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?

I have nine days to get through until I have a four-day weekend.

Saturday started with sleeping in, which I needed, but which also ate into my time outside. This is why it’s helpful to have a backyard or a beach. You can throw on a bare minimum of clothing and go back to sleep outdoors. But I did eventually get myself out and down to the garden, where my harvest included two sweet potatoes, most of the rest of this year’s basil, two types of sorrel, and several tomatoes, peppers, and tomatillos,

I met up with Rudi and we took ourselves up to Petworth, to one of our local bookshops, which was having a sale. I bought the short story collection Black Boy Joy and a collection of poems written on bus commutes. After stopping by the house to feed the cat and drop off the car, we took ourselves out to Art All Night, the annual celebration of late-night art. We visited an embassy and an art space in our neighborhood and then metro’ed downtown to the park by my old office, which has been rehabbed for the past year. They’ve done a beautiful job of updating the space, and if they can find a way to let the homeless use it unimpeded, I’ll be totally pleased with their work. We ate some jollof rice from a Nigerian food truck, enjoyed some music, and then took ourselves off to the library.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library is our main library and reopened during the pandemic after a major renovation to the Mies Van der Rohe building. And after a public dedication during normal business hours, they opened it up for alternative programming for the festival, with juggling, community performances, a Black art pop-up, a film screening, and an outdoor hip hop show by Black Alley.

Today was chiller, with a trip to the farmers market and later to a farm, where I picked apples, and the Tonys concert. Overall, a good weekend, but over too soon.

How was yours?