January 5, 2024

Brilliant sun upon the waves. Did my first to-the-end-of-the-pier hike, fighting off arctic wind on one side and solar fire on the other. You could pass quite close to the roosting grackles, for if they moved, they’d have to move into the slashing wind. There’s barely a second that’s not a negotiation between pain and exhaustion and the will to move forward. 

Long strange dreams. In one, Maud came back and sat on my lap and we discussed our life together, she telling the points that made her happy and the points that I, mostly unwittingly, had chosen wrong. I was grateful to have all that out in the open.