Than this there is nothing finer!

Whenever I set off to bicycle in the accomplishment of my matutinal agenda it is not uncommon for me to sigh with restrained marvel (a well of near amazement and thankfulness) upon assimilating myself to the awakening day. Nor was this morning an exception. To my further enchantment the spectacle exceeded the pinnacle of sublimity. The sky was an unchanging dome of blue above the vast sea-level horizon. There was a smart, fresh breeze. The air was soft and dry. The sprinklers along the paths were spraying their nourishment (albeit laden with sulphur); the Municipality was industriously trimming the large shade trees. The invitation to overwhelming awe was toxic! Any accommodation of life's inevitable mortality was handily brushed aside in favour of limitless vaporization and contemplation.

My reference to corporality is not entirely facetious. Incremental physical decline and perishability is no mere metaphor. Luckily for me today the improvement of Tylenol Arthritis was palpable - following its avoidance for the past two weeks while I ingested and tested hemp Cannabidiol (CBD) oil. Adopting the pragmatic preference for palliative care is now the extent of my initiative in matters medical. By comic coincidence when I was later this afternoon walking upon the shore of the beach I was accosted by a gentleman who had been following me.  He said, "You look just like my father from behind when he is walking on the beach - though he doesn't walk as well as you!"  He then asked my age and I told him (70). When I made the mistake of asking his father's age, he reported 88! I suddenly felt preposterous! He did however have the courtesy to suggest he hoped to be in as good condition as I when he was as old.  That gratuity did little to quell the initial assault. The stinging verisimilitude nonetheless strengthened the case for carpe diem, a default persuasion which for good or bad I find myself increasingly endorsing. As though to emphasize my declension when I afterwards recovered my chaise longue there was a statuesque young couple prolonged adjacent, yet another reminder of what may once have been but no longer is. I confess to have appreciated the Germanic purity and patrician semblance of the two. One must derive what one can from the current state of being!