now!

It’s a beautiful day. I’m going to spend most of it outside on my balcony—until it rains later in the afternoon (so ’m told). We’ll see. Coffee now. Write. Rain later. Or not.

It’s lovely out here. A bit noisy but I’ve told you how I deal with that. When I was on my big cruise I discovered that the delightful din didn’t turn off at night. Waves can be quite inexorable, as can traffic. That’s when I decided that I would treat the waves as I did the traffic outside my balcony, by first welcoming and then ignoring the noise. Well, not ignoring exactly, but allowing the gentle clamour to become part of a background companion to reading or sleeping or eating or whatever. And so with the traffic here: it’s background “music”, like the waves. With one exception. There’s a road well below my balcony that tempts young drivers to risk drag races, which can be very noisy, also dangerous. The cops get the word, and stop them, for a while. It depends on the weather.

Everything does—depend on the weather. I read years ago that people are at their most beautiful and healthy in the month of June (in the northern hemisphere) and that is supposed to explain why there are so many June brides. Is that still true, if it ever was true? Perhaps Covid has changed myths and habits, not to say rituals, forever.

Will the old normal ever return? That was then, this is now.

I’m not going to get soggy about this. It’s a beautiful day.

Have a good one.