Community

At four o’clock on Thursday afternoon, the city council took on a discussion of the strategic operations plan (also known as the Sop) for the coming year. It’s an important document. If the work is in the plan, it happens. If it’s not, it might. After a week of long, thoughtful emails, the climate board members filed into the room, sat down, mingled with staff, and listened. For over two hours. They had spoken, once, in writing. A second time with their presence. Where we go from here is the topic of our next meetings, formal and informal.

Saturday morning was socked in with a deep and cold fog. I rode my bike out to the Farmer’s  Market around ten, thinking that it might lift, but it did not. I could see about fifteen feet in front of me, so people and animals kept emerging from the fog. First, about five white egrets against a green field. Then the alpaca herd moved towards the road—and there was no dog in sight. Ahead of me, three bright bike lights called out, then about fifteen people in bright yellow-green jackets passed me laughing hellos. A few minutes later, two small girls on bikes pedaled ahead of their mother, shrouded in a hijab, far behind and out of sight.  Somewhere, there were hills, trees, houses—but they were all, for the moment, gone in the fog.

We had the Winter Pie Social yesterday. By three fifteen, people were arriving, carrying pies, calling out to one another, gathering in the living room and dining room with cups of hot coffee, settling down for a long winter chat. There might have been, buried in the talk of summer hikes and gardens, some talk of civic action, letter writing and showing up.