“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 854 (Sunday) – plans no plans

For the second day this weekend, I was dressed as if to go out and be part of the world. Yesterday it was pinkish-peach ankle pants, white pinstripe tuxedo style shirt with pintucks, and pink loafers. Today it was gray ankle pants, crisp white menswear shirt with tiny purple gray pin dots, and gray woven sandals.

On Saturday, a tentative plan had been discussed with Mom to maybe visit the Bridge of Flowers in Shelburne Falls today, which we did last year around this time, but when I called, she didn’t feel like doing anything. I can absolutely understand that completely familiar feeling. Maybe it’s genetic. 

Facebook events were searched in an attempt to find something free and interesting happening. There were lots of events found for dates that weren’t today and some for several months out, and in the end, I sat around the house all day in a repeat of yesterday and countless days prior.

While eating too many raspberry strudel bite thingies found in the freezer, a list of potential activities danced through my brain, but nothing stuck as something I actually cared to do. It is clear I have perfected the art of staying home. In a reenactment of the favorite pastime of my youth, when books were the go-to, I read. A lot of time as a kid was spent holed up in my room reading, even when not grounded and confined to quarters.

When it was too hot in our house in the summer, I walked to the public library, browsed the stacks and read book jackets in air-conditioned comfort until I found the perfect books to check out. It had once been a goal to read all the books in the children’s library but I never even finished one row of the stacks. This is now repeated in my own home where the goal is to read all the books I already have.

Today’s reading was a return to the monster 700-page novel Deep River, a family epic centered on Finnish loggers in the Pacific Northwest in the early 1900s. It was started months ago, and is barely halfway done. The book was enjoyed on the deck in the natural and comfortable air.

While on the deck, it occurred to me that, in addition to reading, maybe I was guarding the remaining evening primrose from being ripped out of the ground. There was hope the neighbor lady would be out so I could talk to her about it, but she wasn’t spotted. Maybe tomorrow (the daily refrain).