A Warm Night on the Balcony

Sometimes all we need is for our phones to stop working (temporarily)

Photo by Author

Even though it is not bright enough, it is almost a full moon. The sky is cloudless, not a leaf fluttering in the wind. The world is at a standstill. It seems like the quiet before the storm, but there are no storms in the weather forecast.
It’s 96 degrees at 7 pm, which is considered quite hot for California. My body is super warm. It is almost competing with Mother Nature while fighting off a fever– and I don’t want to cook. A recent bad fall has injured my knees so much that it’s hard to stand. So cooking seems like the last thing I want to do. I feel like ordering in, but I am slightly biased about my cooking skills. Takeout seems convenient but less tasty.

I get a text from my mom. It’s 113 degrees in Kolkata, India. I’m grateful for her texts, as much as they come like bullets at lightning speed. It does help to set my perspectives straight.

I text her back saying ‘stay at home’ and leave my phone on my desk. My poor phone is overworking today. Why did I think of a project of transferring all my files from my phone to a hard drive — today, of all days, when I desperately need distraction? The file transfer is taking forever. It says eight more hours to go! Eight more hours of not touching my phone…