Route 153

Now, in Numbers May 30, 2017

29: Days since I’ve posted anything here.

131: Days since the administration change and beginning of darkness that has fallen o’er the earth.

140: Number of pages to go in Sinclair Lewis’s It Can’t Happen Here, a book that is freaking me the #*¢¡ out.

6: Days since Tim left quickly for Pennsylvania to be part of the vigil of his father’s dying.

6: Days during which I’ve been unsure whether I should be here or there.

106: Number of bird species I’ve allowed myself to list this calendar year.

0: Number I’ve added since Tim left (I’ve mostly stayed indoors).

1013: Number of things I’ve discarded in my quest to get rid of 2017 things in 2017. Hundreds of these came from three drawers in my home office.

14: Number of items I have on my running list of 153s, not yet posted.

5: Cookies I ate at work today—four tiny homemade-by-coworker sugar cookies and a Tokyo banana cookie from a just-returned-from-vacation coworker.

3: Number of dogs at the office today.

5: Number of dogs that are sometimes at the office.

6: Seriously, I think there was a day when there were this many dogs in that small office.

0: My tolerance for dog skirmishes (followed by their people skirmishes) while I am trying to work.

20: Approximate number of feet between me and Cake at their concert Saturday night for a few songs. I love Cake.

100 Days May 1, 2017

Hard to believe that the official horror of the current administration has been only 100 days long (now 102). Its existence has certainly cast a pall over just about everything, including things that are difficult all on their own.

Yet, on that hundredth day, the rose-breasted grosbeaks returned. At dusk, a woodcock let us listen in on his courtship flight. Then, under an intensely clear and star-filled sky, a shooting star appeared, remaining visible long enough for me to see it, recognize it, and point it out to friends, who turned to watch it too.