Noticing the Small Things

There are certain things I've noticed because I do the same thing at the same time almost every day. Here's a truncated list:

• It's harder to get up at 6:30am because it's dark until just before 7:00am.
• The morning sun on the eucalyptus trees that line my street is shifting, and has almost disappeared altogether.
• A woman walks her tri-colored mutt to Otis Johnson park at 8:30 each morning.
• A plump elderly woman and her marmalade cat and scruffy dog stroll past the school at noon every day.
• The sun is now setting almost before I can make it home to enjoy the day's last rays.
• The moon has been absent from the early night sky for the past few days, which allows me to smell the fragrant trumpet flower as I grope my way to my front door.
• The Milky Way is slowly moving closer to the horizon. 
• The ocean has been exceptionally pacific the last couple days.
  
  

These are things I notice because detail comes to light when life is boiled down to a series of repetitive actions. I'm also starting to notice the absence of certain things, like the voice of the mockingbird or the cactus wren, which I heard plenty in LA.