After coffee and breakfast, I took Heidi to Trillium School where she teaches music to young kids. Then I dropped Humphrey off at his friend Eloise’s house for Tuesday home school. I hung out with the kids for a while before going to the library to finally get a card. Yes, I’m ashamed to say I’ve lived here for two and a half years now and still don’t have a library card of my own. Alas, that particular library does not open until noon which I thought was kind of odd. O well, another day then. So I went back home to make use of my scant alone time to practice bass for an upcoming Golden Bears show and drink more coffee. I’d been playing guitar for them but we’re switching things up for this show. Playing bass was really fun – I hadn’t done it in a while. Before long, it was noon – time to pick up Humphrey. He and Eloise were still busy working on some drawings when I got there. They had both made life-size cut-outs of themselves and were now working on some smaller compositions with cut-out shapes. As usual, their work was impressive. When Humphrey and I got home, I made us some lunch: tofu sandwiches with chips and pear slices. We didn’t have much time after that before going and picking up Heidi. Usually we don’t have to do so much driving back and forth but, suffice to say, today was not the usual day. So I loaded up my and Humphrey’s bikes and gathered our swim stuff so we could have Heidi drop us off at the Kennedy School soaking pool before her voice lesson. In all the confusion of trying to make sure I had everything, I had neglected to grab the second set of keys so that I could have keys while Heidi drove away with the other set. This left me with no way to lock the bikes up which made me nervous but it seemed unthinkable to abandon our plan over this probably uncalled-for anxiety. So I did my best to make the bikes appear to be locked and we went inside. The soaking pool is a long rectangular pool with hot water. It’s not as hot as a hot tub and it’s much bigger. It’s built into a little courtyard and it’s free to residents within the Concordia neighborhood. Unfortunately, we live about five houses outside that sphere. We’ve been lucky for the past year in that most of the front desk people have taken a liking to us and have chosen to ignore the fact that we don’t live in the free zone. Hence we’ve developed a mean soaking pool habit (which we partially justify by using it to teach Humphrey how to swim). Especially since I was laid off last May. Today was not my lucky day though. There are some new workers there now and they are toeing the line. So I had to pay the five dollars. We relaxed and played for a good hour or so. I was very relieved to find our bikes still there when we left. Humphrey rode his new bike which he got for Christmas. It’s taken him a while to get used to it since it’s still a little big for him but these last few days he’s been an enthusiastic rider. We made it home in no time. I was prepared for him to be all tired and floppy but he rode fast and hard and never made a fuss even when he fell a couple times trying to get his bike off a curb. By the time we got home the neighbor boys were home from school and Humphrey stayed out with them, riding and playing some more. Heidi got home shortly after and I made some hot cocoa for us. After a while it was time to start cooking dinner and Heidi had to go to her second job – Tuesday’s a busy day for her. So I cooked some lentils, pasta, broccoli and cabbage. It was delicious. After dinner, Humphrey skipped his bath since we had had a soak and we went straight to story time. We probably read some Donald Barthelme: The Slightly Irregular Fire Engine or The Hithering Dithering Djinn, a recent gift from Steve S. After the boy was in bed I worked on the cover art for the next Puritan record until Heidi got home. Then we had some wine and watched 30 Rock episodes on DVD, a recent obsession. All in all, a very nice day.
DAVID HAMMA – Portland – 2010
