Wednesday, July 15, 2026    

     A pair of woodpeckers arrive in the neighborhood. Several times I chase them away from knocking on my roof’s wooden over hang. No I shout, not here.  This is an old house. They quickly fly away to the nearby tree. This morning I hear knocking and think it is the Meals on Wheels volunteer.  Nope it is the woodpeckers again. My door bell is broken so we depend on knocking.

     Our first warm day of the season. No fog, some wind.  House is warmer then outside.  I forget how to keep the house cool. Maybe there is no way. Usually on the third hot day, the fog comes back.

     The kind professor and I binge on Clarkson’s farm and the Pitt. When she visits, I search for interesting shows to watch with her. This morning she returns to her home in the bay area. My roommate is busy in the back yard watering the plants. She cooks a meal for us with some of her back yard produce.

     The best book I have read in awhile is I DELIVER PARCELS IN BEIJING by Hu Anyan. I am not sure why I like it. A memoir of a young working man in China, a young man who writes well.

 

 Tuesday, July 14, 2026   

     Warm sun this morning. Small birds in the bottle bush tree. Noisy garbage truck movies slowly down the street. The professor is visiting and we drink coffee together in my room before the day’s activities start.

     A second man has been murdered by ICE agents. More protests, of course, being scheduled. So hard to know what to do. Bombing in the middle East, senseless bombing. And here in my neighborhood all is well.  Somehow that doesn’t make sense.

     The gophers may be winning in the back yard.  My roommate is finding new ways to challenging their authority. This time with caned sardines.  Don’t ask. I don’t quite understand but the roommate knows.

     I am just about finished with the memoir of a neurologist.  I feel pretty healthy compared to her patients. We are rewatching season 5 of CLARKSON’S FARM with the professor. Another day, another day.

 

Monday, July 13, 2026

     Warm fog this morning. We are getting ready for hot overcast weather. My younger sister is visiting for a couple of days. A treat for me. My comforter was too warm last night. My sister is out walking this morning.

     Today I will change to cooler bedding. I have made a list of things to do so I don’t forget. It is more I need encouragement to actually do my daily chores. So easy to slide and think I can do them the next day. Piles of ignored stuff on my desk from last year. Someday I will do the job.

     Air planes flying overhead. Commercial not military. We live in a military town. The state of war can spill over to my town. Military planes come in and out. We just accept it.  Decades ago, I saw from my deck, mushroom clouds coming from the military base as soldiers were learning to respond to atomic blasts. We forget and think of our town as a tourist beach town.

     I am reading an unusual memoir, I DELIVER PARCELS IN BEIJING by Hu Anyan. So good. I now know more about the working class in China. And I am continuing to read WHISPERS OF THE MIND, a neurologist’s memoir.