Maybe all I needed to blow some of this mood away was a really stiff breeze. The sky finally began to clear this evening from the smothering low cloud cover we’ve been suffocating and washing away under all week. We drove into town and had sushi for dinner and windowshopped a bit (found a chandelier for the dining room, which I’ll go back and buy this week!) and then decided to drive down to the western harbor and see if we could find any ice cream.
The wind was whipping the waves to a frenzy; they crashed and sprayed against the breakwater and the stone-piled shore. The wind was so stiff we had to lean against it, our hair streaming straight back from our faces as we walked into the breeze. It was cold, colder in the wind and colder in the shadows of the tall buildings. The Turning Torso was shining like a sky-high white candle, twisted by the wind and seeming to move swiftly over the earth, though it was really the gigantic and fluffy white clouds that were streaming past it, riders on the wind. A seagull hovered motionless, bouyant against the gale, poised somewhere still between wind and water.
One of the trendy little cafés was still open and we attained our goal of ice cream, though really it was too cold for such a frozen mouthful. No avocado ice cream, more’s the pity…martinek and I will have to go back to the mall where we had a taste the other day and try a full scoop. I had apple-cinnamon and chocolate in my cone; in fact, 3 of us had apple-cinnamon. But we decided that it was more apple than cinnamon and rather a disappointment in the flavor department.
In the evening sunshine, we walked between the severely modern buildings, admiring the very polished surface of the water and the bright green of the park areas. Small brown rabbits were out grazing for their evening meal, they eyed us as we came closer but seemed unalarmed until Karin got too near, whereupon 2 of them lolloped a short distance away, their little white tails flashing a bunny alarm.
Karin: Mama, are we upside down?
Me: Um. In relation to what?
Karin: You know, on the world.
Me: Oh! No, we’re always on top, we’re standing up straight. …well, we’re tilted a little bit.
Karin: *leans to the left* Like this? Who is upside down then?
Me: The Australians, I suppose, and the scientists in Antarctica.
Karin: *still leaning* Don’t they get dizzy after awhile?
Martin and I have had several hilarious and memory-worthy exchanges of witty repartee lately, but my sieve-like brain has apparently let them slip, alas. I suppose that is what I get for not posting regularly.
I’ve read 2 excellent books this weekend, Sharon Shinn’s Mystic & Rider and The Thirteenth House and wish there were more in the series already in paperback (or even, already written) so that I could stay immersed in this other world with these people that have become so dear. I have a great pile of excellent books to dive into, however, so I don’t think I’ll be bereft for long. When Martin and I were at the shopping center yesterday I found Bill Bryson’s Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid and a book I’ve been wanting to read for ages: Marisha Pessl’s Special Topics in Calamity Physics which I think I’ll start tonight.
Tomorrow the kids start 3 weeks of swimming classes so I really hope the weather warms and lightens so they don’t spend the entire time (as they did too much last year) shivering and blue in the lips. Hard to believe from the temperature that it’s nearly the middle of July, especially when you consider that in other areas around the world people are melting from the record high temps.
Most Regretfully Belated but Nevertheless BOUNDLESS Birthday Wishes to: idahoswede, kejn, ms_hackman and more to chimerakitty whose are right on time today!