In Which We See the Sights

18 June 2004

Major accomplishment of Wednesday: I taught Robin to recognize pi. I was wearing earrings that are in the shape of either Stonehenge or pi, depending on what flavor geek you are. (I bought them at Stonehenge.) And we had already established that my necklace had suns on it, so once we were done pointing out the suns and counting the suns -- well, we went back to that repeatedly, so we weren't really done, per se -- I pulled my hair away from my face and showed him my earrings. "That's pi," I said. "Pi?" he chirped happily, pointing. "Pi! Pi!" Yeeeeees, weedhoppah. Eeeeexcellent.

I bought a full-length mirror Wednesday at Target. It's a nice one, but, y'know, a regular Target-priced full-length mirror. So I can't decide whether the clerk was a better worrier than me or not even in my league: she looked at it and said, "Ohhh, I'd never stop worrying until I had that safely hung. I'd just keep thinking something would chip or break it, constantly." And part of me thinks, wow, that's a higher level of worry than I can really muster, because, c'mon, lady, a Target mirror! $13! But part of me thinks that if you have enough energy to worry about a mirror, you are a piker as worriers are concerned, and you need some bigger worries posthaste, or else you need to just hang it up. I mean, a mirror. When there might be ninjas rappelling in any minute.

Okay, so that's not my big worry. But it's a heck of a lot better than a mirror.

Kev arrived in the early hours yesterday morning, having driven through the night with a few breaks so that his elderly car didn't have to deal with the heat of the day. It and he arrived safely and slept a few more hours. I showed him around the house, and then we headed out for our first day of excursions: Uncle Hugo's, Dreamhaven, and Wild Rumpus; Rice Paper and Sebastian Joe's and Whole Foods and First Course and Bridgeman's; Lake of the Isles and the Parkway and the Falls all the way down to the River.

Last time we went to the Falls was the weekend we found our house. It was Labor Day weekend. It was the middle of a drought. And it was sad, pathetic little Falls and pathetic little Creek, coming down to an alarmingly low River. Not so last night. It was crashing and abundant and gorgeous. It was the fulfillment of what was maybe a promissory note last summer. It was exactly as it ought to be. There will be pictures.

The bad news of yesterday is that Carl, the old family friend I've talked about recently, died in the night. I'm sorry that he had to go so soon, but I'm glad he's at peace now. His kids are still trying to figure out the funeral, and when they do, my family will figure out what they're doing. So I don't know who we'll be seeing when, because they don't know, either.

I don't know where we're going today, or when. Plenty of options, though. It's good to just wallow in my city for awhile.

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