birthdays, bookstores...

I got to bed before midnight most days this week--progress! 

I did stay up well past midnight by accident last night, but it was just as well because I got to wish my dad in India a Happy Birthday bright and early. (It's also Chairman Fred Hampton's birthday and Mary Shelley's birthday, so he's in a very special club.) He didn't put his hearing aids in, so we didn't talk for very long though.

At the end of the first week of classes, things are going well (I think). I already know everyone's names--that's kinda my superpower so far. And the older I get, the more adorable I find my students... it was so cute when one of them made up a song to remember how to spell my name. 

It's also EM's birthday and the birthday of the independent bookstore in town so I stopped to pick up some book gifts and was gifted in turn with a lovely heart-to-heart with D.D. who still ministers to my soul although she no longer works as a pastor. 

Pic: My sister (with whom my parents live) sent me this pic of dad at breakfast and it made me miss my dad extra: our old hours-long conversations, his smiley face the way it was.

not giving up

L invited a bunch of us over to her place yesterday to write postcards to people in Georgia urging them to check their voter registration and vote early as "our freedoms are on the ballot on November 5th." We copied addresses out, stuck stamps on, decorated to our hearts' content, and wrote encouraging messages till our hands were cramped. L is not taking things for granted or giving up on American democracy.

Students are not giving up either. They're back on campus and beginning to hold informational meetings and protests. There have already been arrests at Columbia and closer to home at the University of Michigan. In this country, student protests have always been on the right side of history from Vietnam to apartheid South Africa. There are several weeks to the election, and arresting students protesting the shredding of hapless civilians in Gaza by U.S. bombs is... a bad look. Harris-Walz will need to address that swiftly. 

Pic: A couple of my co-writers and the Red Cedar through L's living room windows yesterday...

And he's off...

Big A set off for the five-day Dick Allen Lansing to MacKinaw Bicycle Tour (the DALMAC) this morning. A few friends were surprised/concerned because he was in the hospital with long Covid just last month. 

If I'm being honest, I am too. But A can make decisions for himself and it's all fairly local, so I can always go pick him up if he decides to bail. He really does look forward to this tour every year, and I hope he has a lovely time!

Pic: Big A figures out how to ride a bike... KIDDING! Big A sets off for the DALMAC.

yeses and umms

Yes!: The huge thunderstorm that arrived in the morning on my way to work even as the people on the radio called a heat advisory to warn that the day would feel like 105 degrees. My outside plants and new trees needed the rain so badly and it saved me having to do one more thing on an already busy day. Umm: Nu got thoroughly soaked on the way to the school bus and had to go home to change and then be dropped off at school. (By Big A after he got home from his overnight shift)

Yes!: Hearing At on NPR's Morning Edition! The NLRB has determined that Chipotle's decision to withhold raises to its unionized workers is illegal. As one of the labor organizers, At got to say a few words on how despite everything, the workers remain very pro-union. Umm: Not sure if the decision has any bearing on contract negotiations (ongoing for two years now) and if there will be backpay (which would be awesome!). 

Yes! A colleague encouraged me to go home early after looking at the weather forecast, and I made it home ok in the huge thunderstorm that accompanied me on my way home despite downed trees everywhere and 60-mile gusts of wind. Umm: A second thunderstorm on the same day? There were massive traffic backups due to flooding and traffic lights being out so my plans with the girlfriends got canceled and I had to eat leftovers with Big A and Nu like a pleb. 

Pic: A mullein thicket out front earlier this week. An umm but also a yes? They came up as weeds, but I hear they have health benefits. 

celebrations (and an observance)

National and international doggie day today!! Every day is a day to celebrate our doggie family and friends. But here's extra love for Max, Huckie, Scoutie, Izzy, Chester, Popo, Henry, Zoe, JoJo and also to the doggies we know in Internet land--Rex, Hannah, Zydrunas, Mochi, and Mr. Darcy--today.

It's Janmashtami!! The birthday of Krishna, the little blue boy, as my kids like to call him. Nu has always been a fan just because he's so pretty and always getting into trouble, and I think he's recently been reclaimed by second-gen Hindu kids as an LGBTQ icon. We had a small Indian feast and pooja to celebrate this evening. Back home, my favorite tradition was how people would borrow toddlers and dip their feet in wet rice flour so when they ran around your house, the floors would be decorated with "Baby Krishna's footprints." For a country with the highest growing population, Indians really delight in kids.

It's here! The first week of classes! And I'm so ready... I'll be in three classrooms tomorrow, and... my Canvas sites are live, my syllabi are uploaded, classes have been welcomed via email, diagnostics are loaded, and class plans are posted. I'm excited and keyed up! I hope I get to sleep early...

And finally, it is the six-month anniversary of Aaron Bushnell's brave, brave sacrifice. There's not a day I don't think of that young man and the sweetness of his dear face in the photos. I've never watched the video, but I probably know every word of his note by heart. Despite the horrific manner of his death, I always think of what he did as something intrinsically life-affirming. 

Pic: Max and Huck say hello to my mom on the phone!

good gardener; bad farmer

We've actually had luck with the veggie plots this year. 

Back in May, when we started, we laid plastic mesh down in the beds to discourage underground animals and lighter netting above ground as protection from birds and squirrels. This double-layered protection seems to have worked.

But while I'm good at keeping things alive, I suck at harvesting. The tomatoes beckon with their bright colors, and I grab them when I'm out with Max and Huck. But the peppers, kale, cucumbers, herbs, and zucchini need to be gathered too.

Pic: Today's tomatoes... and those to come.

Six on Saturday

1) Yesterday on our local NPR station's "Michigan Minute" they talked about The Who's drummer Keith Moon celebrating his 21st birthday in Flint, MI with a wild cake party, driving his car into the pool at the Holiday Inn, and getting arrested. Later yesterday, I read about the same incident in the novel I was reading (Chevy in the Hole! Recommended!). On the anniversary of when it first happened on August 23, 1967!

2) Nu came home from school with homework and... a terrible facial rash. There were lots of photos on family chat and we ended up going to Urgent Care who deemed it contact dermatitis, which is a nothingburger of a diagnosis. It could be due to sunscreen, new detergent, or something in the air. Nu got a steroid shot and a prednisone taper to help. 

3) Today, I was blissfully soaking in the hot tub when I got chills all over--one floor up, on the other side of the window glass, I could see a very delicate shape slithering around, flickering out its tongue and waving its tail. A snake. Nu laughed at me when I told my "scary story." "So a snake lives outside where it's supposed to live" was their reasonable summary of the situation. I had to laugh too. The family has now dubbed the snake Mx. Slithers. 

4) I'm totally wowed by the 90-second video StephLove's son Noah worked on for the DNC--it was the walk-on video for Kamala Harris! He also worked on this piece about abortion. 

5) Also, hello--Kamala's HQ is all about the "Brat" rebranding, but I've been my own version of "Brat" since 2006!  My "Brat" comes from a nickname my schoolmates gave me based on my other first name and the "Poco" part is both the usual abbreviation of "Po(st)co(lonial)" and "un Poco."

6) Pic: My blurry picture of our black-eyed Susans--I was afraid Mx. Slithers would jump out at me, I guess.