Late on a Sunday Afternoon

It’s late on a Sunday afternoon and the rain has finally stopped. It has rained for two solid days, rained like it was making up for lost time, and I’m glad I almost managed to get the lawn mowed before it started and only got mildly wet while finishing up because otherwise the grass would be up to the windows and the city would come by with a ten-foot ticket and I don’t own a motorcycle and I don't need to be in that song. But the weather is cool and grey and autumnal and this is how weather should be.

It’s late on a Sunday afternoon and there is a pot of gravy (spaghetti sauce to those who insist that they have the right to correct me) and meatballs on the stove and the house smells like my childhood. I don’t know what particular shape of pasta I will make for it when it is ready to eat but I am fortunate enough to have a variety of choices in this matter because pasta is inexpensive and having choices that way is an affordable luxury in a world where such things are getting fewer and further between.

It’s late on a Sunday afternoon and I’ve spent much of the day alternating between writing a much longer and much more documented blog post to be posted at some point in the near future and finding images for the slide show that will accompany my public talk next month, and as workdays go that’s not too bad. I have done my grading and prepped Monday’s classes and the day is therefore mine to spend on things like blog posts and image searches and gravy.

It’s late on a Sunday afternoon and there are still projects around the house that I should do even so, most of which will not take long, but projects are what they are and there are more rewarding things to do. The projects will get done, of course, because personal reward is not the final standard for getting things done, but for the moment I am letting them sit undisturbed where they will hurt no one by waiting.

It’s late on a Sunday afternoon and the days are getting shorter and this is a good thing because the world gets quieter and less hurried when it is dark and in a time when everything is on fire you take those moments where you can find them.

It is late on a Sunday afternoon and tomorrow it will be Monday and the week will start up its demands and anxiety and it is nice to have a moment or two to sit still and not do much of anything, even if there are things scheduled for this coming week that I am very much looking forward to experiencing.

It is late on a Sunday afternoon and soon it will be evening, because that is how afternoons work, after all.