Sans Fig Leaf

Previous
Index
Next

Email

"Everything's coming up..."

5 May, 2001

Flowers are blooming. Birds are singing. Construction crews are popping up everywhere, disrupting traffic.

Ah yes, the end of the Rainy Season and the begining of the Construction Season! Other places have mundane names for seasons such as Spring, Summer, and Autumn. In Seattle we really have only the two: Rainy and Construction.

My commute is already being disrupted. Because of construction work on one part of Queen Anne Hill, my bus ride is a few minutes longer and more convoluted. The alternate bus route involves doubling back part way--on narrow streets that busses really oughtn't go down. It makes for an entertaining commute.

There's more construction on my walk home. That's always annoying because there's a long stretch of the walk where it is impossible to go around the block. The road I walk on skirts along the steep side of a very tall hill on one side, and a complex of railroad tracks on the other. There are very few side roads, and most of those are dead-ends. If a construction project blocks the sidewalk, my only choice is to walk back several blocks until I can cross the street and go down the other side.

That only works on the rare occassions when there isn't a construction project on both sides of the street. Then I have to go out into traffic. Lovely. It's a six-lane major arterial. There are a limited number of cross walks and, as I said, no parallel street I could walk over to.

But even these annoyances can't dampen the cheery mood that steals over me ever time I look out at the sky, or see all the new leaves on the trees, or see more flowers blooming.

I love walking home at this time of year. Just a few months ago, I was lucky if I got out of the office before the sun had completely set. My walk home was illuminated by streetlights and the passing cars. Now the sun is still high in the sky when I step outside. I see the glorious spectacle of sunlight dancing on the waters of Salmon Bay beneath me when I cross the Ballard Bridge. There's enough daylight left by the time I finish the walk home to make myself a cold drink and go sit on my porch and bask in the warm glow.

Since the weather's warming up, I decided to get my hair cut this last weekend. I hadn't had a haircut since January, and I was looking pretty shaggy. I had a little trouble convincing the lady who was cutting my hair that I really wanted it cut short on top. I wouldn't want to be a hair stylist, because it must be hard guessing what people want. I'm sure that lots of men with my balding pattern like to grow what little bit they have on top and try to comb it over the big bald spot. But why? It doesn't fool anyone!

When I want my hair short, I want all of it short. I don't care if people can see my bald spot. I'm male and I'm forty and I'm bald. I've had a visible bald spot on the crown of my head since I was twenty. I'm okay with that. I wish other people would let me be okay with it.

Along with the new spring haircut, it's nearly time for a more summery wardrobe. The dress code at work is fairly casual, but I don't like to get too casual. When it gets a little bit warmer than it is now, I like to wear shorts to the office. I've had a few pairs of sort of dressy-looking shorts I could wear before, but I noticed at the end of last summer that those pairs were starting to show signs of wear. So while I was buying new shoes this weekend, I also picked up two pairs of shorts that would be appropriate to wear to the office.

Time to get out and enjoy the sun while we can.