Trying to get the words sorted.

The pigeons are my alarm clock these days. They know when I need to get out of bed better than anyone else around: having trained them, they know when to show up. So they make their noises and calls. So I get up, because they're waiting for me.

There's more of them these days, too. It used to be I'd get a half-dozen regulars, and now it'll be a dozen, easily. There seem to be more of them on weekends than weekdays as well, which could be my biased perception or it could be that these pigeons have secret day jobs I just don't know about, not being a pigeon.

There's been geese, too. Not every morning, and not for a whole lot longer, not with the weather turning. But sometimes I'll hear their calls from the sky, and be lucky enough to look up at just the right time to see them heading south.

Last Saturday I took the subway out to Brooklyn for a sharply clean late-fall day to see a friend for a couple hours. She made a large Old Fashioned and we shared it out of a thermos while sitting in a park, engaging in safely risky behavior. We sat on stones on a gentle slope, under trees by a walking path. We watched a young kid climb a tree, and for a responsible adult to come over and tell him he'd climbed up past where he could be helped down - not past where it was safe, but where he couldn't be helped down. It struck me as a very sensible way to approach the situation, where the child isn't told they're in danger and panics, but instead is alerted to the potential concerns in a way they can easily understand. The kid did climb down, and not long later, another kid was climbing the same tree. It had excellently placed branches for the five-to-eight-year-old set.

There was also a brass band practicing near the exit of the park. I took a familiar subway route back from the park, like I was coming from the Union Square farmers market, transferring at the usual spot. It had me thinking it's not that I like engaging with the loud noises and harsh bursts of air of the subways: it's that I appreciate being able to engage with them.

There's also the feeling of the work to make these connections. I've been struggling to get out of my head, and I feel disengaged these days. As per usual, listening to new music helps. It's weird, but it's only recently - these last few days - I've wanted to make the effort for new music. Like, now it's okay.