Natural Musings
Steve's taken the van to work lately while his bike gets new, ultra-awesome brake pads custom made for it. So, I've been vehicle-less. Yesterday we ran out of cat food, and I asked Steve to buy more on his way home from work. He said, "why don't you just walk to the store? It's such perfect walking weather outside." And he was right. The day was perfect. The sun was out. The clouds were light. The breeze was gentle. The air was cool. I strapped Isaac into an old jogging stroller and headed out.
The weather's been like that lately, and I've been loving it. Everything's a nice shade of green again.
As I walked to the store, I imagined mountains on the horizons and thought wistfully about Oregon. I wish there were an easy way to resolve this tension inside my heart. I also thought about how I wouldn't have needed any prodding at all to walk to the store in Medford. It would have been my idea, not Steve's. For, although the weather was perfect, there were no sidewalks or shoulders along the stretch of highway 183 that I had to walk along. So, the walk was marred by cars speeding past, the smell of exhaust, and the noise. We're thinking about moving in February to find someplace different to rent once our lease is up. Although I hate moving again, the street in front of our house is scheduled to be widened. They've already demolished and removed the houses and buildings on the opposite side of the road to make room. Rumor has it that they're even going to remove the trees from our front yard. Without them, we'd be treeless. That's blasphemy.
Speaking of removing trees, the Baptist church has started cutting down all the trees on the lot opposite the field next to our house. The sight is depressing. The waist-high stumps remind me of tombstones in an eery graveyard.
Anyhow, because we went to Soup & Saints last night, we ended up putting Isaac to bed late. Which, of course, meant that he woke up early and tired and has been tired and cranky all day. I've given him plenty of chances to nap, but he takes short ones that hardly count and wakes up tired again. Hopefully he'll last until his dad comes home, and we'll put him to bed early again tonight.