weather report

Written yesterday, in the hours before Calvin suffered a grand mal:

Thanks to his Covid vaccinations, Monday was Calvin's first day back in school after more than a year. It was a good day for both of us. Calvin kept his mask on well enough to roam the high school's hallways with his aides. I spent the morning working in the sunny garden accomplishing most of what I had set out to do—which was a lot—on my first half day without my kid in tow. When Calvin got home at noon, we strolled around a bit before he led me to the car and patted its door, seemingly indicating that he wanted to go for a ride.

We visited our usual haunts—Pennellville, Simpson's Point, Rossmore, Wolfe's Neck, Mere Point, Bunganuc, Macquoit. Along the way, I stopped several times by the side of the road. I spotted a red fox, the sun in her eyes, squinting at us from a grassy slope. We greeted a couple of muddy clam diggers just after their back-breaking harvest. I chatted with two wildly friendly, hip, young, pierced, tattooed lawn care workers, and found myself wishing I could call them friends. I watched a woman unload perennials from the back of her car. We got caught in a fleeting squall.

This time of year is especially beautiful in Maine. The temperatures are mild and the air is dry. The trees haven't reached full foliage, so their branching is still apparent, unlike in summer when masses of green leaves limit one's sightline. The delicate yellows, greens, reds and ocher buds of spring trees are a softer, subtler version of autumn and are, in my opinion, more gorgeous, especially when sunlight illuminates their canopies after a rain.

Today, Calvin had an okay day at school, but something's bothering him. He's a bit unhinged, plagued by manic outbursts and eerie silent spells. A perfect storm is brewing what with the new moon's gravity, the low barometric pressure, and the fact that nine days have passed since his last seizure, which is a bit longer than of late. In other words, he's due. Hopefully, though, last week's increase in his bedtime dose of CBD oil will allow for longer stints between fits. In the past thirty days he has had "only" four grand mals, which is better than the six-plus grand mals which have been occurring in any given recent month, so maybe it is helping. Hope springs eternal.

Despite Calvin's outbursts, our drive was mostly relaxing and allowed me time to reflect and come to some realizations: having Calvin back in school isn't nearly as angst-provoking as I feared; car rides are nice any time of day, despite that I already miss seeing a few of my favorite, familiar, back-roads regulars; though sometimes windy and cool, late spring is an amazing time to be in Maine; getting vaccinated is an uber-liberating chance at life back in the real world; the CBD oil appears at a glance to be helping to quell some of Calvin's seizures. After nearly twenty years, Maine is growing on me by degrees.