The Burrow

I was out all day today.  I ran errands up and down Oracle Road, aka State Route 77.  I started at 10ish and I got home at 6.  I was out and about during lunch time and after work and get-me-home-in-time-for-dinner drive times.  I need to spew the venom which has been building up all day.  Thanks for listening: The same fools were on the roads all day.  Not a one of them paid any attention to the unwritten Rules of the Road, the ones that the DMV doesn't publish but that anyone who has ever driven a car in a responsible manner understands.  Let me list a few: The left lane is not for sight-seeing. Turn signals are useful devices, installed in your car because I cannot read you mind. The speed limit is not a suggestion.  Zooming from the right lane to the left lane with your bass turned up does draw attention to you, but not in a good way. Leaving 20 car lengths between you and the car in front of you is unnecessary.   If you li...

The podium was in the sunshine.  The rest of us had our choice.  I love living in the desert; large group meetings held outdoors, where the comings and goings take place over grass beneath the bright blue sky.  The temps were in the 60's when we started, and hit the low 70's when I left.  Spring in the desert makes lobbying feel like a vacation. ***** Rep. Daniel Hernandez, sporting bright orange socks, exhorted us to  contact everyone .  He received 300 emails in one day from the other side.  It's important to continue to make our voices heard. ***** Sen. Steve Farley represents my District.  He's also running for Governor.   He told us that the gun lobby is scaring people . Once again, making our voices heard was the theme. ***** Sen. Kate Brophy McGee thinks that the legislature may be close to passing gun safety legislation.  The Democrats hate parts of it.   The Republicans hate parts of it. ...

I joined Moms Demand Action in the Rose Garden outside the State Capitol in Phoenix today. I parked without knowing exactly where they'd be gathering, and I walked through the lot and around the building before I found them. There were enough chairs and benches and tables for everyone, some in the shade and some in the sun, but I wandered around, crossing the grass, greeting old friends and making new ones. I stepped over and around the boxes under the tent.  I walked back and forth in the State Museum Building looking for the cafeteria (it closed 6 months ago).  I stood for the group photo and moved with enthusiasm for the boomerang (which is something on social media I didn't quite understand). I walked to offices and meetings.  Hours passed. And then, I had a moment. My hip was not in the way. I stood in the sunshine.  I walked on the grass.  I wandered.  I congregated.  I gyrated. I'm still not perfect, but today came pretty close.

Little Cuter was  so proud of (her) little blue county in a big red state coming together for the sake of common sense. She and SIR and FlapJilly took Giblet to his first march on Saturday evening, and though the weather was frigid, their hearts were warm. FlapJilly asked to wear her Wonder Woman costume and we said HELL YES because what we need is peace, love, and harmony ,   so peeking from beneath her winter jacket and and hat-with-ear-flaps-in-MARCH-for-crying-out-loud, is a 3 year old's expression of the power of children. As my daughter went on,   it’s the kids - from 3 to 18 - showing us how it’s done .   And show them they did.   The piece Little Cuter wanted me to share with you is this Spoken Word by Ben Fecher, a high school senior, called We The People.       It's kids like this that inspire me.  Yes, Everytown  and Gabby Giffords 's PAC provided introductions and financing and logistical support, but...

I love the notion of Sibling Marches. I was brave enough to go to ours. I was smart enough not to walk the 1.8 miles from downtown to the UofA Mall. with the 7,000 or so who did.   Instead, I went straight to the rally site, minimizing the distance between The Uv and my exit. It was a multi-age crowd; I was tasked with keeping the able bodied out of the chairs and spaces reserved for the disabled and those with wheelchairs and walkers. We watched the marchers join us on the Mall.  Children already scarred by gun violence  carried banners of the murdered and the inspiring  Two of my favorite politicians, Daniel Hernandez and Billy Kovacs, were there.  Billy facilitated the behind the scenes logistics, and was there, moving tables and attaching signs and doing what was needed when it was needed with a smile on his face and no name tag identifying him as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the US House of Represen...

