25 August 2020: Daily

I took the boys to Vermont last week for a brief getaway. Growing up, Mom and Dad took us to Woodstock several times to experience white Christmases, and I have an enormous spot in my heart for the town still. As it turns out, a friend from the boys’ summer camp lives on a farm in the next town over from Woodstock and invited us to visit.

It was such a wonderful delight to show the boys around Woodstock and Quechee, going with them to many of the very places my sister and I loved as children (and also discovering new haunts, like Mon Vert Cafe [fab] and the simple-but-delicious sandwiches at The Butcher Shop). Unfortunately, both kids had bad falls from a rope swing, and Oliver came home with a mild concussion, but if you ever find yourself needing emergency care in that area, haul ass to Mt. Ascutney which is literally the nicest, friendliest, sweetest hospital ever. Oliver’s injury was really terrifying for both Jack and me, but the three of us were the best crew, and I felt inordinately grateful for Jack’s strength and help as I do for the care Oliver received and the recovery he’s had since. He’s doing great! I also appreciate that Tom flew up on Friday to help me drive home as I was completely wiped out from the stressful night at the hospital and the relatively sleepless night after.

I was very sorry to miss the DNC, though I have tried to watch some of the speeches since returning home. I have made every effort to completely avoid the grotesque, histrionic spectacle of lies and revisionist history coming out of the RNC this week. Instead, I’ve enjoyed fundraising for Dem Senate candidates, organizing for the Get Your Knees Off Our Necks march this Friday, and helping get the boys ready for school. Jack is starting 9th grade which is somewhat hard to believe but also isn’t at all as he just seems so capable and grown up these days. My baby’s taller than I am! I am totally overwhelmed by the fact that both kids will be learning from home through January, at least. Send vibes.

Meanwhile, my parents have boarded up their home and evacuated as the hurricanes race towards southern Louisiana, and I am outraged and horrified by the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, by police earlier this week. They shot him EIGHT TIMES IN THE BACK, IN FRONT OF HIS KIDS, at point-blank range. He is now paralyzed from the waist down. I am disgusted and furious and so sad. Black Lives Matter, and until America reconciles with its past and present, educates its people, and makes amends, nothing will change, and that is disgraceful.

Please work every day until the election to do something, anything, to ensure a fair and free election, to turn the tide Blue and sane and educated and patriotic. Our lives depend on it.

24 May 2020: Daily

If you are remotely prone to worry, catastrophic thinking, or are one millimeter beyond rather than shy of complete terror over the state of America now and as relates to this fall’s election, I cannot in good faith advise you to watch The Plot Against America, the six-part series based on Philip Roth’s eponymous novel. The book was published in 2004. It could almost literally be about our current march to the November 2020 election. Gripping, tense, terrifying, and everything is on the line.

I’m sure you saw the swarms at the Lake of the Ozarks water park from this weekend in Missouri. Perhaps you’ve also read about the surge in cases of Covid-19 since Texas reopened. Or seen the news that more than 40% of Republicans think Bill Gates will use a Covid-19 vaccine to implant a location-tracker in recipients. THAT is all the real plot against America. Grotesque ignorance perpetrated by a horribly anti-Democratic, venal, corrupt “government.”

Do these same people care about the front page of today’s NYTimes? U.S. Deaths Near 100,000, An Incalculable Loss.

Do those Republicans, those crowing “pro-lifers” care at all?

Hillary was right. About pretty much everything.

And Trump golfs. At your expense. At our expense.

I feel like I have failed in some fashion as I’ve let all activism go since starting to shelter in place on March 13. Suddenly, my world feels so small, so constricted. It seems all I can do to feed and parent and tend my three boys each day, every day, much less myself, and my closest friends and family. But please know that if we don’t protect our right to vote, freely and securely, we will lose this country in November. I will do everything I can. I hope you will too.

In the meantime, Tom and I celebrated our 16th anniversary on Friday, today we re-roofed our shed, the one we’ve been refurbishing, and the boys and I helped a neighbor set up her new raised bed (they dumped 30 bags of soil and compost in the frame!). Then we did expressive art with old fence posts: how do each of us feel during this pandemic?

Jack’s “Czech hedgehog” which was incredibly well conceived and explained.

Mine

And some pretties, for some zen: fresh collards from my garden; an Eden rose; a coming Calla lily.

17 May 2020: Daily Tale + Humor

Funny!

Has there ever been a time in our country where THIS felt more plausible?

LMAO.

Yesterday, a lovely neighbor mentioned that he’d overestimated the amount of lumber he needed for his new fence and would we like the excess plus the extra nails for his nail gun?

Can I hear a HELL YES?!

Initially, Tom intended to replace egregiously ugly old slats and then decided to build a new fence door because ours was both egregiously ugly and broken. Then, it occurred to me that A) the boys and I wanted to learn how to use both a nail gun and the circular saw, B) much of our fence was egregiously ugly, C) it was a gorgeous day, and D) what a great family project building a new fence could be. And so, while Tom worked on the new door, the kids and I got to work tearing down the old slats and cutting/sizing/nailing up new ones. We decided to go with a more modern look, and I plan to stain this once it ages sufficiently.

As we built, Oliver repeatedly sang, “I’m so happy! It’s a perfect day! Perfect temperature! I woke up in a box fort! Now I’m building!” We had so much fun, and honestly, doesn’t this look terrific? Plus, life skills, people!

We did it all without hurting the lilies!