“. . . there was something of jubilee in that annual autumnal beginning, as if last year's mistakes had been wiped clean by summer.”

―Wallace Stegner,Angle of Repose

Today it was summery-hot, but I stayed in this afternoon. It was an errand-y morning. The food must be shopped for, selected, paid for, packed into the car in too-heavy bags and driven home and carried to the house and sorted for cupboard or fridge while the dogs bark to be fed. I am not on the beach. The plants want to be watered and weeded and I will tend to them soon. This in between season. Summer over not over, fall here and not here. I stay in this afternoon and the heat comes through the open door and I get some work done that needs to be done. The bank must be called and must keep me on hold. The driver’s license needs to be renewed year after year, and this year, with my birthday coming soon. What makes me happy: Wave coming into my room tonight while I am listening to a poet on Zoom and saying he is still hungry. He is hungry and his mother has already given him a post-dinner snack and is unresponsive. I am not unresponsive. I take his hand and we go downstairs and I offer him yogurt—does he want yogurt? Yes, he wants yogurt, but we don’t have any yogurt. Except, we do. Because I went to the store and passing the yogurt I thought of how much he would like some yogurt to be in the house. So, he takes the yogurt, with some granola, and he goes up the stairs to his mother with the very good news: Grammy bought yogurt!