First day of the rest of our lives

The dramatic change in the indoor scenery



and the equally dramatic change on the patio, with most of the big cherry tree gone in the hurricane,



reminds me yet again that every day is the first day of the rest of our lives. I can do all the physical stuff required to change objects around, and compensate for what is now gone forever, but the emotional part poleaxes me every now and then, and I have to sit down and just breathe a bit and watch birds at the newly reinstalled feeder.

In a great juxtaposition of old and new, I caught our neighbor R., adjusting his new giant telescope



in the street this morning, watched with interest by his father in law, visiting from India from the summer. He is a respected guru at home, a holy man who has visited all the sites sacred to his religion, and our Indian neighbors have been paying him respectful visits.

He teaches at an Indian university in the academic year and is here with Mrs. Guru for several months. He's also a friendly old grandfather, playing soccer with his granddaughters and their friends out behind the house, and very amused by his son-in-law's do it yourself projects around the house and garden. He's a wonderful summer visitor to the neighborhood. And yes, I did carefully obscure the faces of both men, just a respectful thing.

I'm getting near the end of the chicken which I cooked ahead of the storm so as to have good food even if we had no power Since we never lost power, unlike some friends in nearby towns with a different power company, I cooked jasmine rice today to go with it, finished off a batch of smoothie, and called it lunch. But I've had enough chicken for the moment, and the rest will go in the freezer for when I'm in the mood again. Hurricane Chicken served me well!