Friday, July 17, 2026

     Thick cool fog this morning. Looks like it is here for the day. I put on warmer clothes and close windows. My hands are cold as I work on the computer. Dog barking most of the day and night. Humm I wonder if there is a problem someplace in our neighborhood.

     I decide to go to the library in the morning. One book is overdue and is on reserve for another reader. I pack up eight books to return and find a parking spot in the front near the entrance. Always a struggle to step up on the curb, such a small step and so difficult. I am grateful for the courtesy walker in the building. And I do it and return home with a new stack of books, and am exhausted for the  rest of the day.

     It is hard to tell who is winning the struggle between the gophers and the farmer. My roommate seems tired of the struggle and shows me the plants destroyed by the gophers, She attempts to save damaged plants who have been attacked and partially eaten by the gophers. Surprising to me, it seems to work.

     We watch the second episode of the burning man documentary, THE MAN WILL BURN. Four episodes all together, dropping one a week. I missed out on going to Burning Man. I went to Tassajara for a three month retreat. I was looking for wild silence rather than wild sounds. The president’s demented lying speech is not interesting and is soon turned off.

 

 Thursday, July 16, 2026       

     A wisp of fog in the sky this morning. Airplanes flying in to the airport. Summer travelers. The professor packs up and drives back to her home. We had a good visit.

     In the afternoon I sit on the front porch with my chair yoga book. Time to do the twenty minute routine outside. Then I read a couple of articles in the current New Yorker. I forgot how wonderful it is sitting outside. Slight breeze keeps the bushes and trees moving.

     My friend comes unexpectedly with bagel sandwiches for lunch. I am glad to see he is still alive. It’s his 83^rd birthday today. He asks me why did I think he had died.  I respond, we don’t have newspapers now reporting deaths so how would I know. I am isolated from community news.

     In the evening, we watch the Italian movie BUEN CAMINO. No English dubbing, so we follow the story reading the captions. They all speak so fast. And I did laugh and the story is warm hearted about a father and daughter. But very Italian. I start reading Andrea Wulf’s new history book, THE TRAVELER. Her books are always delightful. And I am still reading I DELIVER PARCELS IN BEIJING.

 

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.