GRIZZLY PEAR
My in-laws have a peach tree in their back yards, and to keep the birds from eating all the peaches, they wrap it in a net.
The net got compromised and three birds ended up dying in the summer heat before we realized what was happening.
There are many colloquialisms for what just happened.
But mainly it’s sad.
And a warning to the rest of us about life in general.
So our girl stoically walked into school yesterday morning.
But I had a hard time seeing her go.
You’d think all that practice with preschool would prepare me for this. But I had puffy eyes all day.
Letting go isn’t easy, even if it’s just for six hours and twenty one minutes.
But she enjoyed her first day. On to day two!
We watched the fireworks at Fox Hill Park last year and this year for July 4th. It’s a bit far from the action but you have a panorama of the city.
There were a bit more folks this year around, presumably because it more people know about it, so there was a nice energy in the park.
Adding to the festivities, the local Las Vegas Tribe decided to have their drum circle on a knoll by the parking lot.
Next to us was a family that tried to have a birthday party at the park, but the day was so hot, apparently nobody came.
I feel for the parents and the kid, but they did seem to appreciate the cosmic compensation of being invaded by a bunch of hippie hand drummers.
Friends are hard to come by in this world, but friendly accidents abound around us.
About eight months ago, a woman broke into our house while we stayed with our in-laws.
She got to live out of the cold for about a week before I found her sleeping on some sofa cushions in the living room.
Aside from breaking into the back door, she did no damage to the place, and was quite good at making sure the neighbors on both sides had no idea she was there.
However, she did take the risk to hook up our little casio keyboard and presumably played it a little.
I can’t say I’m fond of the incident, but it’s odd what your memory will latch onto months after an event. I hope she will get a handle on whatever demons are keeping her on the streets.
We all should have a little music in our lives.
While our girl still prefers to go to Disneyland, I’ve noticed that she and her brother seem to get quite a bit of joy playing around the house or in our small excursions around town.
If my eyes aren’t lying to me, rolling around the backyard in a plastic wagon garnered as many laughs and giggles as hanging around the magic kingdom.
Going to a neighborhood park is not an all encompassing “total experience” like going to an amusement park, but in the moment, I don’t think it’s that much of a dropoff for the kids.
Not that I plan on shortchanging the kiddos on resort experiences that we can afford, but I don’t think the marginal ROI is nearly as much as the marketing hype would like us to believe.
Our daughter caught a cold and was exiled to the guest bedroom for a couple night.
She went from barely filling out a cradle to comfortably fitting out a twin sized bed.
Life moves fast.
Or maybe it’s just the change in context that makes you aware of what done happened.
The other day, we went to a free event at the Discovery Children’s Museum.
A couple years ago we had a membership to this museum, so it was intensely nostalgic to watch our daughter in the same space we used to frequent regularly, just a couple years older.
It seems to be a frequent theme on this blog, but it’s worth repeating. Single days crawl slowly, but time disappears fast.
As for the trip, the girl had just as much fun as before, but we found the place equally boring as before. We still prefer Springs Preserve.
When you live in an area for an extended period, mundane places begin to pick up the residue of various experiences.
Last year (just around this time) we sold our little Mazda that we owned for nine years. I met the buyer outside of this bank because he was pulling his cash out from this branch.
This year, I met my new tenant to sign the lease and transfer the rent and security deposits between our two accounts.
Looking at it, you’d never anticipate major exchanges would happen in this little parking lot.
Until it happens.
Twice.
We once visited the Peter Zumthor’s Therme Vals which is a free standing structure spa in the Swiss mountain side.
Which is technically true.
But its also in the middle of a little resort town and surrounded by boring old hotel towers on all sides.
The photographs of the building are honest, this is an gorgeous structure, interior and exterior. But if the camera was shifted even a millimeter one direction or the other, the exterior shots wouldn’t look nearly as pretty.
Razor Thin.
Hanging out at the baths felt like standing on a mountain vista with litter in the foreground. However awesome the expanse, you are also burning a little mental energy to not think about the messy context.
Over the years, I’ve given my daughter rides between the bedroom and laundry in a bin full of clothes.
Yesterday I gave my boy his first ride in the bin.
Halfway there, she saw him in her bin and decided to jump in as well.
So the three of us did a couple loops around the house.
My heart was full.