Just sent Matilda off to work, stumbling out the door with coffee in hand.

I had a long talk on the phone with my friend this morning and we discussed: the disappearance of ham salad, relatives who smelled of overly cloying perfume, coworkers who reeked of nicotine and cat pee, how St. Louis' vintage housing stock was razed in the 90s because the old bricks they were made of were more valuable than the property, her ex-boss who was a woman married to a gay man who had three goals in life - to own a castle, own a theater and have a princess daughter (and achieved these goals), best recipes for avocado toast, the delight of having a blackberry bush in your back yard and eating 7 or 8 perfectly ripe berries off the bush in the morning, the great Chestnut tree blight, how Hank Williams is the music of pain, misadventures at the Mayo Clinic and how our respective 19 and 20 y.o. daughters were spending the summer.

A good and wide ranging conversation.