Woke to neighbor’s yard crew roaring just below my bedroom window then for hours endured tree work two houses over. Incredibly punishing. Finally put in ear buds and listened to a box fan. Whir, whir, whir. Then I could think and turned to sorting study papers — throwing out old chapter lists, old word count tallies, old email lists. A purge. Then vacuumed. Always feels good.
It is blessedly quiet now.
Dead Northern Flicker and rusted iron disk found within steps of each other on dog walk.
Help with the puzzle yesterday.
I made company another version of the quinoa salad. This one had the same mix of wild and white rice but with barley and fresh corn in lieu of the quinoa. It wasn’t as amazing as the day before but still yummy. Is it because I served the quinoa salad while it was still warm? Maybe.
Already sick to death of Ramaswamy. Why is the press giving him so much air time? The man is a creepy fraud and a lunatic who makes Elon Musk look like a moderate.
Younger son has gone back to college. Starting today. Thoughts and prayers appreciated, especially since they won’t help the most recent victims of Nazi terrorism.
I’m so sick and tired of all of it .. how a 21 year old can be so filled with such numbing hatred that made it ok for him to do what he did. And today the shooting at NCU!! I know I don’t have to tell you how crazy this is. Looking at that beautiful beautiful bird laying dead .. I couldn’t help but think of all the beautiful people found laying dead. I believe I have lost all hope that anything will change .. that first picture is how I feel.
The shootings come so fast furious it’s hard to even call them breaking news anymore. What does that say about us as a society?
Oh I just want to wrap my arms around you and your boy, love and joy and happiness and simply, mother and son.
60 yrs ago, I was 15 yrs old, sitting on the floor in my living room, watching the TV, waiting for the March to be televised. It is an event that I have never forgotten .The crowds, Dr. Martin Luther King, his voice, his passion, his courage, our nation on its feet…My family was scattered about, Mom was in our outside porch embroidering pillow cases,my Dad and sister were out in back, in the garden.
A story that I have told before but has significance here:
My mother came here in 1932, sponsored by her married sister who had settled in the central valley of CA. Mom was 19, did not speak a word of English. As she boarded the train to go across country, an African American porter reached out to help her. She shrank back, afraid,because she had never seen an African American until coming here. He was patient, smiling all the time and she said he had kind eyes so slowly, she relaxed. He would check on her to see if she was ok and helped her decide what to choose for her meals by pointing out dishes on the tables of other passengers.
From Union History, the A. Phillip Randolph Pullman Museum:
“During the heyday of railroad travel, the Pullman Porters were the workers aboard the trains. They provided service to and attended to the needs of the passengers. In the beginning, the Pullman Company hired only African-American men for the job of porter..” I read elsewhere that they were chosen because African Americans had a history of serving and helping…!!!
From further research I learned: “It was a Pullman porter named E.D. Nixon who paid Rosa Parks’s bail in Montgomery, Alabama and asked a young Martin Luther King, Jr. to lead a bus boycott there. Not only did the porters improve their own lives and working conditions through tenacious organizing; they also laid groundwork for the civil rights movement..”
Back to 60 yrs ago: I called my family in to watch this historic event. My parents listened intently, we all did. At the end, when Dr King exited with the words, “free at last, free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last “, I looked at my Mom and she had tears streaming down her face. I didn’t realize it but so did I. My Dad hugged all of us and simply said, “That is America.”;
Reading this just gave me goosebumps. Thanks for sharing, Marti.
the flicker is such a beautiful bird … each feather is a work of art in and of itself
and the rust … Don and I are both smitten, and wondering what the heck it must have been made to do or to be
I have no theories on that disk.