February, 2026
Last month's Wednesday update, I recorded from a train headed to Middelburg. This month I write closer to home temporally and otherwise. I am en route to the office on a very early Friday morning. We are still eight days from being able to return home with a new set of floors and an absent population of termites awaiting us. Eight days is not so far away. In fact, I have to remind myself a few times every day to make sure the message sticks.
I mentioned that I'm going in early. It is currently six in the morning. We're staying with my parents out in the West End, and the office has a distance to it now that robs itself of much of its novelty. Half of the value I placed in it was its Goldilocks nature of being just far away from home to feel like a true second place without actually imposing any tax on the distance traveled. Obviously, it is privileged of me to say that a 30-minute commute is odorous. But the reason why I'm going early is to avoid some of the traffic. For the past few weeks, I've been moving up my schedule a couple hours to spend afternoons with Lucy. It's easy to forget too how lucky I am to be able to do this.
This serves as a good metonymy for February writ large. Reminders of luck and flexibility in having parents happy to host us for weeks on end. And in having uncles excited to spend languorous long weekends with their niece. Lucky for a child who wants for nothing and ends every day with a smile on her face. Lucky for a wife who can move mountains and carry rivers. Lucky for time at all to write, to think, and to hit send before going on with my day.
