A Look Back at Labor Day

Yesterday I heard on NPR's All Things Considered that we were exactly 8 weeks from election day.  Yesterday I found out that we've made our way through most of the list of names for the 2020 hurricane season--the next hurricane will be Sally.  Meanwhile, so much of the U.S. west burns.  U.S. children went back to school yesterday (or the week before), and it could have been so much better, if school districts had made this decision earlier in the summer and people had had more time to plan.

But let me think of happier things, in this post that might have been made yesterday, had my computer not been so glitchy.

--On Monday, we began unpacking the boxes of books that have been packed away for 2 years--2 years.  There were moments when I wanted to weep when I took the books out of the boxes, to weep because I was so happy to see them again.

--I didn't finish unpacking the boxes.  We discovered that the lowest shelf wasn't as attached to the wall as my DIY spouse thought it was.  We decided to take a pause to see how the other shelves, now full of books, responded.  So now the front bedroom is a bit of a disaster, but at least we're in progress to getting the books put away.

--I got to the point where the items in the remaining boxes present less straight forward choices.  Will we keep cookbooks with the other books?  What about all the music that we have?  And the photo albums?

--We had the kind of week-end that makes me wish the week-end could go on forever, full of good food, good reading, relaxing in the pool, getting chores done, making progress on projects.  I zipped through the necessary work for my online classes.  I had time to do creative work.

--The week-end had small joys:  the group of ducks that came to my car when I had parked at the WalMart Neighborhood Market.  I went into the store, and as I loaded my groceries in the car, they reappeared--this time with some younger ducks (a bit older than ducklings, but not fully grown).  I've rarely been that close to wildlife.  If I had broken open the box of crackers, they probably would have eaten from my hand--so maybe they weren't quite wildlife, in the way we usually define that word.

--We had some wildlife visitors to our back yard too--baby raccoons!  Cute as they are, I found myself thinking, please don't let them figure out how to get into my attic.

--The week-end had time to catch up with far-flung friends and family too.  There were moments when I was staggered to think about how long I've known some of these folks.  I was on the phone with an old college friend.  We talked about the fact that I have a Biden sign in my yard, about the fact that it's the first time I had that kind of sign since "the time I had the one for Geraldine Ferraro and that guy she was running with."  Back in 1984, my college friend and I had fierce disagreement about that sign.  Now we had a good conversation about current politics, even though we're on the same page.

--During one of my quicker restocking trips, I picked up a bouquet of flowers, the cheap $4 kind.  It has a hydrangea bloom, lots of small sunflowers, a huge fuchsia carnation, and some daisy-esque blossoms.  I am amazed at its beauty.

--Here is the task, it seems:  to continue to be amazed at the beauty.