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Day 214: Such a fine day
Oct. 15th, 2020 11:58 pmToday was rather glorious, the sky a vivid blue, the leaves beginning to turn color, and after driving D. to the allergy clinic I eagerly set off to wander the neighborhood to the west, the residential area between Willamette Street and a grassy field south of the county fairgrounds labelled as “Jefferson Park.” It’s a neighborhood of charming small older houses, which might be described as bungalows and cottages, unlike the ranch-style houses that make up so much of Eugene, and numerous two- and three-story apartment buildings. Many of the houses were surrounded by gardens and shaded by deciduous trees.
I decided to keep track of the people I saw. They were… a mom pushing a stroller, an older male hippie with with dreadlocks muttering at the contents of a barrel or some other large container, a silver-haired man riding a recumbent bicycle, a woman about my age entering a house with a pretty-sounding wind chime and several potted plants in bloom, a young man riding a bike and sharing his preferred hip-hop music with the entire neighborhood, an older man raking leaves… and then I stopped noticing. I should comment, perhaps, that despite the dreadlocks and the hip-hop, all were white.
From the clinic at 15th and Oak, I walked seven blocks west, then two south and back east to Lincoln, then north to 13th, which is a commercial street like Willamette, then back east to Willamette, south to 14th, and through the parking lot to the car, so, 22 blocks in all. I’d dropped D. off at 1:28 p.m. He has to wait in the clinic for 30 minutes after his injection, and I’d gone so far that I had to hasten to get back in time (he had a 2:15 class). In fact, as soon as I saw the car, he was getting into it, but I opened my own door before his seat belt was buckled, and we arrived home with three minutes to spare.
Later in the afternoon, J. also wanted to go for a walk – such fine weather – so we went east to the Episcopal church, then north a block and back. There’s a corner lot where a house was removed, leaving something of a pit, and a mama deer and her growing fawn were finding weeds to eat. Then J. had sword class and I had the weekly symphony watch party, followed by two hours of Beethoven on the radio while I tidied my room. I confess that my interest in listening to Beethoven had mostly expired after an hour and a half, though.
I decided to keep track of the people I saw. They were… a mom pushing a stroller, an older male hippie with with dreadlocks muttering at the contents of a barrel or some other large container, a silver-haired man riding a recumbent bicycle, a woman about my age entering a house with a pretty-sounding wind chime and several potted plants in bloom, a young man riding a bike and sharing his preferred hip-hop music with the entire neighborhood, an older man raking leaves… and then I stopped noticing. I should comment, perhaps, that despite the dreadlocks and the hip-hop, all were white.
From the clinic at 15th and Oak, I walked seven blocks west, then two south and back east to Lincoln, then north to 13th, which is a commercial street like Willamette, then back east to Willamette, south to 14th, and through the parking lot to the car, so, 22 blocks in all. I’d dropped D. off at 1:28 p.m. He has to wait in the clinic for 30 minutes after his injection, and I’d gone so far that I had to hasten to get back in time (he had a 2:15 class). In fact, as soon as I saw the car, he was getting into it, but I opened my own door before his seat belt was buckled, and we arrived home with three minutes to spare.
Later in the afternoon, J. also wanted to go for a walk – such fine weather – so we went east to the Episcopal church, then north a block and back. There’s a corner lot where a house was removed, leaving something of a pit, and a mama deer and her growing fawn were finding weeds to eat. Then J. had sword class and I had the weekly symphony watch party, followed by two hours of Beethoven on the radio while I tidied my room. I confess that my interest in listening to Beethoven had mostly expired after an hour and a half, though.