Well, this year I did it. I harvested the basil and made pesto.

Every year I grow basil. Sometimes we harvest a bit of it, and have tomatoes and mozzarella cheese with basil, wine vinegar while sitting on the deck, but it's been a long time since I indulged in making pesto, which was the purpose all along of growing basil.

I love pesto.

I finally did it. I made pesto with my wife, with cheese tortellini and spinach pasta, substituting walnuts for pine nuts. We opened a nice midrange bottle of pinot noire.

It was like the old days, when we were young, in the nine years before we had kids, which we call "when we were single" even though we were married. We'd cook something special together, sit together, drink a nice wine, talk, and well...you know.

Our lives are winding down, and we're doing this "empty nest" thing, but it has its consolations, even in these terrible times.

I love pesto.

I love my wife.

I love having had a life, and I love remembering how wonderful it was to have lived it.