I blame the pandemic for a lot of things—mainly losses. Like my former pattern of early morning walks to a coffee shop. I always passed a walnut tree and in the fall would collect the ones dropped on sidewalk or street. Then there was a fenced yard where a scrawny peach tree leaned over the sidewalk. It grew scrawny peaches—but really tasty ones.
Neither is a big loss—just a reminder of changed circumstances. The pandemic merely speeded up a more static lifestyle.
But there is always something new if we only go looking.
The neighborhood
The point man on our solar project lives in our neighborhood. He commented an interesting house he’s observed, and mentioned his own fencing project. I went looking for the house with stained-glass windows and an upperstory add-on, and smiled at the bike hanging upside down on the balcony. I also wandered until I found the fence Jason had described.
My habitual walks can be a whole lot more interesting if I explore everywhere, not just the same old streets. Another case-in-point are—
Crows
They haven’t arrived yet, but every fall crows show up and shout “Caa!” from trees around the park. Also every fall, they sit on a nearby light pole and drop pecans to break their shells. I’ve picked up whole ones and eaten them.
And always the wonder, where’s the pecan tree? How far do the crows travel?
By exploring new streets I actually found not one but two trees dropping nuts onto the sidewalk. I brought some home.
Not!
They turned out to be walnuts instead. Maybe the pecan tree is in someone’s back yard.
Or maybe I should ask a crow how far it travels . . .
Seeing
My lifetime of wearing glasses still catches me looking up at the world through the fuzzy lenses of cheaters (from reading or laptop).
This almost-frosty morning, I got in the car and put on a cloth mask in preparation for arrival at a medical lab. My first puff of air reminded me of the foggy glasses syndrome. I had grabbed the wrong mask.
A few breaths later, I thought: Hey! You don’t wear glasses to drive. What’s the problem?
Kate Harrington 