taken to walking every day; it's steamy, even at eight or so when i get started, and it gets steamier. my walk snakes through well-cut lawns of the west side, sunset, walnut, dixon, walkup, whitney, onto campus and past saluki-henge and the new library. out in the neighborhoods i sometimes smell nerve gas that they put on the lawns as today with our neighbor, though maybe that was only fertilizer; other times it seems more like wild stuff is growing here and there in spite of everything. the lilies are wild at the moment, all colors, yellow, purple, orange but especially the tigers, the orange ones, that seem to be the kings or dominant variety. no turtles yet. maybe the mulberries aren't entirely out or ripe.

walking slows down my life & day; makes me sleep better, makes it so it isn't such a disaster that the pool has been closed. it puts me in touch with that side of myself that used to, when traveling, go for hours at a time just walking somewhere, only with about forty pounds on my back, until i got tired of it and would rest. here also, i begin to notice the possible places where i could rest, and not disturb anyone by being on their curb. the birds, they're kind of disturbed anyway; they don't like foot-walkers, especially in the areas where they like to nest. cats skitter back into the bushes; dogs bark though one today looked at me more like he was in shock. just passing through, i'd like to tell him; summer's coming, and i need to get some exercise in, before the summer gets on.

pool's open again, so it's probably about over; my wife is leaving to take care of her mom; i'll be driving kids around, and out there, a little less. too bad. i'd come around a corner; i'd be calm enough, almost, to feel like part of an environment, like i could do more like ten, fifteen or twenty a day, instead of just four, with the huge time investment so pricey in other ways. the lilies come out, as the sun comes out; they're kind of an ongoing, changing scene. and, there are many stands of them; you see them, around almost every corner. what few cars that came by, would have windows up, and be cut off from it, i think; i know, because i am, usually, cut off from it, when i drive. when i walk, though, i'm part of it, and that's a welcome change.