we went to a pirate/bubble birthday with the family we've been avoiding for a year and a half. it was a kind of magical mix of joy and sadness and it's still the pandemic time. 1/4 the of the pirate boy james' life has been pandemic, when he would have been starting to socialize. he has his minecraft pirate life, and i wonder what the future will be like. time is different now. people are dying suddenly and sooner. yet we're trying to live without masks and be like we used to be. the pandemic is part of everything. we know what we don't know. the kids were rather violently happy i thought, but they're still just kids right? the bubbles were, as bubbles always are, simple ordinary mystery of water viscosity and light— we were bubble kids too. some light on our faces, some lay down together in the grass resting momentarily and some fly way up disappearing before they pop.