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Impossible To Open

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This is what it looked like at the end. It seemed fairly simple.  There were perforated lines to guide the scissors. Fold and pull.... I can do that. Or, perhaps not. I'm not that strong; the corner came off quite easily. Unfortunately, the gel cap was still stuck. The scissors made a careful slice around the raised plastic bubble. Not just to the edge, but all the way around. And then I had to separate the backing from the bump, which I discovered required the use of the scissors. Those edges were sharp.  I tried to use my fingers to separate the layers.    Pause for a bandaid. The initial dose is two caplets.  I examined the situation more closely and realized that I was supposed to pull the piece I'd folded.  In doing so, it revealed that it was attached to the paper covering the gel cap and was perfectly capable of revealing the damn thing if I'd only follow directions. This is what it looked like from the other side. There's no way I could have anticip...
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Labor Day

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One of my favorite holiday posts, recycled year after year.  Enjoy yourselves... even if just for a moment.   My Zaydeh was a paperhanger. So was his son, my Uncle Paul. They belonged to the Paperhanger's Union. When he retired, my Zaydeh got a lapel pin and a photograph of himself and the also-retiring Union Rep. The Union Rep got a pension and health insurance. No one knows if he got a copy of the photograph, too. It was that kind of complicated relationship to Labor, with a capital L, that dominated my growing up years. Daddooooo's father owned a business. G'ma's father was a worker. That dynamic influenced their relationship in the same way that her parents' accented speech and his parents' religious devotion were there, bruising the edges of what must once have been love but wasn't anymore. I sat on my Zaydeh's shoulders as he bounced me around the living room, singing Zum Gali Gali , a Zionist work song with one line, repeated over and over: the pi...
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Back In The Garden

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With temperatures in the 90's and no rain in the forecast, it was tine to reopen the garden..  A substitute teacher decided that it was her job to prune the mandarin orange tree.  This little one is deep watering the remains. The big shovel and the trowels were handy for digging, and the wheelbarrow was primed for traveling.....  once they found the wheels. Without much instruction, they set to work weeding and turning over the beds. We have serious weeds and roots. The garden scholars reminded me, once again, that it's impossible to be sad when surrounded by little ones.  They are the best therapy on the planet.
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A Short Political Smile

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It's been a marvelous monsoon this year.  Days of rain, nights of lightning and thunder and more rain, drizzles on the occasional afternoon - it's a monsoon to revel in. It also makes taking photos from the car somewhat challenging.  But, stopped at a long traffic light at a busy intersection, I found something worth memorializing.   I have been wondering how to counter the giant Ciscomani signs polluting our streets. Someone had a great idea.  These are now appearing all over town.  Subtle.  Snarky.  Eye catching.  It makes me very happy.    
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Tree Trimmers

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The mistletoe was killing the trees.  Pooped out by birds as they nest or roost on limbs and twigs, the hemi-parasite (kinda sorta a parasite, sucking nutrients from the host, living on top instead of setting its own roots in the ground) infested much of the canopy of most of my trees. It's too high up for me.  I don't go up on ladders any more, nor do I climb up into the tree itself. It's too sticky and difficult to remove for me.  There's white goo oozing from every cut.  Tools must be cleaned between excisions to prevent the parasite from traveling.  It causes a rash when your fingers brush up against it. It's been triple digits outside for weeks.  The mistletoe has flourished while I wilted and raced indoors. So, I began the search for reputable tree trimmers.  Yelp, friends, Google... they were all recruited in my search.  No human I knew could recommend anyone;  They showed up on time  was the highest compliment I heard.  Seve...
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Too Much Fun

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We laughed and ate and swam and had a wonderful time during Big Cuter's Family Adventure in Tucson.  Everything was perfect, except for one thing.  We failed, miserably, when we tried to find something to put on the television. It was August, so there were no real sports to be watched or rewatched or dissected ad nauseum.  West Wing doesn't speak to Queen T the way it does to the rest of us.  Big Cuter is not a fan of rom coms.  The classic movies were either boring or ones we could recite by heart.  I wanted something with more action than plot.  Big Cuter suggested Deadpool and Wolverine , and since I'll never give up a chance to look at Hugh Jackman, I was all for it.  If you haven't seen it (and why would you, unless you're totally enmeshed with the Marvel Universe), think self-parodying, brightly colored, cartoon villains who cannot die.   Heads are sliced off, guts are punctured by all manner of sharp objects, arms and legs go flyi...
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Mayor Pete for Speaker

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Miles Taylor was on the inside of the first FFOTUS administration.  Now, as director of Defiance.org, he decidedly on the outside.   Last week he posted on Substack that the Democrats should nominate Pete Buttigieg.  The boldface intro says it all Nothing in the Constitution requires the Speaker of the House to be an elected member of Congress. If Democrats take back control, they should bring a bulldog into the job He goes on to list all the ways that Mayor Pete (I think he'll always be Mayor Pete to me) is perfect for the job.  He speaks to Republicans and Democrats and Independents and those who are somewhere else on the spectrum.  He's been doing it for years, and he doing it in complete sentences. He could delegate most of the day to day running of the job to the Minority Whip, spending his energies on overseeing the many prosecutions and hearings and investigations that are certain to come if the Democrats win the House. They  say that last we...
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