October afternoons

Yes, I think I am feeling some life today. 

We drove North into Vermont yesterday. His palms still sweat when he gets out on the highway but his driving skills and confidence are growing. We drove through colored leaves and mountains, dairy farms and apple orchards. We bought leaf-shaped maple sugar candy, garlic pickles, chocolate cake and mulled cider. 

Today, I took a short walk down and up the hill along the power lines wearing a pack. I did my laundry. I sat outside in my overgrown yard and watched the white clouds sail by overhead. Tried to read Ferlinghetti's travel journals but couldn't focus for more than a single entry. Sounds of chickadees, a distant woodchuck, shaded crickets. They've always been friends of mine, those crickets. Fall, as it always does, is moving too fast. More than half gone already.

I don't remember ever sitting in a chair out there before today. Not once in twenty years.