SUN

I’m a fan. I know this is a medically-unpopular thing to admit, liking the sun, but I DO I DO I DO I DO!

It is a stunningly beautiful warm sunny day here, the damp and the rain vanquished for at least today. Never have I been so appreciative of a bright, cloudless blue sky, a light breeze, and the feel of the sun on my skin at 10:30AM – a perfect 75 degrees. There were many of these nice days in the spring, fall, and some of the summer in Colorado. Here, they are relegated to the short summers and an occasional anomaly day like this one. I could sit all day very happy, here at a teak table outside at the Other Other Good Coffee Place, just watching the people and their assorted dogs go by. I don’t need to be anywhere else, doing anything in particular. This is quite, quite good.

A very loud blaring fire truck and an ambulance scream by. No one even turns to look. They are all bewitched by the weather, lazily walking along in shorts and sandals dug out from closets. There is a couple at the table to my right. The guy looks like, really looks like, Brad Pitt about 10 years ago. The similarity is striking, and I bet he gets told that a hundred times a day. He’s quite all perfect – yellow t-shirt and blue and white madras plaid shorts, flip flops, tan, expensive sunglasses, gym body deluxe but not obnoxiously-so, artfully poofed sandy blond hair, a small gold chain, expensive watch. His girlfriend is attractive, but nowhere in his league, not even close. She is very thin, but in kind of a bony bird way, and she looks pinched a bit in the face and more conservative, in sort of bland tennis-looking gear, a white visor on her dishwater blond hair, and white tank top and a black skort. I notice him checking out all the girls – and there are many – walking and lounging around outside the coffee shop. His birdfriend doesn’t seem to catch it. Someone very cynical once noted that men strive to get the most physically-attractive women they can possibly get, while women strive to snare the richest and most stable men possible. Now that is all very sexist and backwards. How much of that is true? I don’t know. I suppose feelings enter in to it all somewhere.

Looking around at all the couples it seems like people generally end up with their approximate match in looks and social status. When there is a striking anomaly, like Anna Nicole Smith and the million-year-old Texas guy, there’s a reason. Otherwise, people gravitate towards who they somehow intuit is in the league, so to speak. It is interesting.

There are psychological tests where you ask people to rate their own attractiveness. I think most people pick around a 7. Everyone likes to think they are above-average. That seems mentally-healthy, if inaccurate on the bell curve.

OK, here’s a very buff young guy walking a teeny little shivering terrier with a jeweled collar. I will bet you a zillion dollars he has some kind of fluffy hot gf and it’s her dog. AHAHAHAHAH! LOOK! I AM RIGHT! Here she comes, in a bright billowing yellow sundress, big gold heels, gold hoop earrings, very pretty. They sit at the table to my left and begin talking about their drinks, while Shakes starts running his leash around their table and panting.

Sundress: Why aren’t you drinking?
Buffboy: I don’t want a hot drink.
S: Well, why didn’t you tell me that!! I’ll go get you another one.
BB: No, Whatever. I won’t have a drink.
S: You should just drink it! God! They sell Mexican Coke here. I could get you that.
BB: What is that?
S: I think it’s like regular Coke, but sweeter?
BB: I don’t want that. Just forget it.
Shakes: YIP YIP YIP YIP YIP YIP YIP!
S: Oh, god, can you fix the fucking leash on him?

They sit and pout for awhile while Sundress finishes her drink and Buffboy unwraps Shakes, then they wander off into the perfect day. I give then a year more. Unless Shakes has an untimely demise.

There is laundry to do, oh is there laundry, the house needs vacuuming, the dishes are in the sink, I have 15 years worth of papers to go through, phone calls to return, and 300 emails sitting in my inbox. But all of that will have to wait. It is a beautiful sunny day, there are above-average people walking about, and I am just going to appreciate a bit more.