Day in the Life of an Idiot

 
Image: The view of Minnesota Lock and Dam #1 (Mississippi River) from the Minnehaha Dog Park.

I went walking with some friends of mine early Saturday morning at the Minnehaha Dog Park. Not having a dog myself, I had only ever been there as a visitor once or twice before. It's actually quite lovely, if you are cool with random doggos bounding up to you on occasion to check you out (which I more than am.) 

The sky-blue asters were blooming.

Image: A flower growing on the banks of the Mississippi that I initially thought was called fleabane, but is actually "sky-blue aster."

To be fair to me, fleabane is in the aster family, and t's kind of a shame that these aren't fleabane, because fleabane does (to some varying degree of efficacy, which is to say almost none) repel fleas. Obviously, whether or not it actually works, fleabane seems like the perfect flower/weed to encourage in a dog park, doesn't it?  But, these, I'm fairly certain, are actually sky-blue asters, so there you go. They were everywhere along the sandy banks of the Mississippi. One of the few natives in bloom in the dog park. 

Anyway, it was a lovely walk followed by donuts and coffee shared with new friends, whom Shawn and I met at a backyard concert held by the neighbors-across-the-street. Shawn declined to go on the hike with us, being far more "indoorsy.". She stayed home and finished up a few rugs on the loom. 

But, Shawn and I went for our own neighborhood stroll on Sunday. During the height of the heavy lockdown part of the pandemic, Shawn and I used to go on neighborhood walks in St. Paul regularly. I started photographing some of the cool architectural details / nifty houses that I came across, and I posted them on Facebook. I did the same on Sunday, which you can feel free to check out, if we are Facebook friends, otherwise I will simply share this one very TERRIFYING bit of sidewalk poetry that we came across. 

 Still very happy to report it. 

Shawn's COVID test was negative. Hooray!  I mean, we figured? But I have no qualms about being cautious. 

 ...at the library. Wish me luck.

At least I've only agreed to work at libraries that are not opening at ALL to the public. Even so? I'm not looking forward to it.

 I THOUGHT today was going okay.

Even though I heard early from the Loft that exactly ONE student had signed up for my on-line class. I was a bit bummed about that. I've been working so hard on writing articles and making video and podcasts... ah well. I fired off a quick, "Hey, still time to sign up!" promotional tweets and such, but the chances of the class filling in a week is pretty slim.

Even so, I still was like, "Ah, today can be salvaged!" I'll go do some work on the exterior of the house. (We are painting the trim black.)

That went.... fine?  But, then, I pulled myself down from the ladder, and went inside and I just couldn't face the picky dinner that I'd planned. It was pot-stickers, which I normally love, but I was like, 'Gah, I am too tired to stand here and fiddle with the wrappers for hours before eating."  So, I thought of something slightly faster and easier--a potpie. I had everything sizzling, it was smelling great. I dumped on my homemade stock on it... and OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT SMELL, OH SHIT, THE STOCK HAS GONE OVER.

Now we're waiting on a pizza.

Oh, yeah, and then I went to check-in on my library emails and I discovered that I need to do training before October 1. So, I called up Roseville and signed up for a training shift on Thursday. That should work out fine. I'm not super psyched about being indoors on a work computer for four hours, BUT I need to do it to keep my job, so. Plus, Thursday is the day I have my CSA half share starting. I can pick up the share on my way home at least. 

I do worry that my job would never tell me if someone on the premises came down with COVID-19. This last Saturday, Shawn decided she really wanted to do the Friends of the Library book sale. They had a deal where you e-mail them the type of book you want--for us: cookbooks. They give you a grab bag on the subject for 5 bucks a bag. Sounded like a deal! And it was! We got some fun books!  We thought it was so fun, in fact, we decided we wanted to go back...  Shawn sent a "hey, another one for us, please!" email on Sunday, only to discover that the book sale is on hiatus because one of the volunteers had COVID (on Saturday, when we were there. But this person was apparently mostly inside and only interacted with two patrons.)

Good for our interactions, but I worry about the people working there that day. My colleagues.

In fact, one of the reasons I went to my email today was to see if they'd sent out a notification to let staff know--particularly people like me, subs, who only go in when other people are sick or on vacation, so, you know, we could decide if we wanted to work at Shoreview, and make risk assessment with full information. I mean, some people would feel fine? Some might not, but we should all KNOW, right?

Nothing.  

When I asked about it. I was told "the appropriate people" had been notified. Which? I mean, they're the bosses, so what I am going to do about it? I'm not planning to work THERE any time soon. But, now I kind of feel like I need to call anywhere I might work and ASK if there have been reports, since I'm not going to be told??

 Interestingly all the literature that went out to the Hmong Farmer's CSA recipients was filled with reminders like, "Only take your box! Look for your label! Sign out!" So, perhaps my chaos was not unique?


Image: CSA bounty (though the jar of honey was not included, that is just on the table)

So, this time my CSA included a bunch of fun things: sugar snap peas (a favorite to just eat raw), garlic scapes, rhubarb, Thai basil, green onions, curly kale, zucchini (one yellow, one green), dill, and another (not pictured) HUGE bag of lettuce.

Most of this, my family and I will have no problem eating. Although, we were joking tonight, as I made an herbed spaghetti dish for dinner, there is possibly no way we can consume all of the lettuce we currently have in the fridge. I am personally giving it the old college try, one salad at a time. Hopefully, my digestive tract will thank me?

