When just don’t know what to do with myself, I write.
The day was sunny. That was nice. The day was above freezing. That was nice. All the snow is gone. That is nice.
It is bug season here at Mist Cottage. Bug season is a precursor of spring, which as it happens, arrives on Tuesday of this coming week. Not a moment too soon.
I took Friday as a “sick day”. I stayed in my pyjamas all day. I curled up in my chair, with my crocheted blanket wrapped around me. I read, I ate, I sipped tea, I gazed out the window at the trees and the sky, I dozed off. The computers remained unused and silent all day long. The telephones did not ring, nor did I call anyone. It was good to spend a day contemplating life, the universe, and everything. The funny part of it was, I assumed that because I dozed off and on, that I would have a difficult time sleeping on Friday night. Such was not the case. I retired at my usual time, and immediately fell into a restful sleep, awaking at 4:00 a.m., which now, with my altered sleep patterns, I consider sleeping in.
On Friday, during the day, I happened to be looking out the living room window, when I spied an unknown young man, he could have been a teenager, he might have been 25, I can’t tell anymore, walking up the street from the scarred land that is being cleared at the end of the street. He was carrying a white laundry basket. It contained unidentified items, none of which were fabric. I didn’t recognize him, which is still of some relevance, as this is still a short dead end street. By this time next year the street will be full of strangers, more than 50 new families in rental units, all the foot traffic and all the vehicles, needing this narrow little street to reach, or to leave, their homes.
Back to the young man with the laundry basket. I wonder where he came from, and where he was going. Did he have some sort of secret place in the woods, where he kept “stuff”, which he wanted to remove before the rest of the trees were felled? Was he crossing the chewed up land as a short cut, moving some sort of gear from one house to another? He does not live in this neighbourhood, I know that much.
The weekend has been quiet and uneventful. Uneventful is as good as it gets these days, and considering the state of the world, it behoves me to be grateful for finding myself in such a context, even if it isn’t what I would like it to be.
Worldly Distractions
Weather
-2°C
Date: 8:00 PM EDT Sunday 11 March 2018
Condition: Mainly Clear
Pressure: 102.1 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: -1.7°C
Dew point: -4.5°C
Humidity: 81%
Wind: SSW 17 km/h
Wind Chill: -7
Visibility: 24 km
Quote
“There is nothing in which the birds differ more from man than the way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was before.”
Robert Lynd
1879 – 1949
