Curiosity 9: My day (gratitudes)

Some days feel blah. Today was one of those. I sort of slogged through it. But at the end of it, I realized that there were a few highlights that set it apart. 

(In July, I had a short run here of daily "gratitudes," clusters of three things that I could say I felt grateful for. This post fits in that theme.)

First, I made a couple loaves of bread: rosemary olive sour-dough. I started baking sour-dough bread a few months ago, and now, every week or two, it's time for a new batch. This recipe was a branching out from my usual plain sourdough loaf, which I feel I've mastered well enough. These loaves came out a little flat and dense—but not unacceptably so. Indeed, the bread tastes wonderful. We enjoyed it this evening with some leftover pasta, yum.

Second, on our afternoon walk-of-the-dog we visited the pine woods behind the local industrial park (medical offices, the airporter-limo fleet, the UPS and FedEx facilities, car detailing, a day care center, etc.). The woods are quiet and there's a nice winding trail where we usually meet not a soul. Today, though, we started hearing odd thwacking sounds. And soon we happened on a fellow, tall and lanky, dressed in full camo, a bill cap sporting the US flag—which might have been a tad alarming except for his broad Scottish accent (plus, as the photo here suggests, the camo is apparently a sort of uniform for bow hunters)—who was practicing his archery. He explained that a competition is coming up, next Tuesday. He was using a compound bow, shooting at a colorful rectangular target propped up against a down tree. We had a nice chat, and as we set off we wished him luck. 

Third, in my daily howler group (a subject of Gratitudes 7), my friend Sherilyn was working on a graphic "zine," about a few fellow passengers on her weekly SJC-BUR flight home. And at the end of the day, she shared it with us. It's sweet! Here's a YouTube video by a total stranger on the making of a watercolor zine.

It's little things that make a day different that help me through an otherwise blah day. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. At least it will have a bit more focus, because the final stage of an ongoing job came in today as well. Work can be good for a weary soul.