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Cool Morning

Little by little the mornings are feeling cooler. It's been a long, hot summer. Days that have topped out at thirty-five degrees (or higher) were more than enough this year. Maybe I'm closing up summer too soon. It's only August 24th. 

I definitely got some heat exhaustion. I stubbornly walk (gotta get my steps) during lunch breaks even though it's the hottest time of the day. I refuse to use the air conditioner because the fan is fine. Objectively I know it's not about the electric bill. That hardly changes. I'm possibly just a stubborn middle-aged guy with my own brand of misguided horse sense.

This morning, though, we had all the windows open early. It was clearly gonna get hot later, but at seven in the morning the air was relatively dry and kinda felt cool. The living room curtains were pulled wide open the way I like and the boys were eating breakfast at the dining table while Eri and I went about our morning routine.

Mr. Chihuahua walked by. He's the nice old guy (real name not Chihuahua) with a chihuahua named Sakura-chan who walks through our neighborhood every morning and evening. He gives us treats and vegetables sometimes. On more than one occasion he's given us vegetables he picked while hiking around in the mountains with a printed recipe that he typed up himself on how to prepare them.

Then the kids. The neighborhood kids. School started today. Our boys go back to kindergarten tomorrow but the big boys and girls started today apparently. When the small group of elementary school kids who live around us walked by on their way to school and Kenzo and Osamu, as they were munching their kamaboko and tamagoyaki, waved and yelled "Good morning!" and "Off you go!" I got such a feeling of delight.

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