Slightly Further Afield in Everyday Ramblings

It is clematis on the flower clock and has been for about a week. It is also wisteria. There is no wisteria on either of my two local walking routes but the other day I saw one from a distance across a moderately busy street and thought…

Late last week, restless and feeling a bit emboldened by the length of time we have been in lock down I decided to go about 3 blocks out of my routine circuit to look and see what had happened to what seemed like a pretty bad burn. I saw it from the car, the last time I was with Mrs. Sherlock in her car weeks ago.

It was a duplex, built around the turn of the prior century and blessedly it was empty and being remodeled when it went up one night in mid-February. No one was hurt and the amazing fire department saved the building on either side. The fire station is also close by so that was a factor as well. Still, how scary for everyone concerned.

I have to admit though that I am pretty fond of this photo.

Today I went south a few blocks.

This is an old house where and old woman lives that even a few years ago was taking good care of the garden area of her parking strip. At one point I saw a number of cats there but in the last number of years she has had both her porches filled with old furniture and junk. I hope she is okay.

The nearby mighty oak that takes up a half a block, it is a huge tree, looks like it is doing fine.

It has been nice to get even a little bit out of the confines of the immediate area.

A couple of days ago as I was waking by the lilac garden a woman, a bit older, with a European accent reached her large gold iPhone at me and asked if I would take her picture amongst the lilacs. She was not wearing a mask, nor honestly was I. I was out for my social distanced constitutional.

I pulled down the sleeves of my long sleeved shirt and covered my hands and gingerly took the shot. She was a bit embarrassed about forgetting there for a moment about the restrictions. I didn’t have alcohol wipes with me because I was just going for my socially distanced constitutional. I walked the rest of the way home hyper-careful not to touch anything and then wiped down my keys and doorknob after washing my hands and took off the shirt and changed it

We have this whole lifetime of conditioned behaviors we are bucking up against here; I get that.

But we are all getting tired of this. Very very tired.

I hope to work with my students on this a bit this afternoon. The what do we do now that we are so sick of things we feel like we can’t take it anymore thing… it all makes a snow day seem like a tiny little romp.

All the exhausting decision making that is going to go into navigating our days as we open up a bit and drift further afield is going to be our next big challenge.

Last updated May 04, 2020