![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouseSupposedly, the heat is supposed to break this afternoon. We are expecting thunderstorms.
It was hot enough yesterday that I slept in the easy chair in the basement last night. We have two window units. We managed to get Mason's in before the heat hit, but my wife actually hates a/c air. Mostly, I am okay without, except at night. The basement, however, was about 20 degrees cooler than our upstairs bedroom, so that worked out just fine.
Yesterday, I took Mason to get his second-ever COVID test. This time, it was a throat swab, which he reports is, "much better," than the nose poke. His precise quote about the experience was, "Well, either my uvulas are numb for some weird reason or that wasn't actually that bad." Of course, the nurses reminded us that he is off "work" now until he gets the results back, which they said he would within 72 hours. Mason took the opportunity to sleep in today, and, while he said he's looking forward to 'wasting time playing video games with my friends,' he's also anxious to get back at it. Fingers crossed the results are negative.
When we arrived home, Shawn had gotten an email from Bethlehem Church explaining that they had a known COVID case working there on the 31st. Mason did not go on that Sunday, but he was there both the Saturday before and the Monday after.
My hope of course is that, thanks to his bout of COVID toes, even if he was exposed he has antibodies to fight it? But of course there are lots of indications that you can be reinfected, so maybe that's a moot point.
Otherwise, I am thinking about posting the progress I made on one of my long-running fics, just so my fans of that work will know I am alive, even though the update would probably amount to less than a thousand words. Thing is I logged on to Tumblr for the first time in months and discovered some people really, really worried about me.
Oopsie.
My gardens continue to grow. All The Wildflowers have clearly sprouted in the Victory garden, so that one should be very interesting as it develops. I can't wait to see what it looks like come August or September.
Image: my herb garden which is a combination of neat rows and riotous overgrowth, as always
My herb garden, pictured above, is doing pretty well. The basil loved the 90+ degrees yesterday (for the rest of the world, it was 36 C at its hottest here, yesterday.) The rest of my plants had no idea what to do, so I watered them like crazy. The dirt here in Minnesota really is this dark, but I had also recently hoed under the weeds, so that's part of why it looks so rich. I have been thinking I need to get to Menard's (a local hardware store) to get mulch.
When I say my shade gardens are in deep shade, I mean it:
Image: darkness and a few brave hosta
This is the "side" garden that I am currently focusing a lot of my revitalization efforts on. You can't see in the picture very well, but I transplanted some ostrich ferns to the back row in the hopes they will do what you saw in the herb garden, which is form a nice background for the rest of the garden. The problem with transplanting ostrich ferns is that you have to cut the leaves off or they will just wilt off, anyway. So it looks like nothing is there this year and won't again until next.
Image: my established garden in dappled light
The only thing that I need to remedy with this particular garden, (which is my established shade garden, sometimes called my O-jizo-sama garden, because hidden in here is a dry river bed and a lovely Jizo statue,) is to figure out a couple of good early and late summer blooming shade plants. I should actually try some columbine over here since I think they would like the amount of sunlight this gets, but I am open to ideas if any of my readers are gardeners with shade experience. I actually don't mind the "basically all hosta" look, so long as I have various colors of hosta, but, visually, this garden is currently at its peak in the earliest part of spring and never again.
I should probably see if Mother Earth Gardens is open again. I noticed they had closed during some of the worst of the rioting, but, as things are calming now that the city counsel of Minneapolis has vowed to disband the police force, they might be reopening.
About all that... a lot of people have asked me, as a local, to weigh on on what Minneapolis is thinking with this, and my answer is very simple. "Look, Minneapolis is the home of locally-sourced, organic, bicycle-delivered couscous. If anyone can think of an alternative to the police, it's them."
I lived in Minneapolis for decades before moving across the river to St. Paul and it remains one of my favorite cities on earth for THIS VERY REASON. There are nations in the world who survive without militarized police. I truly believe there are visionaries who can see Minneapolis--and then hopefully the rest of the nation--through to a world where police aren't needed. Yeah, it's hippy-groovy and probably pie in the sky, but I am 100% there for it. If it takes a city-wide vote to defund the cops, my money is on the people of Minneapolis doing it so fast the rest of the world will be still be "WTF-ing" while they are amassing a tall-bicycle army of social workers to fill the gaps. Seriously, This is one to watch and wait and see. It's possible it will all be for nothing, but then again... maybe not. It's got to start somewhere.
Prince named his band 'The Revolution." Maybe he was prescient.
