Ten.Five Hundred & Twenty-Nine

1. Alone again. I go through the routine: turn off the outside lights, raise the blinds on the front window, then open the blinds on the sliding glass door in the family room.

2. Today sounds like a good day for blueberry muffins. She’s upset about the blueberries even though I know she’ll eat them.

3. Trying to be flexible in my thinking. This week, cleaning day can’t be on Thursday and I don’t want it to be on Friday, so it must be today. And today is their short day anyway, there’s not much else one can do with such limited time.

4. 11 am. Done and done. I head out for a 30 minute walk. No headphones today.

5. I take a picture of the blue house. I love the landscaping: tall, windswept grasses, huge aloes, and other large bushes and small trees that I can’t identify.

6. They have dark stone like this at The French Laundry.

7. Why are there so many people at the dollar store?

8. I take them to the park. They boys find some other boys to play basketball with on the court and the girls run off to the playground to do their thing. I sit at a bench and write. I can see the turbines off in the distance. I can see a lonely oak on a hill. I can see Mt. Diablo. I can see tall palms swaying in the wind. I laugh at how this is my new winter.

9. The fear is just a concern that I’ll feel a loss of freedom. But the truth is that in return, I’m going to gain so much more. So much more.

10. Roasted chicken and leftover baked potatoes with Alice Waters’ rocket salad. 2017 Kuentz-Bas Pinot Noir. Fun wine but not the most perfect pairing with the roasted chicken..