Happy Summer

Boy. I wrote a lot today. I'm writing a lot lately in general. Lots of different kinds of writing too. But that's not what I want to blog about tonight. Tonight, I want to blog about the walk I took this afternoon. But first: How about this weather? Man. Beautiful. So beautiful that I decided I had to go out and walk in it this afternoon even though I had already done my time on the treadmill in the morning. Actually, if it's like this again tomorrow, I'll probably just run outside. But back to the walk. It was great. It was almost like meditation. I just walked my mind clear, listening to the sounds of nature mingling with humans. I felt so at ease that I wanted to say hello to everyone I passed, but at first most of the people wouldn't even make eye contact. Then I realized you have to kind of force people into eye contact. If you look at a person the whole time they're approaching, they're bound to look at you at some point and then inadvertently make eye contact, thus freeing you to say hi all you want. . . Did that last bit read as weird as it felt writing it? . . Later I ran into a man who was taking advantage of the thaw by shoveling the remainder of ice from his driveway. I said hi to him, and he said hi back and then laughed. The laugh took me off guard, so I stopped a second and ended up chatting with the fellow for maybe a minute or two. Nothing of any real import was spoken, but it was nice to be out in the air, sharing pleasantries with a complete stranger. Soon after, I decided to stop at the gas station that wasn't far from where I was and to pick up a couple of papers to check the classifieds. While in the gas station, I encountered another fellow who seemed to be putting on a show. He was very chatty with the cashier, but he kept turning around and looking at me as if he were performing this dialogue for the whole room to experience. I couldn't help but laugh with him as he tried to figure out how to spell the word thirty for the check that he was writing. He was fun. Then as I headed home, a little girl was riding her bike on the sidewalk. When she got close to me, she threw her arms in the air and shouted, "No hands!" She seemed so pleased with herself that I gave her a little ovation. She was cute.

Not long after I returned from the walk, I got a phone call from my gooddearfriend. She was making her annual Happy Summer calls. Apparently, she calls a bunch of people on the first day that feels like summer and wishes them all a happy summer. What a sillyfun thing for her to do. And today was indeed a happy summer day.

I'm grateful for people (20).