It was hot enough yesterday that I slept in the easy chair in the basement last night. We have two window units. We managed to get Mason's in before the heat hit, but my wife actually hates a/c air. Mostly, I am okay without, except at night. The basement, however, was about 20 degrees cooler than our upstairs bedroom, so that worked out just fine.
Yesterday, I took Mason to get his second-ever COVID test. This time, it was a throat swab, which he reports is, "much better," than the nose poke. His precise quote about the experience was, "Well, either my uvulas are numb for some weird reason or that wasn't actually that bad." Of course, the nurses reminded us that he is off "work" now until he gets the results back, which they said he would within 72 hours. Mason took the opportunity to sleep in today, and, while he said he's looking forward to 'wasting time playing video games with my friends,' he's also anxious to get back at it. Fingers crossed the results are negative.
When we arrived home, Shawn had gotten an email from Bethlehem Church explaining that they had a known COVID case working there on the 31st. Mason did not go on that Sunday, but he was there both the Saturday before and the Monday after.
My hope of course is that, thanks to his bout of COVID toes, even if he was exposed he has antibodies to fight it? But of course there are lots of indications that you can be reinfected, so maybe that's a moot point.
Otherwise, I am thinking about posting the progress I made on one of my long-running fics, just so my fans of that work will know I am alive, even though the update would probably amount to less than a thousand words. Thing is I logged on to Tumblr for the first time in months and discovered some people really, really worried about me.
Oopsie.
My gardens continue to grow. All The Wildflowers have clearly sprouted in the Victory garden, so that one should be very interesting as it develops. I can't wait to see what it looks like come August or September.
Image: my herb garden which is a combination of neat rows and riotous overgrowth, as always
My herb garden, pictured above, is doing pretty well. The basil loved the 90+ degrees yesterday (for the rest of the world, it was 36 C at its hottest here, yesterday.) The rest of my plants had no idea what to do, so I watered them like crazy. The dirt here in Minnesota really is this dark, but I had also recently hoed under the weeds, so that's part of why it looks so rich. I have been thinking I need to get to Menard's (a local hardware store) to get mulch.
When I say my shade gardens are in deep shade, I mean it:
Image: darkness and a few brave hosta
This is the "side" garden that I am currently focusing a lot of my revitalization efforts on. You can't see in the picture very well, but I transplanted some ostrich ferns to the back row in the hopes they will do what you saw in the herb garden, which is form a nice background for the rest of the garden. The problem with transplanting ostrich ferns is that you have to cut the leaves off or they will just wilt off, anyway. So it looks like nothing is there this year and won't again until next.
Image: my established garden in dappled light
The only thing that I need to remedy with this particular garden, (which is my established shade garden, sometimes called my O-jizo-sama garden, because hidden in here is a dry river bed and a lovely Jizo statue,) is to figure out a couple of good early and late summer blooming shade plants. I should actually try some columbine over here since I think they would like the amount of sunlight this gets, but I am open to ideas if any of my readers are gardeners with shade experience. I actually don't mind the "basically all hosta" look, so long as I have various colors of hosta, but, visually, this garden is currently at its peak in the earliest part of spring and never again.
I should probably see if Mother Earth Gardens is open again. I noticed they had closed during some of the worst of the rioting, but, as things are calming now that the city counsel of Minneapolis has vowed to disband the police force, they might be reopening.
About all that... a lot of people have asked me, as a local, to weigh on on what Minneapolis is thinking with this, and my answer is very simple. "Look, Minneapolis is the home of locally-sourced, organic, bicycle-delivered couscous. If anyone can think of an alternative to the police, it's them."
I lived in Minneapolis for decades before moving across the river to St. Paul and it remains one of my favorite cities on earth for THIS VERY REASON. There are nations in the world who survive without militarized police. I truly believe there are visionaries who can see Minneapolis--and then hopefully the rest of the nation--through to a world where police aren't needed. Yeah, it's hippy-groovy and probably pie in the sky, but I am 100% there for it. If it takes a city-wide vote to defund the cops, my money is on the people of Minneapolis doing it so fast the rest of the world will be still be "WTF-ing" while they are amassing a tall-bicycle army of social workers to fill the gaps. Seriously, This is one to watch and wait and see. It's possible it will all be for nothing, but then again... maybe not. It's got to start somewhere.
Prince named his band 'The Revolution." Maybe he was prescient.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-09 07:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-09 07:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-09 07:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-09 08:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-09 10:02 pm (UTC)I'm glad Mason didn't have to put up with the nasal swab twice and hope the result is speedy -- at least they didn't give you a really long estimate like last time -- and of course negative.
The Mother Earth Gardens in Longfellow has made me miss my bus more times than I can count.
P.