1) Irrepressibly awake at 6:30 after eight solid hours of sleep. The coffee I made today was very much where the expression “Here’s mud in your eye!” came from. I wrote my morning pages and then glided back and forth on a pool float for an hour waiting for the sun to peep over the roofline.
1a) There are two oak trees just beyond the deep end of the pool. One defines the compound with its near-spherical crown and angled branch near the bottom. The other, closest to the house, looks like a tangle of yarn and bits of laundry lint — but it is quite the attraction for birds, hummingbirds especially. One occupied my attention as it hummed about, including hovering for several seconds about four feet above me.
2) After 8 I curled up on a shady chaise longue near the deep end and caught up with the news. That launched a lazy morning in which conversations took place in and around the pool and the kitchen. We had been warned that there would be construction noise from next door today, but it turned out they postponed the start of the job until Monday. So domestic tranquillity was not disturbed.
3) We got sandwiches and brought them back home for a late lunch, after which a Cooper’s hawk was seen on the fountain. I got a photo of it flying away as I stepped outside.
Cooper's hawk launch!
4) A headache bothered me in the afternoon — too much sun already?! — which seemed to settle into my right shoulder blade, too. A nap helped only a little.
5) Reading William J. Mann’s Kate, I am struck by the impermanence of human relationships, friendly or romantic. It’s both poignant and annoying to read this as I come to the end of an online friendship that has run its course . . . for my friend. The head knows one thing and the heart feels another; it is ever thus. A Friend IRL expressed compassion: “You and I are both big personalities,” he said, and that’s not wrong. We hear the cry all the time “Be yourself, be yourself!” And then I am myself and people, exasperated, say “Not that much!” Come to think of it, Marie Antoinette’s lawyer, Claude-François Chauveau-Lagarde, told her to be herself, and they still sent her to the guillotine. Oopsie!
6) Floating in the pool after the sun had dipped behind the hedges to the west, cirrus clouds marbled the sky — and directly overhead appeared a rainbow shaped like a smile. I had never seen anything like that before. I want it to be a happy omen.
7) My host made lemon drop cocktails for the cocktail hour, which not only packed a punch but felt beautiful. Gourmets have explored the word mouthfeel more than I, but that’s probably why I enjoyed it so much.
8) “We’re not going anyplace fancy for dinner,” they told me, so I just threw on a T-shirt and shorts, and shortly we were in a booth at Sonny’s, a restaurant themed around the late Sonny Bono where all the entrées come with “Sonny’s garlic parm mashed potatoes and seasonal veggies.” We sat inside rather than outside under the misters. The vibe was good in that pale grey room with accents of red, and I enjoyed my merlot and crispy chicken with lemon aioli.
9) After dinner, rather than the video hurly-burly of Quads, we drifted next door to the slightly more muted hurly-burly of Streetbar. We managed to snag a table and enjoy another round. I would know nothing about popular culture if it wasn’t for little outings like this.
9a) During dinner I realized that the message on my T-shirt, “Do Better,” might be seen as off-putting or attitudey in a gay bar. Oopsie.
My hair was totally on point last night.
10) In a mellow state, back at home one of my hosts and I talked about the Big Issues (see #5 above). Truly a trouble shared with a trouble halved. Also, we should all be having more of these conversations at night in swimming pools.