m going to keep up getting up a half hour earlier than usual on Wednesdays, but it’s made getting in on time more fun and interesting. Figuring out getting where I need to be becomes weirder with every street empty and dark and often either about to rain or just done. Some are pretty much autopilot, and some are no pilot.
Kind: Articles
Primary
My relationship to the ballot has changed over time. It’s taken on more weight, even early in the year with the primary process, and so many other people apparently tuned out or mailing it in. Also, I didn’t expect to see people on it that I’d known, gotten emails from or even met in person.
Stretch
Stretch and breathe and master yourself, because getting out of breath and bent out of shape won’t help you help others. Of course, I say it to remind myself. Of course, I’m going to forget.
Traction
I spent the last week coming down from an unexpected peak with help from a few changes in diet (more when than what, but not much more than usual) and sleep, with exercise as a final missing but necessary component. All these things are going to get traction anew by next weekend with the time change, and we’ll see where things go from there.
Routine
I could have stayed home, but then I wouldn’t have gotten anything done. After about an hour looking up some new clothes, I pulled the trigger on some items and then went over to the drugstore to pick up a couple of other things for the house. Then back home to dry out, and get ready to return to routine.
Striking
The rain never went away, but it was nourishing flora, slowing down traffic and pounding windows and blowing so hard that I could feel wind gusts through closed off glass. Throwing in a couple of striking art exhibits, a critically acclaimed movie and a partial grocery store run made it a better than average day. Having a gumball machine ask me “what is time?” and answering a friend’s question about a song and recovering my wallet and pocket knife were all much more to the good than buying unintentional candy bars and forgetting to score other desired items.
Antenna
Just before the street light came on, I thought about what it felt like to be back in the city. I’ve been making it back on certain weekdays, but not to this corner in a while. It wasn’t the same as going by the hospitals in the city where I work weekdays. Maybe it’s my antenna. Maybe it’s something else.
Warmth
Sure, it’s going away for a few days, and it’ll feel like longer, but it’ll be back. It’ll be something to remember somatically rather than mentally: pair the walking, the footsteps, the coffee cup with the coffee far too late in the day to do any good, and the warmth of dressing for the chilly office but now being out in public, and call it up once the clouds gather and the drops start falling from the sky and the temperature plummets.
U-turns
Geography is not a cure, but sometimes it’s a necessary distraction. Call up a corner store for a story, then find yourself walking into the store to satisfy your curiosity and be thorough. Make your way back out to the main drag and catch a ride which u-turns past the last place you remember playing a live gig. Catch a lucky break with a garrulous guy to show off the city of his memories, the mind map against the actual territory, and go forward.
Whoops
All it takes is a little tinkering at the edges of things and an absence of notice, and whoops, suddenly something is wrong, unevenly distributed, concerning enough to dial a phone number and look up Wikipedia entries to learn about. Anyone can play, on an amateur basis if need be, and anyone can get that work, alas.