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I brought my Couchsurfers along for the night owl lap swim. 

Kristina, in the middle, is into swimming. Her friends Bastian and Felix, not so much. They hung out on the pool deck while Kristina and I did laps. She has way better technique than I do.

In Brooklyn there is a baker named Moe. Moe worked at Peter Pan Donut & Pastry Shop in Greenpoint making donuts for years and years. One day Moe decided to venture out on his own.

Couchsurfers Kristina and Felix have just arrived. Their friend and traveling partner Bastian is still on his way. He stopped to meet a friend of his in town. All three will be staying here, occupying my living room, for the next few nights.

How the neighborhood has changed. On the scaffold, advertising this development:

condos. refined. williamsburg... timeless. terraces...

We're a long way from "hip."

Political nuts. 

My friend Mahsa brought pistachios back from Iran after her recent trip there and a subsequent, inevitable detention by border agents on her way back to the U.S. She's a citizen here, but has history there, and that's enough for scrutiny and concern. 

Ma preps for lap swim.

"She's almost 65," Pa said. "She'll probably look the same at 85, just like Pap."

I think on that and realize it's probably a truth. Ma looks pretty much like she did when she was in her forties.

After I got the swim in with Ma, Pa and I went down to Piper's Pub and had some Scotch.

It's a shame Pa can't taste as well as he used to. The surgery altered his whole olfactory setup. On the bright side, that reduced sensitivity means I don't have to buy him the top shelf stuff.

Grandma clips coupons at my parents' kitchen table. Her hair is up in rollers tonight so it'll look good for mass tomorrow. 

Stillness and silence at 10pm.

A man is scrubbing a horse with a broom on the sidewalk on West 37th Street in the year Two Thousand Fifteen.