Reflections on a Hot Day
Jun. 30th, 2020 08:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouseWe've had a couple of nights of spectacular thunderstorms, so today started out very muggy and... MOIST. It is eight-thirty in the evening and the humidity seems to have finally dropped. Previously, it was one of those days where you HAVE to wear shorts, but your thigh skin sticks to all the furniture.
In a word: gross.
In fact, since it was so gross (and also, as it happened, pay day,) we decided to order take-away from our local Taiwanese hand-pulled noodle shop, Magic Noodle. It was delicious. I highly recommend it to anyone in the Twin Cities area. (https://www.yelp.com/biz/magic-noodle-saint-paul-4)
Also, Magic Noodle is one of the businesses in the epicenter of where the most destructive rioting was in Saint Paul, which is to say, about a half mile (0.8 km) from my house. It is still shocking to drive by the buildings that collapsed in the fires. A lot of the rubble that still remains, of course, are those establishments that had been owned by local, often first generation immigrant, PoC. Unlike Target, which has already reopened for business, they can't even afford the cost of hauling way the ruins of their former businesses. I do not say this to condemn rioting and looting as a legitimate form of protest, though if people reading this are unaware, a lot of the arson, specifically, has been directly linked to white agitators, several of whom have been arrested. (My friendnaomikritzer has a good article about that, here: https://naomikritzer.com/2020/06/03/minneapolis-outside-agitators/.) If people are interested in helping out African Immigrant Owned business both in my neighborhood and Minneapolis, there is an organization devoted to that which has a GoFundMe (although it looks like they surpassed their goal): https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/rebuild-african-immigrant-businesses
Mason has been continuing to volunteer, though the organization he's been working with is considering moving on. They closed their food give-away site last weekend, and instead packed up donations to go over to the homeless shelter that has sprung up in Minneapolis's Powderhorn Park after the homeless people were displaced from the Sheraton Hotel near (the former) Mid-Town Markets and Uncle Hugo's. Mason isn't sure what he's going to do next. He'd like to stay in our neighborhood, since he likes the freedom of being able to walk to where he volunteers, but if these folks pack up for elsewhere... ? I told him I'd drive him anywhere in the city, but he's just not sure to where yet.
Of course, we could spend the rest of the summer teaching him how to drive, but that's a whole other can of worms. My driving teaching style consists of exceedingly constructive instruction such as, "AAAAAAHHHHHH!" and "OH MY GOD." Oh, don't forget my best advice, which was, "WE ARE GOING TO DIE."
So, he hasn't learned a lot yet.
In a word: gross.
In fact, since it was so gross (and also, as it happened, pay day,) we decided to order take-away from our local Taiwanese hand-pulled noodle shop, Magic Noodle. It was delicious. I highly recommend it to anyone in the Twin Cities area. (https://www.yelp.com/biz/magic-noodle-saint-paul-4)
Also, Magic Noodle is one of the businesses in the epicenter of where the most destructive rioting was in Saint Paul, which is to say, about a half mile (0.8 km) from my house. It is still shocking to drive by the buildings that collapsed in the fires. A lot of the rubble that still remains, of course, are those establishments that had been owned by local, often first generation immigrant, PoC. Unlike Target, which has already reopened for business, they can't even afford the cost of hauling way the ruins of their former businesses. I do not say this to condemn rioting and looting as a legitimate form of protest, though if people reading this are unaware, a lot of the arson, specifically, has been directly linked to white agitators, several of whom have been arrested. (My friend
naomikritzer has a good article about that, here: https://naomikritzer.com/2020/06/03/minneapolis-outside-agitators/.) If people are interested in helping out African Immigrant Owned business both in my neighborhood and Minneapolis, there is an organization devoted to that which has a GoFundMe (although it looks like they surpassed their goal): https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/rebuild-african-immigrant-businessesMason has been continuing to volunteer, though the organization he's been working with is considering moving on. They closed their food give-away site last weekend, and instead packed up donations to go over to the homeless shelter that has sprung up in Minneapolis's Powderhorn Park after the homeless people were displaced from the Sheraton Hotel near (the former) Mid-Town Markets and Uncle Hugo's. Mason isn't sure what he's going to do next. He'd like to stay in our neighborhood, since he likes the freedom of being able to walk to where he volunteers, but if these folks pack up for elsewhere... ? I told him I'd drive him anywhere in the city, but he's just not sure to where yet.
Of course, we could spend the rest of the summer teaching him how to drive, but that's a whole other can of worms. My driving teaching style consists of exceedingly constructive instruction such as, "AAAAAAHHHHHH!" and "OH MY GOD." Oh, don't forget my best advice, which was, "WE ARE GOING TO DIE."
So, he hasn't learned a lot yet.
no subject
Date: 2020-07-01 11:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-07-01 06:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-07-01 09:57 pm (UTC)