I have a ridiculous week ahead of me.

I won't go into details, but let me say that my day tomorrow does not end until 8:30 P.M, hashtag gross.

I suppose it's a good thing you have to drive between Idaho and its lovely blisses and here, so as to adjust to the work ahead.

Evidently I can only handle one sentence at a time.

There are, however, the good things that have happened since we got home:

1. Bruiser came up to meet us.
2. My son took good care of things, and we are having dinner, the three of us, before he has a big test at his work the next day.
3. Spaghetti.
4. I made cherry sauce for no good reason except that I had a bag of frozen cherries and a hankering.
5. Ditto, leftover pie crust rolled out with sugar and baked, to eat, as it happens, with the cherry stuff.
6. A walk when it was cool--even a little chilly.
7. One, then two middling romantic comedies on television, with which to while away some I-wish- the-weekend-were-longer.

I say this in the compositional, and also the metaphorical, senses: transitions can be so difficult.

Wouldn't it be better if I could come up with a graceful turn here--a gesture toward something, anything, more important than my own disinclination to dive into the work that awaits me?

All I have, however, is this meta transition thing that, let's be honest, is barely even worthy of the 'meta.'

Ready or not, YIKES: there goes the weekend, here comes the week BAM, no cherry sauce for you.

(except there is still cherry sauce.)

After the party.

There may be leftover pasta. Leftover fattoush and roasted potatoes and fruit. Leftover brie-and-blue, and leftover crackers. Leftover whipped cream, cookies, angel food cake.

The house may still be clean, the lawn may still be mowed.

The wooden beads may be mixed in with the wooden blocks, and there may be a stray pistachio shell or two on the floor.

The kitchen table may still be bare. The summer table with its umbrella sits under the cherry tree.

The Sunday paper may not be fully read.

There is doubtless still grading to do, but less and less.

The back door may still be open, and the breeze that ends April and welcomes May breathes and breathes.

Observations for the end of July.

1. I have now edited and revised so much that I can actually feel it in my behind. I'm hoping that it has the same basic effect as multiple sets of squats. With free weights.
2. Did you know that sitcom According to Jim, starring Jim Belushi and Courtney Thorne-Smith, is on? As in, they're still making and broadcasting episodes? I found this out today whilst reading USA Today, which is a veritable fount of vital information and mostly easy crosswords.
3. A picture of a big shark (also in USA Today) is effectively able to deliver a mild scare to a person such as myself. To me.
4. Without excessive heat applied to my brain, I am capable of sustained thought.
5. While Everything is Illuminated has a style that I enjoy and even admire, it has, so far, virtually no narrative momentum.
6. A bicycle can be an effective compositional aid.

So long July and hello August.