Here and now

The weather right now is just perfect.  The days (up in Granite Bay) are in the 70’s and the sun shines from the minute you get up until the shadows lengthen and fade.   In another month it will be in 90’s – just you watch.  And there goes my water bill. 

I have to walk down to the end our little lane to get our mail.  We have new neighbors that just bought a house on our street and it’s fun to walk past and see the progress they are making.  The house they bought was probably built in the 60’s or 70’s and, typical to our street, is a little hybrid cottage/ranch style home.  The couple that bought it are young and energetic.  A lot of clearing and painting so far.

Our mailbox is at the very end of the row and it has a bullet hole in the door.  Rick frets about it during the rainy months but I kind of like it.  Adds a certain rustic charm to the mailbox, if you ask me. 

When I walked down here this afternoon I passed our neighbor who was coming back from getting her mail.  For the life of me I can never remember her name.  She is an older woman, probably in her late 70’s or early 80’s and she has a man’s name.  A really masculine man’s name – not like Bobbi or Chris – it’s Howard or Ralph or something like that.  She lives in a cottage on her son’s property and is really delightful.  She used to be a marine too.  Or an Air Force pilot or something like that.  If I could only remember her name I would strike up a conversation with her – I’m guessing she has some really interesting stories to tell.

These little moments, walking to get the mail or talking over the fence to our neighbors – this is what I’ll miss once we leave this place.  I yearn to be elsewhere, to have a garden that doesn’t need to watered four times a day during the Summer and where my nearest sister isn’t 200 miles away,  but the here and now has some lovely moments too.