When I look up from my laptop, my view is of smiling Jack sunning himself in the courtyard. Zen occasionally ventures out into the courtyard but cannot resist the all-you-can-eat salad buffet of ornamental plants, so she is shuffled back in, all the while moaning her discontent.

Tough to be dispirited while there are cute cats all around me.

Writing from: a sleepy room in Marin. Listening to: “To the Stars” by Alma.