Long Walks On Leafy Streets

7/21/2015 Beach Drive, Rock Creek Park, Washington, DC
The last three days it has been real summer weather here in Washington, DC. Temperatures in the nineties with an evening thunderstorm. On Sunday we went to church at Takoma Park Presbyterian. It has been a while since we did that. We had to leave the sanctuary a couple of times when Prashant started crying. After that I walked to the Takoma Park farmer’s market while Nicole waited in the car with him. Although it was quite warm I didn’t feel too uncomfortable. In fact I enjoyed it. Yesterday also I was out in the yard during the day. It was quite warm too but it almost felt pleasant. I enjoyed feeling the heat of the sun on my skin. I felt grateful for having a yard with grass and also for our little garden that provides a bit of connection with nature. Each season has its beauty and summer is certainly very beautiful.
I miss hiking out in the mountains or being in the beach but this summer we are enjoying it even more, being home with the baby.

Lately in the summers when it is very hot I had been feeling somewhat uncomfortable. I don’t know if it had to do with any allergies or just the humidity and heat was getting to my aging body. But this summer I haven’t had any difficulty. Perhaps it is because the new AC system has been keeping us at a comfortable temperature. Until now we have managed without central AC. We would run the window unit in whatever room we were. Hopefully, although the new system cools all rooms simultaneously, because it is a very energy efficient model we would end up not using much more electricity than before. Perhaps it has also to do with our feeling happier now that the baby is here. I have been running regularly and working in the yard also without any problems.

I don’t know if it had anything to do with me feeling healthier but just in the last couple of weeks I have started including more vegetables and fruits in my diet. I was inspired by the documentary “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead” by Joe Cross. In it the Australian businessman decides to go on a two-month trip across the US surviving only on fruit and vegetable juice the entire time. He not only loses much of his weight but also gets completely cured of his chronic skin condition caused by a faulty immune system. He had been trying to do both for many years, going through several medicines and dietary programs, without success. Not only was I impressed by his promotion of a more natural diet but also by his genuine love and friendliness towards people. Along the way he talks to total strangers about their diet habits and health problems. He also helps a trucker that he meets at an Arizona rest stop who has the same kind of skin condition as well as morbid obesity and resulting psychological problems.

As I wrote in the previous post, I continue to marvel at the miracle of life every time I look at our infant son. At this stage his brain is still in a very primitive state. I am amazed how he instinctively reaches for his mother’s breast when he is hungry. Evolution has somehow programmed the basic instructions needed for his survival into his young brain. I also realized that for him things like computers, smartphones, video and electric cars are going to be part of his world, almost a natural presence. When I video chat with his grandparents (currently visiting San Francisco) he looks at the screen. It is going to be natural for him to have people communicate from across the globe as if they were in the same room. I love how he looks at everything intently. He seems to have a strong sense of curiosity. It is almost as if he has a need to examine every little thing in the world.

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