Drove my little one to school today, as I do most mornings. But there was an air of finality. She’ll be attending classes from home hereafter. No one needs to drive anyone anywhere. The school had planned to close down for Thanksgiving break and stay remote learning through till January. Now they’re closing earlier. And my daughter wants to move to online classes, even earlier than that. Covid is once again surging across the country, and within our state, within our county.
We had it all buttoned down pretty well. She played tunes, and we discussed her manga series. I’m up to episode 39. What other father does this? I can’t help but ask. And we discus episode 39. Lots of odd stuff has transpired. Kids, who are also creatures are good and then evil and out of control and ultimately culpable. When we turn on to New Paltz Road, we switch to Korean History. We’ve made it all the way to 1953 this morning. Turning back on to 44, she savors a last tune and then we turn it over to my tunes. She threw on a “random baba mix” which dropped us into “Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Cept for Me and My Monkey." This was turned up rather loud.” Another Beatles tune or two and then “You Really Got Me” by the Kinks. It was a fun ride from start to finish. And I suppose we’ll pick it back up in January or February, the spring or perhaps next year. One suspects the ride will also be different then.
I called my pop, expecting he’d cancel our hike on account of the rain. “Didn’t you see my email?” I didn’t know which one he meant. It’s raining out there. “Are we still on?” Yeah? Go there and see? OK. See you up at the parking lot." He’s waiting there. It’s raining. He doesn’t want to walk in the rain. He’s made that clear in the past and we consider what else we might do. We could go to Starbucks and buy a coffee and walk outside and drink it in the rain? There weren’t many obvious choices. It wasn’t so bad to just sit there behind the wheel and talk for a while. But eventually we decided to take a raincheck. He drove back down to New Paltz and I figured I’d proceed ahead for a walk in the rain as long as I was up here, all the same.
This is the second time I’ve done this, proceeded ahead with a rainy day hike after pop bails on account of precipitation. I’ve probably done this particular walk when I was seventeen or twenty-two, but I don’t remember. I certainly haven’t done it in the last three decades. The granite cliffs are like a floating Daoist world. Hemlocks who are making a comeback, push their way up besides older deciduous trees. A view out to the Catskills that is completely obscured by clouds. And like the last time I did this sort of rainy walk, I turned Terry Riley’s “C” from 1968 up-loud and created an ecstatic soundtrack through the wet, cloudy carriage way.
Friday, 11/13/20
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