Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I leave work with just enough time to get to the stop to catch the bus home only to find that the road has been blocked off and they’re not letting anyone through. While the bus was also going to be on the wrong side of this roadblock, usually this would be cause for grumbling about a delay in getting home. But there are people in from out of town who are really excited about the fact that the Presidential motorcade is about to pass by, and their enthusiasm is catching. You get used to it when you live here, and you tend to focus only on the inconvenience to your daily life, but it is actually kind of cool that the leader of the nation is driving right past you.

2. Rudi’s bicycle club gets tickets to the baseball game and they invite me along. Since it’s a Mets game and I’m in between volleyball seasons, I say yes. I’m glad I do when I discover that the seats are in left field, about six rows above the visiting team’s dugout. I sit and chat with Rudi’s friends for a while, but late in the game I move forward to follow what’s going on with the relief staff. That’s Fernando Salas, above, who came in to get the first two outs in the tenth. And this is Jerry Blevins heading into the game to face down his former teammate and Nationals powerhouse Daniel Murphy for the third and final out, saving the day for the Mets fans.

3. Rudi made a batch of pesto tonight with fresh basil from the farmers market. We’ll freeze most of it for the winter, but tonight we had very tasty pasta for supper.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?