We have another freeze warning tonight. It’s the kind of cold that only feels bitter by contrast– for a week we had real May temperatures, sixties and seventies, almost warm enough to be hot. For one afternoon we shut the windows downstairs and ran the air conditioner because the fusty old rental house holds onto heat, and it was uncomfortably warm inside. Rosie longed to inflate the wading pool we got her and play in her bathing suit, but we... Read more
There were snow flurries today. I don’t think it’s ever snowed in May, in Ohio, in my lifetime. My weather app tells me we may tie or break the record low for this date in history. And this after a soggy, insipid winter where it almost never snowed. They say it’s all due to climate change, warming up the winters worldwide, warming the poles so the polar winds get forced down to the United States. My seedlings are wintering on... Read more
 Hey guys, I have a quick request for the hands and feet of Christ, ahead of tonight’s polar vortex. In case you haven’t seen the news, after a freakishly warm winter we’re having a chilly month of May in the Eastern United States. Tonight and into tomorrow morning, it’s supposed to be even worse. We’re going to get a blast of wind from the north pole that will bring the temperatures way down below freezing, and it might even... Read more
 Hi guys, I’ll be on later today with a post worth reading, this is just my least favorite part of blogging, the monthly awkward moment where I give the tip jar an awkward nudge and remind you that my family lives on gratiuties. I get a very small paycheck from Patheos for clicks on Steel Magnificat, sometimes as much as three figures, but the rest of my living is tips from satisfied or sympathetic readers. Think of it like... Read more
This weekend, we all got mad at somebody called Caren White, who wrote an article for Medium demanding that everybody stop baking homemade bread during the pandemic. In case you missed it, Caren’s hissy fit of an article was all about how she couldn’t find the organic flour she preferred, because it was sold out, because so many people are baking their own bread for the first time. She chided the amateur bakers and called them “dilettantes,” accusing them of... Read more
It’s the first day of May. The narcissus have bloomed, fallen over and died, as quickly as they always do in the Ohio Valley. The magnolias dropped their petals and had to be raked like leaves. Lilacs are blooming now, and Rosie cuts me a fresh bouquet from the ancient bush outside every afternoon. I’m supposed to be working on my garden, if it ever stops raining. We have been in lockdown since mid-March. The governor has announced that the... Read more
I went to the free pantry again, with half a bag of things. We go downtown once a week ever since the virus started and give them whatever we can scrounge– a couple of cans when they go on sale, a box of milk when they have shelf-stable milk in stock. Sometimes we fill a whole bag, sometimes half a bag, sometimes two bags. The free pantry is what I have instead of a hobby or local friends, and filling... Read more
I cannot stand writing about Frank Pavone. I don’t even like to think about him. I can’t stand the nasty things his disciples say about him in my com box. I don’t like the man himself. I keep coming back to the topic of Frank Pavone, because I am deeply concerned about the scandalous example he keeps giving to the faithful– yes, with his fawning and toady admiration of President Trump, but also just for his callous and cruel behavior... Read more
Many years ago, a friend of mine had a dream. She told me she dreamed she had gone to hell– but, in her words, “it wasn’t so bad.” Hell looked like a bad neighborhood with tumbledown buildings, the streets overrun with trash, surrounded by a big fence. My friend quickly found herself a leader of all the damned souls in hell, so she began to organize. The reprobates picked up garbage, painted the walls and started a community garden. There... Read more
Over the past week, we’ve had some embarrassing public demonstrations. In Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota and several other locations all across the country, scruffy-looking libertarians gathered in big crowds to defy the COVID-19 lockdown and stay-at-home orders. They wore MAGA hats and clothing decked out in American flags. They waved American flags and Gadsen flags and flags of the Confederacy, the enemy of the United States that killed 360,222 brave Union soldiers before surrendering to us. They carried signs that said “FREEDOM OVER... Read more
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