Signs of summer

Summer is here -

• the neighbor boys looking for their lacrosse ball
• across the street, a volleyball net on the lawn, set up for the big graduation party. Yesterday there was triples badminton there.
• a tufted titmouse at my feeder . . . the flicker with his red head returns
• a Mu threading through the tall hosta out front
  

Yesterday Tom was winding the Seth Thomas clock and saw through an opening in the trees, the fox sprawled out in the sun on the deck, way back in the yard. A fox! We had hoped she was based here in our yard, under that little-used deck.

Here in this neighborhood,15 minutes from downtown, we cherish this particular form of the wild, a fox and her kits, said to rummage in Carters' compost heap every morning. And deer, as well, since they don't come into our particular gardens and eat our tulips. Even sightings of the scruffy coyote excite us. This is the odd phenomenon that made me very excited to actually see javelinas in a trip out west; residents there hate them - they eat everything in the gardens. We are all for the wild when it suits us. Like accident and surprise, it comes in surprising convenient and inconvenient forms.

As for what else is happening here, close in on Wynding Drive - yesterday James told us that Laura is a match! type 0 - and things are proceeding quickly. I felt something in my stomach, feel it now, as the possibility of this surgery came a step closer. It is a big thing to imagine, to be restored from very old and sick to just like new (although still 67), back to the energy of years ago. I have discovered why I want to live. Just that - I want to live. It's certainly not about deserve to live, or will accomplish great things, or even want to see my grandson graduate. Just want to live.