Perfunctory
91 Days 2025, Issue 4
Perfunctory
It was hard to leave the house this week. Between the pollen being blown everywhere and the yellow sand coming in from China, stepping outside one day meant sniffles, itchy eyes, and coughing the next. So, I stayed inside when I could. Occasionally, rain would come and tamp everything down a bit and I could get outside. Only it’s early spring rain, which means it’s cold and drizzly rather than a proper rain and going outside still sucks but for entirely different reasons.
And you’ll notice I’m still shooting on my phone this week. My camera is slowly getting better. It’s dried out and cleaned but I haven’t gotten it back up to full service yet. I might need to replace the SD card that I’ve been using for so many years now.
All told, this week felt a little more perfunctory, something I was doing because I had to do it, not because I really wanted to. As a result, I’m not quite pleased with some of the photos. I wish I had done better. I wish I had been feeling well enough to care. But, it is what it is. So let’s talk about these photos.
Index:
22 March 2025 - Almost Green - This is one of my favorite views. It’s a farm road that leads to a raised area that hosts the train tracks. The view here is never the same twice. Between the weather, the sky, and the season, it is always changing. That said, I am ready for it to be warmer and greener already.
23 March 2025 - Indoors - The first of this week’s indoor photos. We’ve had this plant for several years and that’s really all I know about it. My wife says I bought it and brought it home but in a different pot. It’s been so long that I have no idea what she’s talking about.
24 March 2025 - Flowers - You’d never know it from the temperature, but spring really has arrived and flowers are popping up all over the place. Chalk it up to growing up in a desert, but I never get tired of how colorful spring is in this place.
25 March 2025 - Buried - This car has shown up in 91 Days before. It’s been sitting there, buried under the weeds since I moved to this neighborhood almost twenty years ago. The blue tarp is new though.
26 March 2025 - Nashi - I love Japanese pear trees. They bloom white in the spring and then get to work producing fruit which comes ripe in the fall. If I could, I’d have a yard full of these things, just so I could enjoy gathering up and eating all the fruit.
27 March 2025 - Indoors 2 - Here’s the second of this week’s “I can’t go outside or I’ll die” photos. It’s another of our houseplants, this time one of the two dozen succulents we have sitting inside our genkon (entry way). Frogs in Japan are often placed near doors because the verb to come home and the noun frog are pronounced the same.
28 March 2025 - Sniff - Lucy’s turning 13 this year. She’s starting to show her age a bit but when we get outside and walk around she’s just as curious and adventurous as ever.
