43things

Yes, there is more than one thing here today, but doesn’t life seem so much sweeter when the weather is good (however you define that)?

The weather is beautiful here: low-80s, low humidity (and no, not just for DC), and one of those magnificent, random breezes, the kind with no descernible direction or purpose that hints at powerful weather to come, blows. For me there’s something life renewing about weather like this. It makes me want to expose every inch of skin I reasonably can and only reenforces my dislike of shoes and socks.

So today’s things:

• Beautiful weather (and being able to work at home to enjoy it)
• That the emergency visit to the vet this morning only cost me 5 hours and $180 and that the cat is OK (he should drink more water, but who shouldn’t)
• Getting a decent night’s sleep last night (’cause tired = stupid for me)
• Knowing that I have at least one friend in the world who is willing to give help when I can bring myself to ask and to ask for help when she needs it.

These things make me happy today. More than I have most days. I must be lucky.

*Summer Breeze by Seals & Crofts, Ranked #2 single for 1973

Working at home has its advantages: the ability to open the windows, access to sunlight, myriad choices for lunch, not having to share your bathroom with the whole office building.

And then there are the little bunnies.

At some point during a conference call this morning I found myself staring out the window wondering if I was seeing what I thought I saw.  Yes, helping herself to a little honeysuckle was the smallest wild rabbit I’ve ever seen.  I don’t think she was any bigger than my hand, which, while not small, isn’t all that big.

It made me smile, so here it is.

My desk overlooks the back yard at my house. Most days I’m at my desk some time between 5:45 and 7:00 which is just in time to catch a lot of the avian life that flocks to the little woods I call my back yard.

This morning in the 4+ inch tall grass that surrounds the cover to my neighbors’ water meter which is, yes, inside my yard (don’t ask), was the dull red breast of a small robin. The bird didn’t move for a full five minutes and my first thought was that I’d be doing GRU duty before breakfast because one of the neighborhood cats killed but did not eat this robin.

Then the bird moved suddenly in that ridiculous hopping way they do when they can’t decide if they’re going to use their miracle powers of flight or not. It hopped over to the fence and flapped its wings a couple of times. Fluffy white down protruded from “underneath” the robin’s red vest at the bottom near its legs which leads me to believe that this was not a very old animal at all. It sat by the fence for a good ten minutes turning its head this way and that but mostly just staring off into some point in birdy space.

It’s an odd thing to make me happy, that I didn’t have to spend my morning with rubber gloves and a plastic bag (I know, fun for some people; for me, not so much) but more, I think, what made me happy is that nature, often so harsh, managed to surprise me not with death but with a calm individual in a species not exactly known for its attention span.

You can learn a lot of things about a city when doing research before you move. You can look at photos, read restaurant reviews, check out crime reports, look at rents, and find population statistics. There are innumerable cost of living calculators that tell you how far your current salary will go in a new city. But the one thing you can never find out without visiting a city multiple times is how it smells. And every place smells different at different times.

In the spring DC smells like flowers in just about any part of the city. Sweet, soft scents float on the warm wind and give the brain happy, happy thoughts. You can always tell when summer has finally arrived. Not by the calendar, not by the temperature, but by the change in smell: in the summer the city smells like sweat and warm tar; pavement and car exhaust and just a touch of bar-b-que (don’t ask me how, but it does; I wouldn’t want to be a vegetarian in a city that smells of roasting pork).

I went for a walk today and while the azaleas are already on the wane a couple of weeks early due to late cold and early heat, there are still plenty of flowers to be seen and appreciated. I was surprised by something at eye level and above that I think is a variety of honeysuckle but if it is the flowers are like nothing I’ve seen before in my life. No stems to pick and suck the juice from; just flat, white flowers on a vine. The scent, though, the scent was as sweet and surprising as that of a new lover.

Yes, it made me happy. It made today not a waste of time.