May 17, 2026

The shirt I wore to the ballet was last worn, according to the dry cleaning label, in 2012. The server at the Wortham café admired my outfit.

At dusk two bears entered my yard. One was enormous, clearly full grown, the other smaller but much too big to be this year’s cub. Neither had collars. They romped in the pond, got out of the pond and romped in the grass. You don’t expect bears that big to be that playful. This went on for a good half hour. I don’t know how much of the waterlilies they decimated. They overturned my cement swan, out of sheer devilment. I don’t know where they went, but I’m not going outside until dawn. I have to admit I was smiling the whole time they were here.  Happy creatures. One does recognize that, if they turned aggressive, animals that size would be unanswerable. 

Cinderella

May 16, 2026

Parked at First Baptist last night and made my way through Downtown After 5 festivities to the Wortham to see Ann’s Cinderella, to the music of Prokofiev. It was astoundingly good. I was caught up in the theater of it regardless of my reservations concerning classical ballet. Chit-chat with Tom and CoCo. Sweet night in my little town.  

May 15, 2026

Wearing my winter jacket indoors o n the 15th of May. Finished a rewrite of Ben and Angela, toward no conceivable end but my own satisfaction. 

 

 May 13, 2026

Hard gardening, centered on the bags of mulch I bought more than a year ago finally getting spread around. One day is right after a thousand days were wrong. 

Rabbit grazed within reach as I was weeding. 

 May 12, 2026

Amazon delivery mistakenly left a package for my neighbor on my porch. I phoned him, and as I was describing how we were right across the street from each other, he said, “Oh! Where the bears squeeze in.” Yes. I like that. Where the bears squeeze in. 

Went to All Souls to discuss with a fundraising guru how to raise money to rebuild. My mind goes almost immediately to the very rich, who should be encouraged to find something beneficial to do with their excess. 

Closing

 

May 10, 2026

Skipped church, unable to endure the choir substitute. 

Attended the final performance of Purification. Arrived early, sat under a tree in the bank parking lot while the immaculate sapphire sky blazed above. The actors were on fire, and the experience was totally different from what it was when they were not quite on fire. Quick. Exciting. I got every syllable. Fine ending note. The house was chocked with my friends, as Steve said it has often been. The revision was in my head, and when they came to parts I had changed, I kept hoping (impossibly) that the actors would use the revision. 

B writes on Facebook: i am so glad i was able to experience The Sublime Theatre's production of David Hopes' Purification.

a passionate, witty, and effective call to the masses to not only demand, but to work for change. this cast and crew quite vividly brought the show to life. so much heart. so much humanity. so much humor mixed with justifiable frustration and anger. and it was such a wonderful mother's day gift to get see this with my kid.

and now.... sunday night karaoke....

i wonder what protest songs i know?

*

M also mentioned that she had given the afternoon to herself to be away from her family on Mother’s Day. People like I, with loads of solitude, don’t realize how precious it is to others. 

Dinner Party

 May 9, 2026

D and her husband P here for dinner last night. She has become her mother, and there were moments when I had to consider twice to be sure whom I was talking to. She observed that I have become my father. P is both an unexpected and perfect mate for her, a pilot and a computer programer, light hearted where she is inclined to be morose. They have given themselves to good works through their church, including a summer camp for children in foster care. Three times she said, “You were at Michael’s funeral,” which made me hugely glad that I was. I can barely remember a time when I didn’t know D, and yet what do I know of her? Last night was the longest conversation we ever had. I remember her preference for dark meat and for the skin of the turkey at Thanksgiving when we were kids, but I had to ask her how many kids she has, and what she did for a living. She remembered a salad I made out of wild greens.