A Perfect Day

Jack London wrote 1000 words a day. Once he was done, he entertained guests, worked on his farm, invented cool stuff, soaked in whatever exotic locale he visited. Today, I attempted the same. I think I managed 1000 words, give or take, in about seven hours. I think Jack London had a lot more free time in his day than I did today. But, still. . . once I reached my allotment, I came back to life. The other life, which, if we get really creative, has it's exotic moments: Pick up Malcolm at the ferry. Drop books off at the library. Prepare dinner. Clean kitchen. Refill hummingbird feeder. Mix a margarita (they're back!). Return some phone calls. Not bad, in a day. But the highlight was the first hour of writing. I hike the fire roads on the ridges of Mt. Tamalpais, and for that first hour, I create the scenarios that will fill my pages later. Notebook in hand, I traipsed the trails. During that first hour today, I had the pleasure of hearing:

Wild turkey (gobble gobble gobble)
Two hawks (Screeeeeech! Screeeeeech)
Numerous hummingbirds (zzzft zzzft zzzft)
Stellar's Jays (one that cawed, another I swear mocked the call of a hawk)
Woodpecker (tatatatatatatatatat)
Nuthatches (tswit tswit tswit)
At least three deer loping through the leaves
Countless lizards scurrying through the leaves
A snake's slither through the leaves
(Each leaf dweller has it's own cadence)
Squirrels rustling among the oak branches
Countless unidentifiable song birds
My breath in between.

A simple day, uncluttered in its own way, yet lush in another way. Tomorrow, I spend the entire day at the new California Academy of Sciences. I've been waiting a long long time for this day. I invited no one. I plan to linger and absorb. My dream job is to write for the California Academy of Sciences publications. Science nerd, yup.