I met Jean Baruch, founder of Beads of Courage , after I was shot. She's a friend of a friend, because that's the way it is here in our community. Those who make the world a better place move in the same, small, circles.  We're a friendly group, always looking for the intersections, the connections, the ways to maximize our reach.  Our stories arise from our personal experiences; Jean, a nurse, watched kids struggle with serious illnesses.  She wanted to honor them.  She wanted to commemorate their trials.  She wanted them to feel empowered, to feel like conquerors, like warriors, like people who had met the enemy and survived. This is a research based group, starting with the beads themselves.  The website features a page called  Why Beads , which gives an historical and anthropological backdrop.  The work has been peer reviewed and written about and presented at conferences.  It's not just arts and crafts, it's a proven balm for the so...

I'm sorry. Really, I am. I am truly sorry that people from Indiana to Maine will be snowed in at they read this on the third day of Spring.   It's just not right. I understand that you "like the four seasons" and think that you'd miss the snow. Really?  Look out your windows right now. Are you happy?  April is just around the corner.  Pink is in the forecast... if you, like FlapJilly, have a pink parka. My plants and I invite  you  to visit the desert Southwest. The temperatures are in the 70's and there's a gentle breeze moving the sweet smelling air around. This is Spring in The Desert.

Cooperative Extension at the University of Arizona held a festival for vendors of sustainable landscaping products and services.  There were booths and food trucks and lots of very smart people sharing information and trying not to judge. They knew how to plant things and how to maintain things and how to irrigate things.  They were giving away literature and advice and making appointments for home visits.  There were doers-of-good deeds, looking for clients and volunteers and donations.  There were tours of the Master Gardeners' Demonstration Gardens. And there was the Civano Nursery volunteer giving away free trees, courtesy of Tucson Electric Power.  Trees are good for the environment.  The more of them we plant, the cleaner our air will be.  Trees have branches which provide long term and short term habitat for birds and bees.  Their root systems help to stabilize and aerate the soil.... and our soil needs all the help it can get. And, p...

The seats in the middle were reserved for major donors.  The seats on the sides were available.  I took the first row, center aisle seat, and watched as Susannah, Billy Collins's wife, followed the escorts and her husband into the room. He went toward the stage.  She came toward me.  I stood up, saying her name, extending my hand, apologizing for remembering her when I was certain she didn't remember meeting me, 7 years ago, at the Arizona Inn...... "I do remember.... your name is Sue.... right?  You were wearing one beautiful boot...." and then we hugged.  We remembered a little bit more,, and then she hugged me again.  I took my seat again, reeling from the glow. Billy Collins took the stage for a reading, telling us that we experience poetry viscerally, we see it, hear it, feel it touch it... and I found myself caressing the pages of his poetry as I read along with him. He read The Lanyard, and I spent a misty moment or two missing G'ma....

(This is the last of the past.  Tomorrow I'll talk about 2018) ***** (A few weeks after getting shot.......) Driving from the northwest side down to the Arizona Inn was an instant replay for TBG of the countless trips he made over the 10 days I was hospitalized.  Down First and over to Campbell, trying to avoid the traffic on Ft. Lowell and failing, as it moved ever westward, inexorably challenging buses and passenger cars alike, he railed at the bumps in the road as he looked anxiously to his right, worried beyond measure about his sweetie and her aches and pains.   I tried to be brave, but the outside world is a scary place for me right now.  Unintended consequences do happen.... short Jewish girls  do  get shot.... the guy crossing the street could turn suddenly and ......  It was a struggle to stay focused on the big blue sky and the cold fresh air buffeting my fragile self.  Brother was in the back seat, on his way to the a...

That's the day I first met Billy Collins.  I'm reprising the posts from that luncheon to provide background for this year's connection .   ***** Lunch With Billy Collins (part 1) There are some perks to being perforated.  People reach out and touch you in warm and wonderful ways.  Gifts are delivered, thoughtful soft warm and cozy gifts which show real thought and planning.  And invitations are extended. A friend of Amster's is a member of the Tucson Literary Society.  While I was in the hospital she began reading The Burrow and noticed Billy Collins in the sidebar.  She sent me an email, wondering if I would like to join her at the TLS's luncheon where he would be the featured speaker. Did I want to go?  Oh, yes.  Oh, yes yes yes yes yes  (to paraphrase Molly Bloom).  Would I be able to go?  That was another matter entirely.  But suddenly I had a goal, an event, an occasion to strive toward.  I've been...

