1. Warmth is good, but heat and humidity are oppressive.
2. Vacations are often exhausting, especially when involving a one-year-old. Sometimes the best part of going away is coming home.
3. Time is both a bastard and a seductive illusion. When we’re busy, we crave more of it. When we finally have it, we catch up on sleep.
4. The idea of baseball is still enjoyable, but actually watching it is getting harder. Pace of play can't fix the strikeout-heavy modern game.
5. Early evening is still the best time of day. Dusk. Sunset. If only mosquitoes were an endangered species.
6. Our daughter has now lived through every month. Small victories.
7. In California, everything is dry and dusty. When we returned from our 17-day trip to the Northeast, a thin layer of ash from the wildfires had settled over everything. The weeds became emboldened and taunted the grass and ths flowers. The tomato plant gasped and wheezed.
8. Maybe this month I will read the 435 books I’d hoped to read in the last decade. I'll settle for two.
9. Now that the baby is climbing and standing on her own, the walking will soon be upon us. Too bad we don't have a giant padded room.
10. LeBron is now a Laker, the Warriors got even more talented, and the NBA's regular season just got more lopsided that it was last year. At least the Celtics, if healthy, have a clear path to the Finals.
11. Soccer is entertaining. I felt bad for Japan, because they were too short to defend the corner kicks. There’s a reason the whole world goes crazy for futbol. The endless complaining to the refs does get annoying though, as it does in most sports.
12. Can we fast-forward to November and have the midterms now? Or maybe trade August for November?
13. When you sleep in five beds that aren't your own over the span of three weeks, it's very nice to lay down in your own.
14. Bringing a 12-month-old to a wedding is like traveling on Thanksgiving. There are lots of people and it feels like the food will never arrive.
15. Music and reading and food and drink and laughter and poems and sports and sleep. That’s all.