This is an old picture. I snapped it at sunset in Sicily, several years ago. It came to mind today because I hung those very towels on the line this afternoon, the breeze whipping them around. They’re faded almost to white now. The sight of them was like highlighter over Why to Keep This Diary. Even when life was gigantic and we were traveling the world, this was what I thought to snap a photo of, what I thought was beautiful in the moment: laundry that still had to be washed, laundry on the line.

I’ve been lying to you all these other days I’ve told you it was perfect. Today was perfect. The breeze—oh, the breeze! The aspen leaves are frail enough now that they had to yield to it, and as I navigated the curves of our road, I kept driving through their showers leaf showers. Like confetti to celebrate that I get this moment. Like flags on a laundry line because that’s what makes a normal October 1 a wonderful day.

I picked up the girls from a friend’s and I picked up groceries on the way home. We finished our chores and agreed to be done at 4PM for a little movie date: Wes Anderson, in all his aesthetic brilliance, has made four short films out of Roald Dahl stories and they are finally live on Netflix. Magic.