I worked on the garage yesterday.  It was not easy.  It was not fun.  It was necessary. The boxes were threatening to take over my parking space.  There were newspapers and scraps of paper and loose sheets of bubble wrap all over the floor.  I collected and sorted and organized and threw out and stacked up and swept. Then I sat down on one of the too-heavy-for-me-to-lift-alone boxes filled with books and looked to my right.  There, on top of an open box of memories, I found this: The next time you think-about-but-put-off-for-now-and-then-forget-to-write a letter to someone you love,  I hope you remember the joy I felt when I held my father's handwriting, 48 years after the fact, small rivulets of tears running down my cheeks, smiling at his ability to recognize his own failings, not wanting to be a bother, but sending me a note which is not a platitude. I framed it.  It's in the garage, on the shelf next to the refrigerator.  I'...

Elsa was there, at the entrance.   The little girls were mesmerized, squealing in that high pitch only achieved by 3 year olds in ecstasy when Elsa bent down to talk to them. I became a Friend of the Festival, making a donation to insure that I would have a seat to see and hear my favorite poet, ever. I was in the front row for Billy Collins's solo performance, and for his duet with Juan Felipe Herrera the next day. Billy Collins was the highlight for me, but there were many, many other wonderful events. Sitting, again in the front row, I watched Scott Turow lean his head first on his left hand and then on his right hand as he answered questions with fully formed paragraphs. Greg Iles shared the stage with him, and that's about all they share.  Different styles, different techniques, and very very different accents.   Robert Crais talked about his main character, Elvis Cole, as if he were in the room with us. I was in th...

Lurking outside the Author Registration Station, hoping to run into my freshman suite-mate's daughter, a novelist and presenter at the Tucson Festival of Books last Saturday, I chatted up Katy Tur. She'd walked into and out of the office and met my eye as I smiled and wondered if she was surprised to be unrecognized, guessing that it didn't happen very often. "Not so much anymore," and she smiled again and we talked about being in the right place at the right time for an opportunity to fall in your lap.  About showing up and saying yes.  About what a powerful lesson her experience taught the kids I know. And our minute was over.  She turned to walk away, paused, smiled, turned back and extended her hand. "Katy Tur." ) "Suzi Hileman." She smiled, made eye contact, shook firmly. I filed away her perfect introduction for later use. We went our separate ways. ***** Just another magical afternoon at the Tucson Festival of Books. Mor...

Scott Turow called Presumed Innocent  “a gynecological mystery” ****** What to do with an unwanted thought? According to Greg Iles, “we’ll have to leave that where Jesus flung it.” ***** Iles writes from the first person present viewpoint, rather than via omniscient narrator, “because I don’t know any gods personally.” ***** Dan Millman quoted Daniel Day Lewis’s father - “I write not to be understood but to understand.” ***** “Snood is a fun word to say.”  Watching Billy Collins shrug and say that from my front row seat was fun, too. ***** Juan Felipe Herrera, US Poet Laureate from 2015-2017, looked out on the full house and spread his arms wide. “I am so happy we are all together. This is the society we want......the ease.....” ***** And I’ll leave you with that smile for now.  More details tomorrow.

The Tucson Festival of Books opens for business on Saturday morning.  If I get there at 8:30 I can attend a "cocktail party style breakfast" with several of the presenting authors.  I'm bemused by the description, and tempted to go.  The advantage of going that early is that parking will be easier.  The closest garage is for authors and staff; the secret parking lots in the near environs fill up fast.  I've learned over the years to figure out where I'll be at the end of the day, and try to leave my car at that end of the mall.  There's nothing more likely to put a grump on my face and a limp in my step than facing the prospect of a mile or more trek back to The Uv. I'm mentally pre-packing my backpack, running through the parts of the day, remembering what I will need at lunch, in presentations, as I walk and sit and wait.  This is my 8th or 9th weekend with TFOB; I have lots of experience on which to draw. My moleskine notebook has but two empt...

