Cleaning Day

This was the warmest morning we have had since our resumed sabbatical, temperatures in the 50s (almost sixty by the afternoon) and a light breeze off the ocean.  I went out to the deck to drink my coffee after Tai Chi, and was suddenly aware of all the birds around me, shooting wildly up into the air out of the dune vegetation, jumping from bush to bush, chattering and twittering.  This is good habitat for the smaller birds, protected from the almost constant winds, some of the bushes bearing small purple berries. 

Out over the ocean an occasional stray seagull winged its way overhead, and three pelicans floated by on autopilot, barely moving their wings, keeping an unswerving course due west.  But here among the dunes there was a bustle of activity.  One or two would hop up onto the railing, twirl around, and fly off into the bushes again.  They were nondescript kinds of birds, browns and grays, perhaps sparrows, although later in the day we saw a flash of gold under a wing.

Two small birds landed at the end of the railing, side by side, and watched me for a long time; I sat perfectly still.  I thought they might be exchanging notes on this human, as if they were keeping a Life List as we do for them.  "Oh look!  It's a Long Legged Runner!  You can tell by the navy blue fleece track suit.  This is good habitat for him; he spends most mornings gazing out to sea and drinking something out of that cup.  And this fellow is a mature specimen:  note the thinning plumage on top of his head."

It was so pleasant watching this activity, and listening to the soft breaking of the surf, that I could have stayed all morning being idle.  It made me think of one of my favorite Mary Oliver poems.

"I don't know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed. . ."

But this was Thursday, cleaning day at the condo, and we got to work vacuuming and dusting and cleaning windows.

We like to keep things tidy here, and we also like to make small improvements from year to year.  I told Lizette last week that we replaced all of the kitchen cookware, bought a new cutting board, new shower curtain liners, etc.  Today I replaced all of the faucet aerators and then the HVAC filter.  There is always something we can do to make things better, I think, which sounds like the kind of sentiment one might read on an inspirational sign in one of these beach shops.  

And how about, There is something about a walk along the beach that inexplicably takes away stress completely.  That's what we did this afternoon, after a brief stop at Blue Ocean to pick up a piece of Canadian salmon that we actually watched being filleted - that is as fresh as it gets.

The race is only two days away and we are paying a little more attention to nutrition and hydration at this point.  There will be the traditional pasta with marinara sauce tomorrow night, and a good night's sleep tonight because we won't sleep well tomorrow night.  Training has gone well and we both expect to run a good race; the forecast calls for good conditions but temperatures in the 20s.

Now it's time to prepare that salmon, and I think there will be brown rice and roasted carrots.  And another beautiful sunset, viewed through clean windows.