la vie immédiate

Astrid (7): Sometimes fields are confusing because they just look like they go on and on forever.

Axel (4): Do numbers go on forever?

Me: Yes. They go on and on and that’s called infinity.

Astrid: I don’t like talking about infinity. I mean it’s ok it just kind of hurts my brain.

Axel: I want to make a dog course for Ebba like with a teeter-totter going across and hoops and stuff for her to do tricks.

Astrid: Where are you gonna get all the stuff for it?

Axel: I don’t know. I don’t know everything Astrid.

Astrid: Well, why don’t you start with a hula hoop. They have them at the general store.

Axel: They have crazy carpets there too. (pause) Can crazy carpets do jumps or just slide like what makes them crazy?

Astrid: Is a carpet and a mat the same thing?

Me: Kind of but sometimes a mat is smaller than a carpet.

(a few moments silence)

Axel: What makes a lion a lion? The roar?

Me: The roar and the mane.

Axel: What’s a mane?

Me: The fur that goes in a circle around their face.

Axel: Oh. (pause) What makes a snake a snake?

Me: They slither on the ground and they shed their skin and grow a new one.

Axel: What makes a polar bear a polar bear ?

Me: Big bears, white fur, can swim in cold water. Time to go to sleep.

Astrid: In the Arctic? Where’s Antarctica? Argh, nevermind, can we just go to sleep now?

Yesterday stuck in construction traffic. Pavement and pavement and waiting and waiting. Cloudy and raining and where can I get a good coffee around here; and is there anywhere I can get out, pull a u-turn and find a saner route. How I need the blossoming quince branch as ammunition against this. An image floating like a vending machine choice behind headache temples. Mistakes chattering together but come on, roll your eyes at them, or innocently bring them some doughnuts.

Later within the sense of freedom of fast along an open highway, the vines along a chain-link fence made an impression. That green life climbing over and covering all that bleak ugliness.

In the bird's respiratory system, air first flows through air sacs (located even inside their hollow bones) that direct fresh, oxygenated air into the tube-like lungs (parabronchi, where gas exchange occurs) both when the bird inhales and when it exhales.

This system increases birds' respiratory efficiency and gives them enough oxygen for flight."