Or do you call them string beans?  Louisiana State University  tells me that there is no difference between green beans and string beans and snap beans, and I choose to believe them. ***** Daddooooo's mother called them Lindy's .  Charles Lindbergh was a big deal when my dad was a child, and some pieces stuck to the family into the 1950's.  Oh, are you too young to make the connection?  Lindbergh was tall and skinny and a national hero.  Advertisers attached his name and face to everything. She boiled them.  Unless Lindy had really bad posture, Sthe ones she brought to her table bore very little resemblance to their namesake. ***** String beans are among the foods I can cook on a consistent basis.  For this, alone, I love them. I don't like any other kind of beans.  I prefer my chili without them.  I ask for more salad or rice instead of refried on the side.  FlapJilly chows down on black beans while I stare in wonder....

I received my Medicare billing update yesterday.  I've already met my annual deductible of $183, although I don't remember receiving any bills totally that amount.  I saw all my doctors in January and early February; since I got shot I've made a point of checking myself out at the start of each new year.  I saw the GP and the gynecologist and the dermatologist and the eye doctor.  I had a mammogram and argued about the necessity of doing a DEXA bone scan (I won and didn't do it.) I also had a colonoscopy.  That was the subject of the Medicare billing statement.  The anesthesia cost $3,657.01 (don't you love that penny at the end?)  The actual injection cost $100.  My stay in the recovery room cost $1,711.23.  There were no doctor bills associated with this claim; I wonder if he did the test for free. According to the billing statement, I owe nothing. But, reading further I found that Medicare paid nothing either, although the Medicare-A...

I had a little bit more energy today. I took two of the pictures I was too achy to take yesterday. If my hip allows, others may follow. ***** Here is the remains of the yucca I'd pruned the day before. Notice that there are very few brown stalks. I'm so very happy that I could offer the critters a crisp, new growth meal. The pot was G'ma's.   I could feel her laughing at me, planting the extra plant I brought home just in case.   I took the (mental) gentle abuse in stride.  I miss her snarky comments..... a lot.

It used to be that I could garden all day.  Bending wasn't an issue.  Crouching didn't hurt.  I could lift and carry and push and pull and rarely did I need to ask TBG for help.  Today was a different story.  Still, I was here to do it, and that's something. I didn't have any oomph for the gym, so I cut my workout short and drove to the nursery.  There were 3' pink snapdragons and dozens of roses and a very tempting Cara Cara Orange tree.  I stuck to the annuals and the roses and organic soil; that was enough to cart out of the trunk of The UV.  I'm learning to modify my purchasing to meet my physical limitations.  I notice that, and it makes me a little bit sad.  Still, I'm here to do it, and that's something.  While the rest of you may be dealing with frozen ground, this is the six week window of wonder for those of us here in the desert Southwest.  There's no danger of frost  The ground is cool enough not to burn ...

I've alluded to Sean Miller's situation over the past week, always with sadness.  Those of us who live here and follow our University's sports teams as if they were our own have a soft spot in our hearts for the basketball coach.  He's a family man, a coach descended from a coach, a point guard who trained point guards.  His over-active sweat glands were testimony to his passion.  He loved us and we loved him. Could he have been unaware of Book Richardson's folly?  That was as close as most of us allowed ourselves to get.  He couldn't possibly be guilty. And then YAHOO! and ESPN revealed that the FBI had a tape of Sean Miller, $100,000, and an unnamed player.  Suddenly, Sean was off the bench for the Oregon game.  I am certain that I will be vindicated  was all we got. Though he wasn't mentioned, the media assumed that De'Andre Ayton was the player in play; the fact that he was allowed to take the court had everyone musing.  ...

TBG requested this post.  He wanted me to share something happy, something nice, something that went well and was just the way you wanted it. He worries that I share too many of the woes of the world, as if that gives the impression that I am sad or aggravated or disturbed most of the time. I'm really not wallowing in the dark and unknowable places very much any more.  They are locked away in the jewel box in the back right corner of my skull.  It takes a lot of work to find the key. Most of my days are pleasant and routine, and Tuesday, my birthday, was the same. Pilates first thing in the early morning, with The Pilates Diva who convinced me to use the work as the focal point of my rehab.  She was right then and she's right now.  We admired my even hips and my ever strenghtening adductor and marveled at the fact that I could maintain a high kneeling position while challenging my stability on the reformer. I've made progress.  There's no doubt ab...