Everyone’s talking about a lunar event that's happening tonight, little sweetheart. It’s the Blue Supermoon, the biggest and brightest moon of the year.
We can’t go on the roof here, anymore, little sweetheart but I’m going to try and walk up into the park where there’s less artificial light and see if I can watch the moonrise tonight.
It always, needless to say, makes me think of you and this song of ours about that very phenomenon - the perigee-syzygy.
With all my love…
It took a whole week, little sweetheart, but I’m finally feeling a bit better. I was starting to think I was going to miss the whole rest of August. I honesty love autumn and spring in New York the best season-wise, but there’s something a little sad, too, as Labor Day approaches and the glorious season that bears you very name draws to a close.
I haven’t been for a run in two weeks and running was spotty during my travels, so I fear I’ve lost a lot of my conditioning. I’ll need to sort start back up from scratch. It’s actually quire hot here now. I kinda thought we’d passed the heatwaves for the season but one more seems in store, so getting back on the running routine with temperatures in the high 90’d might not be well-advised.
Regardless of the weather, even if I don’t run, I like to take long walks - we both do, right, little sweetheart? After a week of rest I finally got out today and was surprised and delighted to see that they’re showing movies every day over at Waterline Park. They’ve got a big screen up and a schedule of triple features each day right up until Labor Day when they’re going to switch over to broadcasts of the US Open. A lot of the seasonal outdoor events are over by this time in August, so it’s nice to see this. Lots of families come out and watch. I didn’t stay long by I like the idea of just stopping by after a long walk or coming back after a run and seeing what’s on.
It would be so nice to come over here with you and watch something. With all my love…
I may have overdone it a bit, little sweetheart.
I’ve been felled by a pretty bad chest cold and wound up sleeping most of the day. I managed to rally long enough to get to D’Agostino’s and buy vegetables and a couple packages of chicken thighs so I can make my famous homemade chicken soup - like a huge pot of it! I’ll just lay low, sleep, drink lots of water and subsist on the homemade chicken soup goodness until I feel more like myself. Soon, I hope!
With all my love and a voice an octave lower than usual… Your Michael
I had my first long walk since I got back today, little sweetheart. I often walk along the route that’s also my running one - all the way west along the Hudson and up into Riverside Park - but today I decided to go through Central Park. I haven’t been there in a while - like since the classical music concert at Naumburg Bandshell in June. I usually head north and cross east around Lincoln Center, then walk up CPW to the park entrance there a little above W66th Street.
Today, as I was going up the stairs there was a big male cardinal perched in the branches there! I stopped in my tracks and watched him. I tried to surreptitiously slip my phone out of my pocket and take a picture since I was so close to him but he got wise to that and fluttered away, returning but deeper into the bushes, unseen. It still seemed very much like a blessing, though, little sweetheart.
It feels good to be back in NYC although I took quite an epic walk - like you and used to! - and am pretty knackered right now on top of the jetlag. Before I fade and hit the hay with an earlier than usual bedtime, I just need to prepare a birthday card for your mom and order her a cake for next week. Then, it’s off to sleep. See you in my dreams, I hope!
Little sweetheart, I'm returned from travels armed with writings and recordings and so many thoughts of you.
I managed to avoid the crazy heat wave that all but engulfed New York in my absence and am running around now in the relatively mild weather getting caught up on things. Including your mom's birthday which is in less than a week!
I usually like to bake her a birthday cake (just like I would do for your own!). She particularly likes a lemon cake. I can't get to California for the occasion, so I'm ordering one, a vanilla bean one, for her later today to arrive the day before.
So many thoughts of you, my little sweetheart! And all my love forever.
Little sweetheart, I may be posting lightly here for a month or two as I’ll be traveling. I don’t have a laptop anymore (!) and I do all my computer writing on a desktop at home.
My thoughts will, as ever, be of you and I’ll be writing in my notebook and talking to you everyday in prayers and quiet conversation. For I know that wherever I am, you are with me even closer than I can imagine.
To be continued and with all my love forever…
I think I’ve told you before, little sweetheart, how wonderful it is to spot a cardinal here in New York. I’d never seen one in the city until a couple of years ago during the pandemic when it seemed that the pause on human bustle led to an abundant return of nature.
There are a couple of places where I’ve seen cardinals in the city. High up in Riverside Park, almost to Grant’s Tomb, there’s a wooded section called “The Wild”. I went up there a year or two ago in the height of August to record cicadas and I saw at least half a dozen cardinals as I made my way quite up through the winding paths. Sometimes in between buildings just west of Lincoln Center, where there’s something of plethora of trees, I’ll see one alight.
They’re incredibly songful! They have the most unique calls, probably at least half a dozen different ones. It’s hard to believe it’s all coming from the same bird!
Anyway, today I saw both a male and a female cardinal. And in a place I’ve never spotted one before - over near the dog run in Riverside Park. I saw the bright red male bird first and then right afterward, his more muted-colored mate. They sort of went back and forth between trees, alighting a bit higher each time they took wing and then came in for another landing.
The legend of cardinals is, of course, that when you see one, it means that someone who you love dearly and has passed has come to visit you for a while. I also quietly stop whatever it is I’m doing and just watch and listen to them. And think of you, of course.
With all my love…
