I have a new garden friend now. I haven’t seen him, but I know he’s there. The other day, I moved Rose’s Fisher Price turtle sandbox which wasn’t filled with sand. She doesn’t play with it anymore, and it had a nice hole in the bottom, so I dragged it into the fenced garden patch and filled it with potting soil to grow carrots. Carrots need nice loose soil or they only grow tiny nubbins instead of long stems.... Read more
Today I read an excellent article in the New York Times. You’d be well served to read it yourself. It’s called “Christianity Will Have Power,” a line taken from a speech Donald Trump gave in 2016. The article is an in depth look at the culture of Evangelical Christians in Sioux Falls, Iowa, who have embraced the president as a protector. They seem to feel that their whole culture is in danger, and Trump makes them feel safe. Having a... Read more
When I was a little girl I had a picture book of odd children’s stories. One of them concerned a naughty mouse who ended up getting stuffed in a pasteboard box and thrown in the river to drown. The box dissolved as it sunk in the river, and the mouse was able to swim to safety at the last moment. He went back to the house he lived in, and reformed his life. This summer, I feel like my entire... Read more
You’ve surely all heard by now of Doctor Stella Immanuel, who was praised by certain conservatives for a hot minute when she said she’d cured “hundreds” of people with a certain non-FDA-approved COVID treatment, only to become a laughingstock when more about her eccentric beliefs was made known. She professes that there’s a government conspiracy to develop a vaccine against religious beliefs; she also believes that a host of gynecological sufferings are caused by people having sex with demons and... Read more
Rosie is completely over her virus now. She’s out of danger– nothing left but a little fatigue, and a back and shoulder cramp that woke her up last night and hurt again this morning. Those are also much less than they were. She’s going to be fine. A lot of people are not going to be fine. Here in tiny Jefferson County, we’re still getting between two and ten new confirmed COVID cases every day. The gossip on the... Read more
Rosie caught Michael’s stomach virus. There was a time when an eight-year-old with a virus wasn’t absolutely terrifying. I told myself multiple times a day that it wasn’t, it couldn’t be, it certainly wasn’t THAT virus. Not COVID-19. There was no reason to believe it was. Michael was throwing up last week. He felt like death, but then he got over it in a few days. Now Rosie was throwing up and felt like death. That was normal. That... Read more
We went to the library and Aldi. How many times have I taken Rosie to the library and Aldi? I took her as an infant, in her carseat, when someone I know from the university drove. I hadn’t yet figured out the small, limited bus routes in Steubenville, so it was the first time I’d gone to a non-university library in years. It was a little piece of normalcy in a world of ugliness. I set her down for... Read more
It’s one of those times where it just doesn’t rain. There was a severe thunderstorm warning for at least seven hours, a few days ago. The clouds rolled by. The air was heavy and thick with water, but it didn’t come down. Instead of cooling off in the evening, the temperature stayed up. This is the first year I’ve been able to grow peppers with any success. The other times they were eaten by bugs. This year I have... Read more
I have a message from The Friendship Room: they need our help, and they need it right away. Since the COVID pandemic hit Ohio, the Friendship Room has been doing their best to take it in stride. They switched from welcoming people inside for meals at the table to handing out to-go plates on the porch. They went from re-stocking their outdoor free pantry daily to re-stocking it at least four times a day and adding a fridge, to meet... Read more
I got to go to Mass. In case you’re just joining me, I’ve been longing to get to Mass for the longest time, ever since the churches reopened in May, though the Sunday obligation is still dispensed, but nobody’s carpooling and the church schedules combined with my chronic illness makes it difficult to walk or catch the bus on the days the bus even run. The last time I went was the second week of March, before the shutdowns.... Read more
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