We have room-darkening curtains in our bedroom but I’ve left them open on the northeast facing window for at least a month. As a result, I have started waking at 5:20, no matter what time I went to bed. I'm not really becoming a morning person, I'm just able to read all my emails and RSS feeds before I get to my desk now.
This morning I worked from a coffee shop near the daycare. I parked on the street in front of a spray of coneflowers so I didn't have to move the car if there were no space and I needed to try the one of the other coffee shops nearby. I had a backpack on - an Aer City Pack Pro I bought after lurking on r/onebag for a while - so the kiddo needed to wear her empty little pink backpack into her classroom.
I didn't end up needing to go to a second location. I lucked into my favorite table. We used to live close enough to go most days. I would know this coffee shop by the way the sound echoes in it alone.
My child loves CSA pickup. She loves walking through the cramped parking lot in the heat holding her own bag, loves to tell me what to pick from the bins, loves standing in the kitchen on her learning tower while I process everything for maximum freshness until some of it goes in the compost, but hates to eat almost anything. This week's share included corn. I haven't gotten an ear of corn in a CSA share in years. I was wondering aloud to Stephen on the drive home when the last time was, as I tried to remember the best storage method. I recalled finding a fat green earworm inside a husk the last time we did. ("So, shuck it before putting it in the fridge," Stephen said.) I shrieked in a mimicry of how I did before.
"What, mama?"
I explained.
"I hope we find a worm," she said from her carseat, her voice full of wicked delight.
I know today was a chemo day for my dad because it's always the day after CSA pickup. The updates have slowed to a trickle. I'm not sure if it's because this is becoming mundane; apparently the first round went really well, the second a little tiring.
My mom had said in a group text that the oncologist had cleared visits from the grandkids between rounds "as long as nobody's sick."
I held my typing fingers. Imagine a meme of Bruce Banner turning back to Captain America. "That's my secret," he says. But finish it instead with, "we're always sick." There's at least one day a week my kid's nose is running. That was the whole impetus for my trip last month.
On a very related note, Canadian wildfires affecting air quality in the Midwest has helped tamp down my wanderlust. The sky all the way down here was hazy in the morning like a late August evening rush hour.
It's supposed to be 100º here on Friday. I can't believe we ever did group runs in this, but I know we did. TVA is trying to reassure everyone, after the power went out this winter, that we're not becoming Texas, but I'll admit being nervous.
The heat made up my mind for me: I've decided that, while I might do intervals at the race, my training focus is for now on getting back to a regular yoga practice. I did a retreat at Rockvale last fall, and it occurred to me after leaving that I knew one of the other attendees because I'd taken one of her yoga classes. I forgot about that until she, not remembering me, complimented my Hacktoberfest tee shirt while I was putting my shoes into a cubby before the restorative class that followed hers. I felt like that was my sign to do more than just do supta baddha konasana or shivasana, so I signed up for hers too.
It took a few months, and a lot of coordination, but we finally have a storm door on the back door. The dog is acting afraid of it. It replaced a heavy old security door. When that was gone and merely opening one door exposed him to the elements, he acted afraid of that too.
The retaining wall removal is scheduled a few weeks out.
That leaves the weird bathroom.
If we move forward on this second bathroom / laundry room remodel, which looks increasingly likely, I'm going to have to clear out our den, which means I'll have to empty and consolidate my freezers over the next two months. I'm mentally drafting my post to the notorious neighborhood Facebook group. So far it's something like: "I'VE GOT BEEF. No, seriously, I've got beef. And chicken wings. Come get them."