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Hail of Leave
Oct. 20th, 2025 08:01 pmI started the day with my usual call to Queenie, and followed that with a birthday call to my friend CeeSquared in Minnesota, who turned 80 today. We agreed this was kind of astounding. So that was a total of 3+ hours on the phone, with a small break for some coffee and toast. Whoops, I should go back and say the day actually started with the Sparrowhawk waking up rather late and in no shape to go and count money. He called in just on general principles, and the secretary graciously thanked him for not showing up under the circumstances. This was truer than she knew, for when he took the needed time to test himself again, he was still positive.
During my call with Queenie, she fretted over a package she had mailed to me via Priority Mail. Five days later, it still had not arrived. It showed up later this afternoon: a little packet of the special gingerbread baked in the Slovenian town that she and the Fireman visited last month. The gingerbreads are exquisite, and very different from the more robust and dense German version. They are soft and light, not very sweet, but flavored with honey and herbs, and cut out in sunflowers, hearts, birds, moons, and adorable hedgehogs!
The Sparrowhawk couldn't go to the gym tonight, either--nor could he have, even if he had been fully recuperated, because Coach had come down with a cold and canceled the class. This put a little extra slack into the schedule, and I decided to go for a walk. It rained most of yesterday, and is due to rain again, so this was the one and only perfect day of the week. The thermometer said it was 59, but the sun felt so warm that I rolled up my shirtsleeves. My legs felt weary and the block seemed impossibly long. I thought I'd just walk up to the first bench. Then I decided I could go as far as the second, and by then I'd gotten into my walking trance and went all around the path after all. I'm horribly deconditioned, and this is distressing as you might imagine. I did not really enjoy walking, but I did very much enjoy the sunlight, the colors of the leaves, the glow of sunlight through the leaves, a few late roses, the trees reflected in the perfectly still waters of the pond, with the perfectly blue sky as a background, and the spicy scent of the autumn woods, reminiscent of the Slovenian spicy gingerbread. I was pretty wobbly by the end, but at least it's a start.
During my call with Queenie, she fretted over a package she had mailed to me via Priority Mail. Five days later, it still had not arrived. It showed up later this afternoon: a little packet of the special gingerbread baked in the Slovenian town that she and the Fireman visited last month. The gingerbreads are exquisite, and very different from the more robust and dense German version. They are soft and light, not very sweet, but flavored with honey and herbs, and cut out in sunflowers, hearts, birds, moons, and adorable hedgehogs!
The Sparrowhawk couldn't go to the gym tonight, either--nor could he have, even if he had been fully recuperated, because Coach had come down with a cold and canceled the class. This put a little extra slack into the schedule, and I decided to go for a walk. It rained most of yesterday, and is due to rain again, so this was the one and only perfect day of the week. The thermometer said it was 59, but the sun felt so warm that I rolled up my shirtsleeves. My legs felt weary and the block seemed impossibly long. I thought I'd just walk up to the first bench. Then I decided I could go as far as the second, and by then I'd gotten into my walking trance and went all around the path after all. I'm horribly deconditioned, and this is distressing as you might imagine. I did not really enjoy walking, but I did very much enjoy the sunlight, the colors of the leaves, the glow of sunlight through the leaves, a few late roses, the trees reflected in the perfectly still waters of the pond, with the perfectly blue sky as a background, and the spicy scent of the autumn woods, reminiscent of the Slovenian spicy gingerbread. I was pretty wobbly by the end, but at least it's a start.
