Sunday, October 8, 2017

I had a lovely day yesterday. We took a half-day off from home renovation and went for a long walk around our new neighborhoods . . . first down to Baxter Boulevard, along Back Cove, and then up through Payson Park and a zig-zag through the small streets along Ocean Avenue. We saw plenty of egrets, which made me happy.

We went back to the apartment for a nap, and in the evening, as the island fog rolled in, we ambled out for oysters at a new place on Washington Avenue. And then we walked another block for dinner and really good wine at the Drifter's Wife.

It was a sweet day, with many messages of affection from friends and family. I feel so fortunate to have you all.

Today we jump back onto the house-repair train. Tom's plan is to rip out and reframe the kitchen doorway and then install the new door. My plan is to paint pale-gray trim in the upstairs studies and eventually take a break to weed my garden.

In my reading life: John Brown is just about to commit atrocities among the proslavery yahoos at Pottawattomie, Kansas. In my radio-listening life: the Red Sox are just about to lose their elimination game to the Astros.

Outside the window a dump truck is loitering; kids are shouting about something or other. And now suddenly everything is silent, except for the sound of a small plane buzzing behind the clouds. Fog is hanging a thin veil over the bay, and the cat is sitting in the window, purring to himself.

I am writing these few words, and now I am remembering that I am a writer.

2 comments:

Ang said...

Two winters ago my husband and I both read Cloud Splitter by Russell Banks, his historical novel about John Brown. What a cautionary tale of religious and political fanaticism. My spotty knowledge of American history did not include the mayhem Brown caused in Kansas or the 'by any means necessary' mentality of the zealot.
Glad you had such a lovely birthday Dawn.

Ang said...

I just listened to Shankar Vedantam's podcast The Hidden Brain. Today he did a piece about raising gender neutral children that exemplified living by principles. Made me think about the continuum between someone like John Brown and a hedonist like Donald Trump. Also had a good cry over the internal conflict of being principled in the work place as a social worker.
All of that thinking is being soothed by a warm rainy day, the first in weeks.
http://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain