The Burrow

Record-high temperatures in Arizona, combined with a lack of seasonal monsoons, have caused saguaro cactuses at the Desert Botanical Garden to become “highly stressed,” according to Chief Science Officer Kimberlie McCue. (Jul 27, 2023) It's happening all over town.  A big saguaro fell over last weekend on the property across the street.  I saw it every time I drove away.  I miss it. Our yard boasted a big saguaro, too.  It flourished under the palo verde, which, acting as its nurse tree, shaded it from the harsh sun  until it outgrew the coverage and poked its head right out of the top of the tree. It survived summers and winters and vibrant springs, hosting birds nests on its branches and hollows in its trunk.  There was a bee hive for a while, and some wasps made it part of their living situation until I banished them. It lived through torrential rains and whirling winds that toppled less sturdy flora. This morning brought a different scene.  I backe...

AppleTV+ is an app I can access on my Smart TV.   I know how to access the APPS icon.  After that, finding what I want is pretty simple point and click, although my choices could be a bit more visually impressive.  Am I where I want to be? is heard, not infrequently, by each of us. But I digress.  My failure to intuit the many options for watching what is offered on so very many platforms is neither interesting nor curable.  TBG is still recovering from losing his ancient cable box and all its treasures.  It would be cruel to inject another change so quickly.  I came to understand (I don't remember how) that AppleTV+ was offering a 7 day free trial, after which I'd be charged $6.99 each month.  I could cancel by clicking here .  Since we still had a Season and a half of For All Mankind to watch, free access was a no-brainer. We binged three or four episodes at a time over a day or so.  We still had so many free days left; the notio...

Scarlett got really sick really fast.  It took her a long time to die.  We texted every morning and I visited when she wanted me.  When she was too ill for company, I left gifts on her front porch.  And then she was gone.  The hole in my heart still aches.  My days are emptier without her around; mahjong in her living room consumed two or three afternoons each week. A few weeks after she finally left this earth, the mail carrier brought me a box from her sister.  Inside were two pretty little packages and a note.  TBG wondered if I wanted to open it right away, or did I want to wait until morning.  It's easier to reopen a wound when the sun is shining, he reasoned, and I agreed.... for a while. I couldn't resist reading her note, and I was so glad that I did.  She wrote a sweet piece about my friendship with Scarlet, and she hoped I would enjoy both the little something Scarlet wanted me to have but was too tired to write about it hersel...

The flora is in desperate need of a sustained rainfall, a monsoon storm raging all night long, with actual liquid water accompanying the light show and the noise.  The branches are drooping to the ground.  The leaves are as tight as they can be, offering the smallest surface to the elements.   There's a lizard watching from the path in the courtyard.  He's trying to blend in so that the birds flitting from tree to tree don't notice him.  He took a dash to the stony ground cover during an intermission in their air show, hung out for a minute or two, then dashed back across the path and under the rosemary hedge.   The ground squirrels are scurrying and here come the birds again.  .......  And there I fell down a rabbit hole trying to figure out what kind of birds they might be. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds Western Addition was there on the shelf behind me, and now, several delightful minutes later I still don't k...

I felt no urge to watch helicopter footage of  OJ's Bronco and I have no great urge to watch the drone version of it playing on MSNBC right now.  Nicolle Wallace scolded her producer when the split screen showed Trump's motorcade on the way from Bedminster to the airport.... another reason I like her.   A couple of hours later, rather than gawking, watching the lying liar emerge from his eponymous airplane feels like witnessing history.  I muted the talking heads, watching his motorcade take the exit to the Fulton County Jail.   It's a short trip, and I'm hooked on the visuals.   The route takes him through a residential neighborhood.  The cross streets are blocked by official vehicles. There's not an American flag nor a MAGA sign on any of the front lawns to cheer him up.    What there is, at the very end, is pretty grim.  The low buildings on the left are for processing.  The tall towers, whose windows look out only...

Tiny seats.  Half empty plane.  Delightful flight attendants.  Easy in and out.  Still,  I'm exhausted.  I'm not watching the Republicans tonight,  though I might follow the Crooked Media chat-along for some snark.  Instead,  TBG and I will continue watching Apple TV's  For All Mankind . We started out watching with the Cali Kids. We'll finish it alone.... and try not to miss them too much.  It's good to be home. 

There isn't a moment of downtime.  I'd forgotten the all consuming nature of infant care.  So,  it seems,  have our policy makers.  Big Cuter waxed eloquent on the subject last night at the dinner table.   As he laid it out,  for a short period of time,  the financial crunch of acceptable child care puts an extra burden on all ready overwhelmed new parents.  You can't take the baby to work.  You can't leave the baby alone.  At the most critical,  stressful,  hormonal time in a young family's life,  a crushing financial burden is added.   "I don't know how single parents do it." I do know that there's a reason you don't become a parent in your 70's.  It's exhausting.   As the parent of an infant you need the ability to stay awake and be reasonably functional at odd hours.  Sleep is a fond memory. Your back reminds you that sitting on the floor while amusing an adorable blob of protopl...

The parents were driving another house guest to the airport.  The grandparents were staying home to watch the baby as she slept. We wondered how,  without a visual baby monitor,  we'd know when to tend to her if she got fussy.  "Don't worry about it.  We'll watch her on the app on our phone and call you if she needs you. " How very 21st century. 

Queen T and I shopped for 4 hours yesterday. She now has bedding for 6, to accommodate the guests coming tomorrow.  She now has flowers and new pots for transplanting old plants. There is new art for the walls. And we both have fancy new water bottles,  just because.  The car was full.  So were our hearts.  Now we have to unwrap and plant and put away.  Shopping was more fun. 

I have to agree with my aging body - early morning flights may be less expensive but the toll they take may not be worth the savings.  We flew a tiny United airplane from Tucson to San Francisco that left Arizona at 6:45am. Being squished and tired while digesting an all too sweet glazed donut did not make for a pleasant morning.  The fact that my air vent could not be turned off nor aimed away from my face meant that napping was impossible - my hair kept blowing onto my eyelids.  We walked forever from our gate to Big Cuter's car, trying to shake off the cramps and claustrophobia.  Smelling the California air and seeing our boy helped a lot.  Driving through the city,  which hasn't changed very much since we left in 2006, was a trip down memory lane.  The traffic sucks.  The free concerts in Stern Grove are stellar (Patty Smith, Lyle Lovett, Buddy Guy).  The fog blocked our view of the ocean,  but Alcatraz was shining in the middle of t...

I sent a personal, heartfelt, request that my elected Representative actually represent our District and vote my way on whatever gun safety bill was inching its way through the House last month.  I used the generic form on his website, stated my position with vehemence and personal detail, and checked the box requesting a response.   Let's go over it together, shall we?  My ravings are, appropriately, italicized and in red. August 15, 2023 Dear Ms. H: If you're going to be persnickety and know to use :   for a business letter, then you also should know that grammar purists will insist that, since its inception, there hasn't been a  . after Ms. Thank you for contacting my office, it is an honor to represent you in Congress. You need a ; not a , here.  I am grateful you took the time to share your message expressing your concern over  gun violence .   Safety, not violence, Congressman.  It's a different mindset, seeing responsibility ...

There were 10 of them.  The prosecutors asked for 10 and not one of those asks was rejected.  Of course, none of the commentators can agree on what an indictment might be.  When the first indictment out of the Grand Jury was made available to the talking heads, no one was sure that the other 9 indictments were at all related to the attempts to steal the election: They might be just regular cases the Grand Jury normally sees. ***** Because Georgia law requires an extraordinary amount of transparency, the world could watch the County Clerk, in all her orange splendor and surrounded by guards, walk a stack of papers down the hall and through the door into the courtroom where she presented them to Judge McBurney.  We saw him look them over.  We saw the Clerk assure him that they had been and would still remain in her custody, and then the camera followed her back down the hall, through a closed door, and that was that. It took less than tem minutes. ***** The only p...

We caravanned up to Tempe on Friday, Amster and I in my UV followed by Messers 20 and 18 in the youngest one's vehicle, a third hand Infiniti that has carted both his mother and brother around town.  We were taking our baby to college. Amster asked me to drive so that she could cry.  I was flattered to be included but she scoffed, reminding me that we were all in this raising the kids thing together.  She's created a family of neighbors and friends to replace the fractured one created when Husband #1 was banished from the scene.  Her boys have a collection of men of all ages, talents, abilities, and strengths on whom they can rely.  There are moms all over town who will feed them without question, just as their kids know that Amster's kitchen (and extra bedroom) are always available. But I'm the only faux grandma in the bunch and I relish the title.  I put it to good use on Friday. The line of students waiting to register at his apartment complex was easy t...

There was a lot of planting going on in Grandma's Garden this week.  I brought some of the dried out yucca stalks and coneflowers ( Echinacea) - two plants that, with very little effort, deliver very satisfying seeds. We took our time, following the life cycle from the soft petals to the dry petals to the dried pods which fell open along their seams and revealed neatly stacked seeds beneath a webbing that reminded us of an orange.   There were enough of them to be distributed freely, from the new ones to the old hands. I've decided to take a free form approach to the raised beds. The scholars like to dig and plant. I am going to encourage it.  But these two wanted more information. How deep should we plant them? Rather than look up the answer on my phone, I suggested an experiment. Two planters, one filled to the top with soil and the seeds sprinkled lightly with soil, the other's seeds planted in a row deep beneath the soil. The garden scientists will keep them...

