Rudi heads to Salt Lake tomorrow afternoon, and I’ll join him Friday night. His mom suddenly moved into assisted living earlier this year, and he’s been working on getting her house emptied out so it can be sold. We’re hoping the next few weeks are the final push in this process, and I’ll go put in my work detail for a week. But before I do, I have a few things I need to wrap up here:

• Get through three more days of work (and the attendant to-do list there)
• Put the herbs Mum sent me home with into the ground and harvest anything ripe
• Get a flu shot
• Win a volleyball championship
• Get stuff back to the library
• Clean the apartment (didn’t happen before CT; looking less and less likely to happen before SLC)
• Make sure we have enough supplies for our cat sitter
• Do laundry
• Pack
• Get myself to the airport with enough time to catch my plane (should be super obvious, but it’s not)

I guess I’ve got my marching orders for the next few days…

Again, I need to hit publish before ai turn off my phone…

It’s been a relaxing day. It’s not what I’d hoped for (may we soon retire the concept of “out of an abundance of caution”), but it was quiet and allowed me to take a pre-supper nap, spend time with my folks, knit, and stuff myself with pizza.

Tomorrow we’re goong to hunt down cider doughnuts. I can’t wait.

Rudi said, what happened to that post you typed in bed last night? Apparently I onlt hit publish in my mind…

We kicked off a long weekend by driving up to Connecticut to celebrate my dad’s birthday, our first in-person family birthday in 20 months.

Tomorrow, I’m goong to sleep in, but I also told my mom that we might need to find some cider doughnuts.

Sunday, Rudi is going for a bike ride, so it will just be my folks and me.

The weekend was good, but way too fast. I’m really looking forward to next weekend, which will be twice as long.

There were festivals and the farmers market and time with friends. I spent time at the garden, on the waterfront, and in bed.

We got to witness the penultimate game of one of our favorite Nationals and eat the last corn on the cob of the season.

How was your weekend?

Rudi and I were a block from home on our bikes this afternoon, when we encountered a car abandoned in the middle of the busy intersection.

It was on fire.

People at the crosswalks all had their phones out and were filming this interesting new addition to their day. Cars were still boldly driving right past, which felt like a stupid choice. Some of them also had phoneccvbc recordingcc.

911 had been called.

But at that point it was still a manageable fire. And no one was doing anything about it but watching.

So I threw down the kickstand on my bike and left it with Rudi while I hurried over to a local restaurant to demand a fire extinguisher. Another middle-aged woman came in right on my heels with the same request.

Kudos to the restaurant worker who immediately knew where their front-of-house fire extinguisher was and handed it to us without missing a beat. Neither of us had used one before, but we were game to try.

But when we came out, it was clear those extra 30 seconds had been too long. The car was engulfed. There was really no way for us to do anything at that point.

The fire trucks showed up a minute later, and I assume they quickly got the situation under control, because I didn’t hear an explosion after we got back on our bikes and pedaled away.

It’s the weekend (and the last one we’ll spend in town for a while)! What am I hoping it includes?

• We’ve got tickets to the penultimate Nationals game of the year tomorrow evening. Our friend Sarah has the other two seats and is bringing one of her best college friends, whom I’m looking forward to meeting.
• There are a couple neighborhood street festivals and a concert in the park that could be fun to check out.
• I haven’t been to the garden in nearly a week, so I’d better go pick some tomatoes and peppers.
• I have a bag of apples I picked last weekend that would love to be baked.
• Mount Laundry threatens our very existence while we sleep. I should probably strive to turn it into a mere hill.
• A friend of Rudi’s is going to cat sit for us this month, which means that someone besides our handyman on an emergency basis is going to come into the apartment for the first time since before the pandemic. We have to do some cleaning.
• Sunday morning means the farmers market, even if I don’t really need anything.
• I’d like to put birthday cards for three friends into the mail. (I also need to get one of their most recent addresses.)
• I need to buy a plane ticket to Salt Lake. I should have bought it today at the latest.
• Doesn’t reading and knitting at a cafe in the autumn sun sound idyllic?

How about you? Do you have a relaxing weekend planned or one full of activity?