The sun rose this morning at 5:35 am.  It will set at 8:25 pm this evening.  The chance of rain is 10% which is to say zero; the high will be 20°C.  Hardly “just another day”. I mean to say, what’s not to like! Indeed so motivated were we by the advent of this certain summertime weather – which by the way is forecast only to improve over the coming week – that within moments of awakening we proceeded to exhaust our predilection for healthful living by bicycling throughout the neighbourhood amid the early morning strollers, the runners and the dog walkers to all of whom we waved a cheery though naturally distant hello. Then routine ablutions. Followed by breakfast also shamefully routine but I adore it ceaselessly.

The latter part of the morning involves two scheduled appointments which overlap.  We’ll be on the go for the remainder of the afternoon. Nor could there be a more perfect day for flitting about the atmosphere! There is a decided warrant sitting high in a car overlooking the burgeoning fields knowing that one has already carted one’s eroding carcass on a bicycle for 5 km. Expiates the guilt, I’d say!

I am a hopeless convict of routine.  To the point of obsession really. But I do acknowledge the patent bore of it all at times. Submitting to the monotony of habit is nonetheless tolerable when mixed with supremely beneficial custom – things like bicycling, laundry, clock winding, grocery shopping, making meals and eating them, reading, writing, watching TV and going to bed.  Such dynamic pleasure – almost bordering on seraphic! And a pragmatic agenda too!

Yesterday while performing a similar routine (specifically bicycling), I encountered a long-time acquaintance walking across the erstwhile railway bridge over the Mississippi River near the Old Town Hall. We paused to converse.  We discussed death, dying and estate administration. I realize those topics insinuate one another. Oddly neither of us dwelled upon the remarkable fortuity we both enjoyed being alive in our seventh and eighth decades respectively. Clearly a missed opportunity!

From the few social exchanges I’ve had within the past year during the COVID lockdowns, it is clearly evident that each of us thrives upon trafficking in gossip. Occasionally there are things worth hearing, things that really are news, but for the most part it’s just the banter and the back-and-forth that counts. Like a warm summer breeze. This fortune is customarily practiced in coffee shops, at golf clubs, luncheon with family or friends, chance encounters in a line-up or at the grocery store. We can never get enough of it though we’re always saying, “I’ve got to get going…” then reeling from the encounter.