Late summer vibe.

There’s something so special about this time of the year. Late summer. The air is still. It smells divine. There’s a cicada in the tree right outside this window. Change is coming but right here, right now, we can pause and just savor the moment.

The beach was pretty spectacular yesterday. Not much trash. I have started bringing my own plastic bag in case I don’t find one right away. That’s my routine. I find a bag and fill it as I go along.

The high waves earlier in the week brought up a lot of rocky debris. I met a young s man out there who was wearing a blue park district shirt that told me he was a Park Ambassador!! That’s what it said right on his shirt!! He said he was tasked with making sure folks didn’t have dogs or bicycles on the sand. I told him that I was the trash lady.

Anyway, I had been thinking that we might employ some “ambassadors” to walk around and try to maintain some semblance of order. Read my mind. He said he couldn’t tell people not to drink alcohol or bring glass onto the sand. He was super young and so kind of shy. I can’t imagine him directing anyone to stop doing anything. But there he was and I loved him immediately. The idea of him that is.

So, today is another day off. Have I said that I have been working? In addition to my few private students, I have been working as a gardener’s assistant!! Haha! It super. Last week I spent one day up on a ladder picking bag worms off of a row of evergreen trees. They’re the most interesting pests. They make themselves a little bag to live in that looks exactly like a pine cone. So when you’re picking them off the trees you don’t see the actual worms. It’s just the little cones that easily come away from the branches.

The crows just came swooping down in a loud and raucous murder. A real murder of crows!! must be a hawk around. I see at least eight of them up in the dead tree.

Time to get up and get the day started. Turn on some music. Get on my mat. Move the old joints around. Get the morning chores done. Make the bed. Make something to eat. Get out for a walk.

Changing the routine is a challenge. Writing here instead long hand on paper feels less spontaneous. I try to not plan ahead. Just let it flow. Might be boring or not. We’ll see. In the meantime, I am forever grateful to be alive and sober. For a cup of strong coffee. For cream and sugar! Haha!! Bonus! For this late summer morning with its cicadas and noisy crows. For the scent carried on the soft breeze. For windows wide open. For renewed hope in the political landscape. Man oh man!! What a thing!! I have just been marveling at the shift. I think we’re gonna be okay.