It is a Tuesday afternoon in May in the Southwest corner. i am sitting in my habitual spot on our patio. The sky is perfectly cloudless, a pure sky blue. It is a perfect 68 degrees with a very slight on shore breeze. i just watched two hummingbirds (eat your heart out, Jim Hicks) light on the larger coral tree. It appeared one was standing on the head of the other, but i’m guessing it was an illusion. They were surrounded by the bright red blooms that will soon fade when the leaves begin to fill out the tree for about eight months.

There is a Navy helicopter passing overhead, noisy things. i remember flying (clumsily) one when Bob Parker, the USS Okinawa’s operations officer asked me to be his “qualified observer” for a flight to give him needed flight hours to retain his qualifications. It was well over 40 years ago, and the development explosion here was high desert scrub brush then. He gave me the controls several times, the last of which was somewhere over where i’m sitting. We were near an aviation beacon in the high desert when he directed me to “hover.” Hah! i did it for about a minute, wondering all the time when i was going to screw it up and kill us and the crewman.

The helicopter is gone. It is quiet. i return to my music: Nancy Wilson, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, and Nina Simone. It is a jazz kind of afternoon.

i will go in soon for another scrumptious dinner from Maureen. We will watch a ballgame. i’m thinking i may climb up the slope to the chairs by our flag and look out on the ships moored at the Naval Base, the city skyline, and the dark of the Pacific.

i will not include photos. i couldn’t capture this peace in a photo. i wish one or two of many, many friends were sharing this with me.

The world is the screwy world. People are out to reek havoc on others in fear or hate created by fear. It is the way it is. It is the way it has always been. It is likely to be the way it will be in the future. i’m not optimistic.

But i am beyond that. i am me with years and years of memories, good music, in a peaceful place. i would like to share that with you, wherever you are.