I had heard the owl out back before but this evening I saw it up in the large oak tree above us--black eyes set back in a white mask, being hassled by chirping and diving robins before moving across the street.

(I recognize that owl call as the Ranger Kevin owl call from Ingersoll--a call close enough to the real thing as to be indistinguishable from the true owl responses, but for the tone of mischief in the trailing whooo.)

I don't know if the wildlife in the suburbs ("wild" life) was always there but hiding, or maybe the lighter traffic during lockdown is encouraging them to come back to their ancestral homes. Or maybe it's just that I have more time available that would have otherwise been spent commuting to stare out of the window into the trees--look long enough and you'll see something. 

I wondered and wonder: what will become of these moments when the world unlocks.

Of course I would like to see the businesses flow again, and the people flow again--I want to flow with them. But I also like the calm and clean and quiet. I remember Christmas 2014 in Burbank, going for a run up into the Verdugo Mountains, and during that day of lighter traffic seeing the ocean on the other side of Los Angeles for the first and only time.

So why not both?

All the time? Unlikely. Some of the time? Sure--if we wanted to. At the very least, perhaps those of us who can work from home might get to keep doing so more often than we used to BV. Perhaps Tuesday or Friday or both or more might come to represent work from home days as clearly as Saturday and Sunday represent no-work days (for many of us). That's not too useful if you're a welder, but if we're off the roads then the welders can get to and from work a little faster. It could be a positive convention that emerges from this period. Why go in for the reason of just being there?