Just a listicle. I’m still kind of jetlagged.

Five Things That Are Great About Being Home

Luna

She seems very pleased also. Photo by Munchkin.

Being able to read all the books I’ve been ordering all summer. Most are for the grad school class that starts next month. I opened all the packages from Better World Books and started right in on Big Magic, by Elizabeth Gilbert, which I am loving.

The piano

I decided I’d go back to the very beginning of my binder, from when I started lessons about five years ago. Some of the early, exercise-y stuff is too boring to enjoy, but I quickly got to some nice pieces I had practically forgotten, but that are giving my rusty music-brain a way to loosen up and get back into the groove.

San Francisco

The first evening, even though we’d traveled for 22 hours and I had every intention of opening a can of Trader Joe’s corn for dinner, the child nudged me to go with her to our neighborhood grocery to pick up a few things. Carl* was rolling in, making the color of the sky different from anything we saw in Europe, and making the air blessedly cool. Walking up the hill was still a challenge despite all the walking I’ve done all summer (but maybe that had to do with the 22 hours). The store was familiar and friendly and had delicious mangoes. In general, the fruits and veggies were really good in Europe, but the mangoes, not so much.

Everything about our house

I just love our house. It is cozy and full of art we’ve made and/or love, overflowing with books I want to read, and imbued with thousands of memories.

Things I’ve Been Getting Done

Yesterday was a Getting Things Done kind of day. I already had car repair scheduled, because the tenants reported that it wouldn’t start even after a jump, so: maybe it just needed a new 12-volt battery? Or a new hybrid battery?–I hoped not, because they’re pricey, but the car has gone 225k miles on its original battery. And three of the books that arrived were actually intended to be sent directly to a 9-year-old for his birthday (pretty sure the mix-up was on me, not on Better World Books), so, mailing things from the post office being my kryptonite, I figured I’d better send them straightaway. The items that went on my Done List are:

made chai

watered outdoor plants

weeded for 10 minutes or so

played piano

got car jump-started twice (don’t ask)

mailed books

took car to mechanic

walked down scenic Van Ness Avenue (snort) to buy groceries

picked up car

went through mail and tossed obvious junk

read 50 pages of Big Magic

walked 8,000 steps

accomplished all of above despite one hell of a sciatica flare-up (driving is the worst if I don’t set the seat up properly)

re-learned that walking during a flare-up can make it a lot better, at least for a while.

And today: Went through all my mail, filed / took action as needed.

Two things that were on my list for yesterday were “make dinner” and “Zoom with my mom.” Instead I lay down for a nap at 4 and slept way past the time for both. It’s okay. Mom had been warned that that might happen, and the child made dinner for herself and even offered to make me something when I stumbled into the kitchen at some point, but I glurbled some kind of “no thanks” at her and just got myself peanut butter toast when I woke up later, at 1 a.m. That let me fall back asleep until something like a normal Pacific Time waking hour, which should help move the jetlag along.

The car only needed a new 12-volt, and they checked the hybrid battery for me and it’s going strong.

*Whoever announced and popularized the name spells it Karl, but when I first heard it, I assumed it was a clever play on the creator of the best-known piece of writing about fog, and he spelled it with a C. So in my mind the fog is Carl, because it’s funnier that way and funnier is better.