August Friday Morning

photo courtesy Craig Cox

Last Friday morning, I was drinking my tea at the dining room table and idly watching a chipmunk perched on the birdfeeder in our front yard. It flicked its tail sharply in exact synchrony with each loud chip! more than a dozen times. I have no idea what it was going on about. 

Then a school bus traveled up the street. It didn’t appear to have any passengers, and I’m quite certain that Minneapolis schools have not started yet. It somehow brought to mind how often at this point in late summer I’ll see (and hear) wild geese flying around the city in vee formation, as though preparing for the fall migration. Do school bus drivers practice their routes before classes begin? I wondered.

It feels like things are on the move again. July felt stagnant—the heat, the wildfire smoke, the general ennui. After a rainy start to summer, I suddenly had to remember to water the gardens and the pots on the front stoop. I often didn’t. The pots are looking rather wan and in need of a refresh.

I have been immersed in finishing my calendar—what I call the Useful Calendar. But to say that I make a calendar vastly misrepresents this thing that consumes so much of my time and attention. It’s a research-and-writing project, a zine and an almanac, a series of 12 illustrations with captions that convey in 30 or 40 words the most apposite thing I have learned about each drawing’s subject.

I start the process in the spring, interspersed with other projects and activities, but when I am getting close to finishing, it becomes quite all-consuming, and I begin to feel burdened by it. Then I finish the last illustration and write its caption and take a step back and am so very pleased. Thoughts of never making another one vanish; I can’t imagine not doing it.

Preparing a caption for an illustration in the 2027 Year of the Goat/Sheep Useful Calendar

It is a great relief when I send the PDFs to the printer. I used to do all the printing, cutting and assembling myself, at home—a tedious and time-consuming task after all the fun and fascinating creative work is done. Then, a few years ago, I learned about a local printer, Smart Set Inc., that uses recycled materials and plant-based toner and does other eco-friendly things, is a certified B corporation and a union shop, and is about three miles from my house.

It’s a pleasure to ride my bike there to look at paper samples or hold a proof in my hands. The print quality has been much better than my print-at-home versions, and I can move on to pursue other creative mini-projects while they take care of the production work.

I sent the PDFs to them on Friday morning. Then I had tea.