Everybody's Wearing Masks In The Streets Of Lille

Everybody’s wearing masks in the streets of Lille. There’s been a surge of Covid-19 infections next door in Belgium. Strangely, today was the first day here in Seattle that I noticed most of the people weren’t wearing masks. Until now, this has not been the case, everyone has been wearing a mask. My eyes drift right where a nude woman stands in her Nice hotel room languidly holding a bath towel that flows to the red carpet below & little tufts of black hair protrude from her shower cap. Matisse. To the left, my broad-brimmed winter hat is parked on the corner of the big mirror on a bureau of drawers whose top is covered with a multi-colored tightly woven blanket. I will begin wearing it again in a few months as summer wanes & autumn begins to manifest. Big computer mess today: R lost the functioning of her touchscreen after a recent Microsoft update, which seems to have loused up a lot of other computers. She called Microsoft tech support & said she needed firmware, whatever that is, & should call Lenovo. Lenovo walked her through a factory reset, but that did nothing to resolve the issue. It was just a big headache, for which she was charged $70 dollars. She called back & asked for a refund. We’ll see. But I wouldn’t hold my breath. The only thing that stuck out during this odyssey was the incompetence of the technicians. Probably not their fault; my guess is, they’re paid dirt, & aren’t trained properly. Globalization. They all have foreign accents, one of which was Russian. I stand at the corner of Highland & Bigelow by a giant old chestnut tree & whistle. Two crows appear, the same ones I feed every day, toss unsalted peanuts. One of them is lame, a useless bad leg that just hangs there while she balances on the one good leg. I worry about her tailfeathers. They keep disappearing. I don’t know why. It’s frustrating. Whatever happened to Neal Sedaka? He’s 81 & lives in Brooklyn. I wonder if he still sings. I love, I love, I love my calendar girl. Our calendar hangs in the hallway & features a small black & white horse named Toby. It’s a PETA calendar, so the story about this horse is disturbing, but has a happy ending. Toby was found in a muddy pen cluttered with manure & garbage & without food, water, or shelter. The owner agreed to let him go & Toby was examined by a vet who discovered an eye infection & a neurological disability caused by blunt-force trauma. Toby now resides in New Mexico with geese, goats, & a pig. “When he’s extra happy, he drops to his knees, rolls onto his back, and kicks his hooves in the air in an equine version of a touchdown celebration.” Delicious muffin this morning, soft & sweet. Scrambled eggs. Grape juice. We haven’t been to a restaurant or movie theater in months.  A big chunk of culture in mothballs. This crisis is strange. Invisible. Indeterminate. Hush of water coming from upstairs kitchen. Voices outside in bright summer air. 75º Fahrenheit.