toby of the day, 5.15.2008

I hate to say it, but it’s hot. I know that it could be hotter. I know that when we lived in Austin, this would not have crossed my threshold for hot. Certainly, I am not stripped down to my skivvies, soaking the sofa with my sweat, unable to do anything except wonder why we don’t have central air conditioning, and worry each time sweat drips from my forehead that it is my brain melting. But today has been quite warm. To deal with the heat wave, Toby and I spent the afternoon in a shady spot in the park, with toby picking flowers and me trying to intercept his chubby yet nimble fingers before he could eat them. When we weren’t eating flowers, or really, when toby was eating flowers but I was pretending not to notice, we watched a girls soccer team practicing. I just read an article about girls blowing out their knees playing soccer and wondered whether such a fate awaited any of these girls. I wondered this until the coach escorted one of the players to the restroom and while he was gone the rest of the girls took all the cones that had been set up for their drills and wore them as hats. Then they all sat down in the shade drinking water and complaining about the heat. Confident that their knees were safe for the time being, I returned to plucking daisies from toby’s mouth and waiting for the fog to return.