clean up time

It cannot be said that I have let things slide at home. That I haven’t cooked or cleaned in the last work-filled months. We’ve eaten well, I’ve kept up with the bills, I’ve gone after the dust balls every Sunday morning.

Yet on this first day of no class time, I look around and I see chaos. How do stacks of books and papers grow so fast? When did I get used to leaving frames for photographs in the middle of the bedroom floor? So that I no longer even notice them? And how is it that I have allowed myself, for the most part, to not respond to comments on Ocean?

Time to clean up.

From now on, at the same time that I put up a new post, I’ll put up an inclusive response to any comments left on the previous one. Even if it’s merely to say thank you. (Reminder: I still do not and will not post comments without a name. Or ones that demean or insult.)

And I’ll get rid of paper stacks. And I’ll be nicer to Ed’s cats.

But today, I’m still a little dazed. Waking up at 6 and realizing that I did not have to get up was almost too much for me to contemplate.

I spent a good afternoon hour merely strolling around the neighborhood. (It takes less than ten minutes to reach this spot...)





A crazy warm wind lashed out, tangling my hair, drowning out the sound of birds. The tulips held on to their petals, but just barely.





I snipped a branch of wild lilac and came home. Last two nights working at the shop. Last two night of a heady April.