To August
August has its very own feeling. It's quieter than June and July. The summer ends softly, like a feather floating to the ground.
I am looking forward to the calm in which to read, to walk, to wonder, to do nothing at all. There's ripe tomatoes in my garden and I'll make a galette. Work-life balance will flow naturally. Contentment will be achieved. This is my plan for August. I wouldn't be me, though, if I didn't know that plans, like rules, have a way of getting broken ...
Favorites 7.27.15
Summer rain when you're tired: Rain—it's only water. But when you wake up sore and tired, the sound of it falling can be the best noise on earth. Stay in bed ... just stay.
Coconut oil in my coffee: I used to take milk in my coffee. Now I like it like I like my men—straight up and strong. However. A little coconut oil makes black coffee really smooth, gives it substance, takes the edge off. As a rule, I'm okay with edges, though.
Grilled "cheese" at the Bye And Bye: Grilled cheese—I love it, you love it, we all love it. This one's vegan, though—made with a swashbuckling amount of Daiya cheddar. You can't not eat the entire thing.
Ex Machina: Creepy. Haunting. Gripping. Beautiful. A Blade Runner for the new era. If you haven't seen it, do.
Three Things
Secret pools. I'm happy to live in a place where people appreciate the value of being out in nature, sure, but I'm happier still to escape those crowded trails—to find a hidden path like we did the other day, one that that leads you around a corner and out of site.
Walking to work. Hey it's just a 3.5-mile wander from Northeast to Southeast through neighborhoods crammed with roses and butterfly bush, past intriguing "free piles" sprinkled on street corners and people laughing loudly in crowded cafes or sitting quietly on shady front porches. I do it once a week—7 miles round trip. Part of the 2015 Sherowski Improvement Plan ...
Fresh figs. In July, the neighbor's fig tree droops over my driveway—heavy with about a hundred bursting-ripe figs. Until now, it never occurred to me to eat them. It only ever occurred to me to rake their sticky guts off the cement after they turn. Anyway, last weekend I bit into one for the first time. Lightly sweet and perfumey. A summer breeze in yer mouth. I picked a bunch and have a heaping bowl—come over and eat one!
Favorites 6.25.15
Reading on the deck after dinner: Like, 25-30 pages. Nice, quiet way to tie up the day—just me and the dog and the cat and that one bird that hops around picking at the cherry pits under the tree.
Mt. Tabor hill bomb: Apropos of Monday's post—hike up through the forest; roll down the switch backs. The perfect pitch—no need to powerslide it out, but you don't gotta push, either.
Stella Taco: A newish taco join on Alberta Street where we all went one warm Saturday eve and sat at a high table with our feet dangling like toddlers and ate fried avocado tacos and drank ice-cold drinks and didn't want to leave.
True Detective Season 2 Soundtrack: Hey it's just original songs by Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, Lera Lynn, etc—all strung together in a musical tapestry that's deep and rich and chilly all at once. I mean Lynn's This Is My Least Favorite Life from episode 1—DANG. T. Bone Burnett curates here, so, yeah...
Favorites 6.2.15
The close proximity of river season: Almost, almost, almost.
Marc Maron interviews Fresh Air's Terry Gross: Hey it's just two of my favorite interviewers, like, interviewing each other. Marc gets at a cooler, younger Terry. Terry gets at a more empathetic Marc. It's great.
Fried cauliflower po' boy at The Old Gold: Spicy, crunchy, soft. An incendiary sandwich for people of the vegetarian persuasion—and crucial acknowledgement that we can do better than reconstituted soy product.
Silicon Valley: Because Mike Judge, because Martin Starr, because everyone of us knows someone who's just fucking like one of the characters on this show.