The days feel like magic lately. The sky crisp and blue. Sun warm. Lizard spotted on the blacktop, biggest one I’ve seen, how did it get so large? How did it obscure itself to evade prying eyed hawks? My daughter touched its wide, dark brown green patterned back before it crawled onto the dry, powdery hill.

The tall grass light brown ahead of a red flag warning weekend in early May. A Sequoia still smolders in the Nor Cal mountains from the 2020 fire season. Deep in the interior of the Forest, not enough rain to put it out, no snow to be seen.

I am taking advantage of these final days of smokeless skies, fresh breathable air, just in time for outdoor masklessness, What luck the skies could turn grey with toxic air any day. What use will our masklessness vaccinated selves have? Only to be summoned back behind our walls.

Shelter in Place once more. Such is life, ride the wave. Theres good times and bad, I am making a plan ahead plan for the season. To try and not get bogged down in smokey days depression. To accept the freak dry lightning storms in June, the pink apocalyptic skies, the ash covering the ground like snow. Ride the wave no matter how hard it is to keep a positive attitude. Stay focused on my schooling, art, writing, and family. Plan ahead strategies. I can’t survive the depression year after year from fire season.

I’m going to start a new painting project. I wrote my final paper on IDEA and it flowed like a brisk moving stream. I have learned to switch back and forth between academic writing of papers and stream of consciousness writing for fun.