All’s quiet on the bayou

Tonight the sky put on a show of drama without the summer colors – just big white clouds outlined in grey against a sky blue sky. I walked Tin around the bayou and it was the usual dynamics. He will hold my hand to cross the street but any suggestion of holding hands on the sidewalk leads to a fit. But nothing leads to a hissy fit like telling him he is going the wrong way – he really dislikes being told which way to go. Odd.

When we were leaving the house we saw my neighbor taking down the last vestiges of our Release party – the plastic gazebo able to house 20 people uncomfortably should it rain. He said he had purchased it during the West Nile Virus scare but never used it.

Later as I was taking out the recycles, I ran into a couple who are in from Florida – they work with Cirque de Soleil on stage sets and travel around as itinerant carpenters the rest of the time. They are staying with a neighbor fixing some stuff around her house. They just arrived last night and one said to me, “What timing, to come in just as the party on the bayou was starting.” I said, perfect timing.

When I conceived the party my main thought was not to have a party – at least in our house – but instead to loosely get the neighbors together, but you know how it goes here in New Orleans, one person tells another person tells another person and before you know it the party that wasn’t, was. But I did manage to keep most of it out of the house on the bayou. I was not in the mood for Monday morning clean up.

The bayou is quiet now, and I’m feeling pretty quiet and reflective myself – five years went by that were thunderous. Five years that felt like 50 with the experiences, highs and lows, people who came in and out of my life, wow, what a ride! My neighbor on the court has a toast she always says, “May all the worst experiences to come be more interesting than those we’ve had.” Yes, indeed.

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