The weather was nice today. It got up to about 70°F with lots of sunshine and blue skies. We went for a long walk down by the river after a quick lunch at McDonald’s. I’m not a fan of the food, but it was convenient. Kinda.

I hate the self-serve kiosks that are popping up everywhere. It’s a big touchscreen interface. Click, click, click, confirm a few things, decline to add anything for any charity that appears on a McDonald’s order screen — and all that was left was to tap a credit card. Two minutes later, someone carried us our food. Given what transpired, I’m firmly convinced our food will be delivered by a robot the moment they figure out how to make that work.

On our walk I watched a couple of kids playing catch with a baseball. I didn’t wonder why they weren’t in school. I secretly hoped they were skipping class to play in the meadow. And suddenly I wanted to play catch again, but I haven’t had a baseball or a glove since the Woodstock era.

As a kid I spent endless hours playing catch with anyone who I could trap into the activity.

I owned a couple of nice leather mitts my Dad had given me for Christmas or my birthday, well broken in with a leather conditioner and excess use. I used to love baseball — playing it or watching it on TV. We were Cincinnati Reds fans during the Big Red Machine era. Boundless joy. But that was then. Now I can’t stand to watch a game. Still, I’d like to get a new mitt, if I could only find someone willing to play catch with me…

We live in a small town. Chose this place on purpose. The municipal utility company handles the water, sewer, and trash pickup, and we get a consolidated bill each month. I walk into the administration building and pay with a check each month. The first few times, the young lady behind the counter did her best to explain how I could pay online. I told her one of the reasons I moved here was the ability to walk in and pay my bills.

She doesn’t understand why anyone would want to do that. But she’s young, and I believe she’ll figure it out in another 20 years.

There’s a bank here too, with a long remodeling project there that’s just about completed. Walking past it on the way home, I started thinking maybe I should move all my banking there. The ability to walk to the bank for whatever business I have would be the walk-to-the-bank life made complete.