Weeknotes: September 28–October 2, 2026
Monday, September 28
Tossing and turning in the pre-dawn hush, I vow to manufacture at least one spontaneous moment in the day ahead. By 5 p.m., I have little to show — it's been a routine, though not unpleasant day.
About a half hour before my online history class starts, I decide to build a bonfire in my backyard. I sit on my wooden bench with a glass of wine and log in to the lecture. My profile photo smiles back at me from the Zoom gallery while the professor unpacks the events leading up to the Revolutionary War. I stare into the embers and lose the thread. When I come to, I hear her quip "when times get tough, the tough build a fort." I built a fort to help me get through this lecture.
Weeknotes: January 26–29, 2026
Monday, January 26 - Thursday, January 29
I walk the frozen city through trails that telegraph its residents' means and desires. The clean, sharp-edged channels of business who can afford a plow service terminate in white berms at property lines. Their residential equivalents usually extend the length of the block in neighborly harmony. Elsewhere, tidy lanes shoveled by hand taper into rough footpaths, then open back up again. You can identify the fastidious digger by the amount of cement showing underneath — they've been out more than once. The latecomers and reluctant shovelers' paths are lumpier, but at least they made an effort. All of it is stitched together in a patchwork of cooperation and need.