Howdy,
(Weather update, just for fun: well, it’s pretty much been sunny all day, a beautiful day, big sky, a brilliant variation of artistic-looking clouds. Not a rainstorm, though it’s not hard to believe that’s still to come in these next days …)
It took us a while, I have to admit that, but we did take advantage of the nice weather this afternoon after a slow morning, eventually making it outside as a family. (I’m telling you, that — somehow — can be a couple hour process. Not really working on it the whole time (we’re not actual sloths!, though the boys would seriously love that — “CREATURE POWER!!” Jasper and Titus are quite into Wild Kratts and animals right now), but talking about it and re-circling the wagons a few times to get everyone on the same page and ready for an adventure at the same time. Then, at the last moment, when we’re ready to embark, we just make everyone pause while that diaper is changed or bottle is being made or etc., etc., you get the picture. We’re a fast moving group. Especially when we have to strap all the kids in the car. It’s an insane revelation when we’re carpooling with others, like from a restaurant back to someone’s house for dessert. We don’t keep up. It’s more like I look at Sarah and go, in the tone of the Chicago White Sox announcer, Ken Harrelson, “They gone.” You may have heard “The Hawk,” as Harrelson is called, say, “He gone.” I can’t say that I listen to Chicago baseball games [White Sox or Cubbies], but I’ve heard highlights, and, apparently, there are a ton of homerism “Hawkisms.” In case you were interested. Likely not, but, anyway, we use, “He gone!” Probably because the grammar’s so strong.)
But we made it!
Outside, and for some exercise.
Walking, jogging, riding, scootering, and strolling.
I walked. Sarah jogged. Jasper rode a bike (he’s really getting it!), Ti blazed around on his scooter (he’s also really getting it!), and Riah chilled with a smile on his face in the stroller (colorful knit hat and multiple blankets protecting him against the breeze).
I say breeze, because though on a normal day you might describe today as windy, after yesterday, today is breezy.
We made our way to the local college campus and explored, staying moving (except for me now, sitting and typing away, laptop out as I’ve parked on a bench and am feeling old doing my “homework” on a college campus — far removed from those days, it seems. Crazy how time flies. I know people hit college and university at all different ages, so it’s not so much an age thing, and who knows maybe someday I’ll be back (another master’s? a Ph.D.? Sounds crazy. More likely back for the graduation of one of my kids in like a couple decades … That won’t be weird!)
Later it probably won’t be weird, but thinking about it right now it is.
The boys bike riding, scootering, and strapped in a stroller — all looking cute in their colorful helmets and hats … graduation caps …
That would be cool.
Expensive, no doubt, but quite cool.
What future lies before us.
That sentence could have a exclamation point (in all its wondrous potential) or a question mark (in all its uncertainty and the unforeseen). I simply used a period as punctuation due to pausing in its soberness.
I’m also partial to the ellipsis … as I imagine you know, so that would’ve worked as well.
It was a beautiful day and a good time, exercise and parking to get some work done with the sun not beating down but tapping my shoulder through the breeze, reminding me how nice it was to be outside doing this.
(Disclaimer: If there are any typos, we’ll say that’s because I can barely see what I’m writing on this blacked-out screen in the sunlight of this beautiful day out on this college campus, as I’m just sitting in the middle point of a past and a future, soaking it in …)
All the while, Sarah got her jog, and both bigger boys bombed the hills, cement walkway or grassy bank. Our boys looking for pools to splash through and racing to find what’s next.
What future lies before us
Family-on-wheels is back. Got to go.
Let’s get a pizza; it’s walking distance.
Laptop closing … knuu-utt.
—Billy
Reading. Writing. Living.
Word Count: 68,803 / On Pace: 68,750 / Year’s Goal: 200,000
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