Adrienne comes to visit at night. She is a night owl like me. On school nights she goes to bed early, but school doesn’t start for two weeks yet, so when she can’t sleep at one or two in the morning, she comes to see if I’m awake. Of course I always am, so we sit up and talk. Sometimes she brings the guinea pig, Lady McFluff, who enjoys sleeping burrowed in my quilts. Sometimes we talk until almost dawn.... Read more
It’s going to rain tonight. It’s been so horribly dry this summer. It makes it even worse that I’m cooped up and trapped in my house. Outside, the summer squash died without bearing fruit, and I didn’t get a single cucumber. The grass went brown. The sunflowers started to droop. A raccoon demolished my second tallest sunflower, and made off with a green pumpkin. Inside, the sickness went on and on until I dreaded getting up in the morning, but... Read more
I don’t even know where to begin. Every single time I write a paragraph about political news, another wave of political news crashes and the old post seems pointless. I have a feeling this will be the case for the next three months. I feel as if we’ve had an October Surprise per month, every single month since at least March of 2023. I do not like this. I think I’ll just copy this little paragraph to my clipboard so... Read more
I woke up sick. The colitis from June keeps coming back, then almost clearing up, then coming back again. I was afraid to make an appointment with the GI until I was sure we had another year of insurance, and I haven’t gotten the official letter yet. Besides, Serendipity was still up on the jack being repaired. I wasn’t sure when, exactly, we would be mobile to get to appointments again. I was avoiding spices and NSAIDs and eating yogurt... Read more
Let’s talk politics again. Specifically, our old friend J. D. Vance. This week has been characterized by Joe Biden making a laudable if cliche-filled speech explaining that he’s stepping down from candidacy for a second term for America’s sake, and then Jill Biden treating everyone to ice cream on the White House lawn. It was also characterized by Kamala Harris building a great deal of momentum in her run for president, though she’s still in a dead heat with Trump... Read more
The birds took flight as soon as I came back to the garden. Most every songbird in the neighborhood likes my sunflower wall. There are fat clumsy pigeons who nest in my gutters and cause leaks– I am supposed to hate the pigeons and chase them away, but I like them. They are the bird I would be if I were a bird. There are soft brown sparrows who look too round to fly. There is a majestic red... Read more
I’m not saying you shouldn’t use the Hallow app. That’s not what this post is about. It’s just about making people aware so they can be savvy consumers, especially in an election year. I am a firm believer that consumers shouldn’t be shamed for using a product they find useful, even if that product is problematic in some ways. I don’t believe that being a purist about everything you buy and use can possibly fix the problems that are... Read more
I’ve been trying, and failing, to keep up with writing about the political news. The political news keeps coming, and I have a hard time catching up except by making quips on X/Twitter. I still have a draft responding to all the hysteria regarding Joe Biden’s stutter, and I’m sad that that just doesn’t seem to be relevant right now. But I want to take a moment to try to get astride of all the weekend’s developments. On Thursday,... Read more
It hasn’t been the best of summers. Sometimes things get worse before they get better, and sometimes they just get worse. I never know which it is until after the situation is over. I tried a new probiotic pill to see if it would help heal up the embarrassing remaining symptoms that I was having– hopefully from the antibiotics I took to treat the colitis and not from the colitis. I couldn’t afford to have colitis any more. I don’t... Read more
The news is moving at a breakneck pace, so I just want to quickly write out a few more thoughts on the horrific events that took place in Pennsylvania on Saturday. First of all, my condolences go out to Mr. Comperatore’s family, and I will pray for the repose of his soul. I can’t imagine what they must be feeling right now. I’m also praying for the recovery of the other two injured persons and glad that, last I heard,... Read more
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