Do you read the fine print?  Do you read any of the boilerplate print?  It should come as no surprise that I do. I can feel TBG and Daddooooo leaning over my shoulder whenever I'm presented with a document to sign.  I have no inclination to turn directly to the signature lines.  I read.  I make sure I know what I am signing.  It drives some salespeople to distraction.  I always apologize for being so diligent, but I never stop reading. I haven't bought anything requiring fine print in a very long time.  Instead, I have been reading the words at the bottom of television commercials.  Not just the Do not attempt this at home  caveats.  I'm talking about the paragraphs below the MSRP numbers flashing below that shiny new sporty thing they think I want to have.   I read the words that tell me that the pictures I'm seeing are available on European models only.  I discover that the actual price of that very tempting car is ...

It's been more than 50 days since the high temperature was less than 100 degrees. It's been at least that long since I or anyone I know has spent any time outside once the sun has created the horizon.  It's Tucson.  We have lots of sun and lots of horizon.  We are used to an outdoor lifestyle.  Everyone is just a little edgy. This afternoon's brilliant sky above our house belied the dark clouds coming from the south.   It was 95 degrees at four in the afternoon. The breeze was bringing me some of that lovely cloud moisture. I took my new secaturs and went outside.  It's amazing what a little pruning can do.  Everything looks happier and healthier with just a little tlc. I do,  too. It's nice to be able to breathe some fresh air without frying.  But then the thunder came. I must have missed the lightning, but the heavenly rumbles reminded me that standing alone outside while the clouds argued with one another was possibly a dangerous cour...

How is it possible for someone to believe that a person who is under indictment up and down the East coast should be the President of these United States? I get the cognitive dissonance argument.  But 7 indictments?  I just don't get it.

It starts with a series of books written by Michael Connelly .  The series winds in and out of a dozen or so characters' lives, over 30 some books.  One of the major plot lines involves Mickey Haller, a hot shot LA lawyer who's the son of a hot shot lawyer.  He does a lot of his work in a Lincoln Continental, hence the show's title. That's where the books and the Netflix series part ways.  I don't remember the plot of Matthew McConaughey's Lincoln Lawyer , but I recall it as more of a plot with a gimmick (the car) than a faithful representation of one of my favorite characters from one of my favorite authors. But TBG and I are in sports deprivation mode, now that even the Tour de France and the women's soccer (which I never got to write about) are over.  There is nothing worth watching on the networks, and there's only so much MSNBC blather I can handle.  I took the lists of What to Watch This Summer  I've been collecting and we dove in. It's kep...

When they started using the sketch from the courtroom artist to analyze Jack Smith's intent,  I had to flee the scene.  I'm losing my mind over the free air time the Republican frontrunner is getting.... once again.... while I rail against the moon.... because they obviously have not learned a thing since the last time. (Look at me using they ... and assuming you knew who I meant.... quite Trumpian, no?) Anyway. I get that it's important.  But hours of his motorcade(s) and his fancy plane sitting on the tarmac; then turning.... slowly; then flying off into the clouds, left me both nauseated and impressed.  I was sharing space with my sweetie, who readily admits his obsession with the whole thing.  I did crossword puzzles, worked on getting from Amazing to Genius status in Spelling Bee , as he followed, watched, and cogitated. I don't need to make a tv star (once again) of a person who has been indicted for trying to steal my vote.  Rusty Bowers stood betwee...

Are you are tired of the people you listen to preaching to the choir?   I offer a brief respite. Once again, Vera, my Albertson's connection, filled the back of my car with goodies.    Three carts full, to be precise.   For three hours, I drove the UV up one street and down another, touching all 15 elementary and middle schools in our district, leaving boxes and boxes of sweet treats in my wake. I call it BACK TO SCHOOL LOVE FEaST. I get to spread kindness and a little CTG love.  I get smiles and thank you's. It's my favorite day of the school year.

You don't get indicted for lying. You get indicted for conspiring to deny Americans their right to vote, to have those votes count, and for those votes to be counted.   Just like the Mar-a-Lago document, the indictment reads like a legal thriller.  MSNBC suggested assigning it to your book club.  TBG and I are reading the pdf I printed out together.  There is a lot of headshaking on our couch as we turn the pages.   It's damning.  It's terrifying.  It's absolutely inconceivable to me how anyone could think this man is qualified, capable, or deserving of serving as President of the United States, yet the news this morning was how close the 2024 race will be. We shall see.   It is not an "UnAmerican attack" as the lying liar claims.  It's democracy.  It's the justice system at work. And try as he might, the lying liar does not seem capable of destroying it.

The political scene is lunacy right now.  Most of the population disagrees with most of what the Supreme Court and the Republican Party is trying to do, yet they keep doing it.  There have been so many censures and impeachments and obscenities that I've given up trying to keep track.   The Democrats have watched and waited and counted on me to be outraged, without making a big push to urge me on.  They haven't learned any lessons from MAGAworld - emotional appeals work.  The reproductive rights fight tapped into that in a big way without any prompting.   But polls don't show much distance between the lying liar and President Biden, and Joe's not getting any younger (his biggest flaw in the polls).  I'm counting on the Active Shooter Drill generation's votes to push gun safety legislation and legislators all on their own, perhaps pulling their families along with them.   But moving indolent voters toward the decisions I want them to ...