10AM in the Living Room (Human Pursuits 14/4/2022)

Stream of conscious observations from the start of Thursday morning

VANCOUVER — Sunlight cascades through the living room’s south face window, diffusing the space with a gradient of shadows. I woke up maybe twenty minutes ago, here, in the living room, driven downstairs by a coughing fit that coincided with Stu cat’s 5:30AM breakfast call. Five hours later, the dregs of my own breakfast–a kale and raspberry smoothie, blended at high velocity until “ribbon like”–sit atop the coffee table in an Ikea water glass. It rests next to the middle age millennial starter pack: a 2013 MacBook Pro, a jet black external hard drive, three remote controls and a copy of Modern Cat magazine with a feature on How to Catify Your Home. This quarter’s cover-star is a tabby from Oakland, California, named Wasabi. In a few minutes my own modern cat will hop onto his perch beside the south facing window and chitter at the birds, back arched, tail swaying almost like a baby snake.

My cough has been getting better but it still manages to surprise me. Fits of dry harking burst from my throat at random intervals, reverberating off the walls of the house, and through the cavities and connective tissue of my 31-year-old frame. Today, my maternal grandfather turns 90 years old. A few weeks ago I went to the drug store and bought him a card to commemorate the occasion. It featured a beer drinking squirrel, which felt quirky enough to stand out from the pile of well wishes, but not so quirky as to offend anyone. In a text message my mother reminds me to call him. As if a beer drinking squirrel doesn’t say it all.

It’s sunny in Vancouver today and I wonder if I should go for a walk. As I think this, the modern cat leaps down off his perch and crosses the room to the CB2 swivel chair that also serves as his day bed. He curls up like a cinnamon bun and begins licking his left paw. I ask our virtual assistant to tell me the weather and she does. Scattered showers with a forecasted high of 11 degrees and a low of 2. Currently, it’s 9 degrees and mostly cloudy.

I sit on the couch and stare outside the window. The sun appears to be shining. It is Thursday and everything is quiet except for the cars speeding down 12th Avenue.

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