July in Monta Vista

It may have nothing to do with the war, Covid, or inflation, but as if trying to

save fuel, summer has been frugal on heat. July 4th came and went without much

fanfare. The soaring silk trees have dismantled their furry pink clouds but the

crepe myrtles, also abundant, have arrived brandishing their bright white, pink,

or violet panicles. The pollarded plane tree, which in winter looked like a

monument to Hydra, has branches bursting out of each stumped head, forming a

giant verdant sphere and shading the whole front yard of a corner lot. The air

was cool, the sky blue, and it was another quiet month in Mountain View.

 

To Bill, it was all a charade, of course. He had a knack of looking at the dark

side of things. The police blotter in the local newspaper, for example, exerted

an inexplicable attraction. Recently, he learnt that the Stanford mall was

repeatedly looted and last week two thieves got away from the Lululemon store

with three dozens of leggings worth over $4600. Earlier this year, an Asian

woman told the manager of the Starbucks on San Antonio Road to "go back to your

country."

 

Bill had forgotten when he last patronized the mall. He frequented that coffee

shop, however, and could not help feeling self-concious after the story. He

decided he did not like the place so much after all: it was too popular, the AC

was too cold, and hobos abounded. One day, a man sitting in the next chair slept

the whole morning until first responders were called in. It was the following

dog poop incident, dubbed a "bio hazard" and which shut down business for four

hours, that finally tipped the balance and Bill moved his mornings to a smaller

mall.

 

At work, his manager sent an e-card and the team wished him happy on his

birthday. This never happened before and took him by surprise and for a moment,

he was lost for words. But the warm glow fizzled soon and it took one email from

another manager to shunt him back to his cynical self. It started with "Please

sensitize this with your team..." where the verb not only sounded pompous but

should not even take 'this' as an object. Over the past few months, he had

relearnt such impressive business lingo as 'prioritize,' 'expedite,' and

'functional impact,' but 'sensitize' topped them all.

 

To be honest, his life has never been better, but for it to have meaning, he has

to search for something to feel bad about. Perversely, in a land where people

are supposed to pursue happiness, Bill focuses on what sucks. He is rarely

disappointed.

 

It was a gorgeous early Sunday afternoon. After a couple of hours at the

library, he swung by Ava's Downtown Market, where he came for raw milk after the

Milk Pail, a nearby European-style grocery store, folded a few years back. Since

Covid, the north half of Castro street had been corded off and taken over by

restaurants lining on both sides. It was a busy place and all the signs seemed to

say businesses were thriving. It took a while for Bill to settle down under an

olive tree in the gentle breeze. He put his feet up, flipped a novel, and opened

a bottle of milk, delivered an hour ago, for lunch. For a short while, he had no

complaints.

[7grizzly]

回复 '暖冬cool夏' 的评论 : Thank you, 暖冬, for reading and liking.

I was heartened and humbled by your rave comments and must admit first that the
line "The air was cool..." was a paraphrase of some of GK's Lake Wobegon opening
sentences. Isn't he great :-)

Talking about management lingo, I was surprised that the top dogs seemed to
prefer the colloquial. In a recent All-Hands meeting, the CEO delighted me with
'boo-boo' and 'scrappy.' Only the low- and mid-level managers seemed to be
enamored with pretentious multi-syllabic monsters.

Thank you again and have a great weekend.

[暖冬cool夏]

Your Bill's stories never fail me. Love this piece!!!
The air was cool, the sky blue, and it was another quiet month in Mountain View.-- Very poetic. It's a poem:)
I actually recently learnt this word "charade".
I would copy down your sentence like this in my notebook-- "The soaring silk trees have dismantled their furry pink clouds but the crepe myrtles, also abundant, have arrived in season brandishing their bright white, pink, or violet panicles."-- Very vivid, structurally perfect, and I love the word "brandish".
The word "sensitize" is new to me too.
Thanks, my friend, for sharing. I felt like drinking a cup of green tea in this crisp summer morning reading your post.