The one thing we got this time that I don't use often is Thai basil. I'm generally a big basil fan, but Thai basil is something I mostly think of going in pho? But, I did a little googling and discovered that there are some fun things you can do with basil, including their flowers, like this basil flower vinegar...


Image: there is condensation on the mason jar because the cool dark place I have decided to let this steep is the fridge. 

This is day two for the flowers steeping in white vinegar. I suspect this is going to end up a very lovely shade of purple when it is done. The place that suggested this also has a salad dressing recipe, so that once you have the basil vinegar, you will know what to do with THAT.

Someone on the internet also suggested basil ice cream, which I am having some trouble convincing my family is a good idea, but, man, do I want to try it.

We also finally had the mint syrup I made a couple of weeks ago in a drink Shawn basically invented. It has gin, club soda, and a lot of mint syrupy goodness in it. I don't drink very often, but I found this very delicious. (Technically, the verb tense here should be 'am finding," as I am enough of an alcohol lightweight that I am very slowly sipping this throughout the evening. Perhaps my typos will increase as the evening wears on....)  


Not super fancy as "mixed drinks" go, but surprisingly tasty... says the non-alcohol drinker.

It continues to be insanely hot and humid around these parts. I have been watering sections of my lawn and gardens pretty much every day, though honestly the entire experience of "air" is not unlike the sensation of being trapped inside a greenhouse.  So, I suspect it's pretty good for the plants.

I ordered myself a copy of an anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction, Walking the Clouds (ed. Grace L. Dillon), as prep for my Loft reading class.  I have not been able to read a full novel since Trump was elected, I swear, so this will be a nice way for me to dip back into it. Apparently, the anthology is all novel excerpts.  In the meantime, I'll be catching up on some short stories by other BIPOC SF/F authors that we put on the to-read lists. 

At the same time as I ordered the anthology, I impulse bought copy of The Star Trek Adventures: Science Division RPG handbook. It was a bit pricey, but I'm hoping it will be worth it. I'm not gaming with my group again until early August so I have time to read it and see if, for once, I can actually contribute more than just drama. As it happens, things were SO DRAMATIC with my last character that I have rolled a new one for this next campaign... because no one I was playing (including, briefly, an NPC) is left on the ship. :-)

Did I mention that Mason got into PSEO at the U for next year? (PSEO = Post-Secondary Education Opportunities.) We are excited, even with COVID concerns, because he has chosen to go full time.  I think this will be good for the budding case of senioritis he already had brewing his junior year. He won't be required to do anything with Washington Tech that he doesn't want to (though I suspect robotics will still be on the list of "want to"), which could potentially be very nice for his schedule... depending on what he can get into.  He's still registered at St. Paul College, however, so that takes some of the pressure off. What he can't get into at the U, he could potentially pick up there.

But who knows what school will even look like in September?

I am concerned about my country right now. We are not handling "The Covids' very well. 

How's by you?

Supposedly, 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. ( No real CW, except that I suspect some people just Do NOT Want any more COVID realted news... ).

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 is time to hone the old apocalypse skills so that I'll have something to trade when the economy collapses.


Image: sewing project laid out on dining room table: colorful velvet strips badly sewn into strips.


To that end, I decided to try my hand at some simple sewing. I should preface this by saying, I don't sew. I have never sewn. I normally would never have pegged myself as a person who would enjoy sewing. HOWEVER, the real story of how this all happened is that when I was visiting Terry Garey regularly I happened to time my visit to the Ladies Sewing Circle and I thought, "Huh, if this happens again, I'd really like to have something to do with them, since it looks so neat, everyone busily doing their crafting."  So, I asked Shawn if we had some DEAD SIMPLE project lying around that needed doing. Some time before Mason was born we started collecting and cutting squares of velvet for a crazy quilt. They had been collecting dust in a plastic bin in the sewing room upstairs, so I said, "Okay sure, so long as no one cares if the seams are straight." Shawn said, "Just make them strong." I thought, okay, why not?

So, I just started pinning and sewing.  Now I have nearly enough strips that I can cover a large portion of the bed:


Image: Quilt squares (some of them sewn together, others just laid out) mostly covering the bed. Cats acknowledging this project as a blanket by instantly lying on it. Void cat blending with black velvet bits.


This weekend was just so lovely that I will confess to having spent much of it on the porch sewing with my wife. Shawn is working on a far more complicated quilt, a style I think she called "grandma's garden" and hexagon shapes, paper backing, and basting?? I don't know. It's above my quilting pay grade.

Shawn is already talking to me about the next crazy quilt project I can tackle once I finish this. I do like the randomness of this project? I have always enjoyed watching colors come together, so there is something really satisfying about seeing which strips go together. I have already made some mistakes. There are dark patches sewn next to dark ones and light ones together (I'd been hoping to be more checker board-like), but this is my learning quilt and so I accept all mistakes as part of the process. The seams are already crooked, so who the hell cares? That's the crazy part of crazy quilt, I've decided.

But, it should keep me occupied while we are all shut in during the coronavirus pandemic. 

For those curious, there are already two reported cases here in Minnesota. We had previously already had two University of Minnesota students in quarantine, but now we have two official cases. One in Ramsey County (my county) and the other in Carver County (the county just south east, I think, of us.) It is what it is.  My wife has been a light prepper for a long time, being part of the Liberal Prepper's Facebook group, so we are prepared to shelter in place for a couple of weeks. 

We are washing our hands and being sensible. What else can you do?