The Burrow

Why did you decide to become a pitcher?  I asked the birthday girl, a State Champion All Star softball player, a day or two before her Big Day.   Well, it looked like fun.   (insert big smiles on both sides) And, it's complicated.   And I like complicated.  So that's why. The kid's mind is so interesting.   She's got the story of her birth down pat, from her Mama and Gramma planting flowers the day before; to the early back pains; to her first action out of the womb - grabbing her mother's thumb.   We three shared telling the story, they correcting my so-obvious-to-them errors, all of us smiling and laughing.  She ended with this: And then I was born.  And now I'm playing softball.  The passage of time made clear to all of us.   It was a moment.  We paused to appreciate that..... then they arrived at the 7-11 for their Slurpees. They spent 8 hours at the beach on the actual anniversary of her birth...

I did nothing but go from air conditioned space to air conditioned space, and I was exhausted.   I stopped at the car wash, got out to use the vacuum, and managed to finish the driver's floor mat before I succumbed to the heat.   I spent 15 minutes at the nursery , pricing plants and soil for the  Grandma's Garden grant .  I took one turn around the outdoor space; I felt as desiccated as the seedlings I passed.  The plants agreed with me - it was just too hot to be out in the sun. Now, we're used to heat.  We're used to prolonged periods of heat. We are used to triple digit temperatures.  We're just not used to all of that without a drop of rain.  It's almost August and we've had one decent storm.   Last night the ticker below the soccer game (I'll get there eventually, I promise) warned us about the  Severe TStorm moving at 15mph right in our direction.  We heard the clouds before they began darkening our world....

Oppenheimer  is the best movie I've seen in decades.   It's everything a movie can and should be.  Each part of the process - cast, script, cinematography, sound - is wonderful.  There are no flaws.  Though some complained that 3 hours is too long, neither TBG nor Not-Kathy nor Dr K nor I felt the need to get up and stretch our legs. It is riveting.  It's surprising.  It's startling and deep and nuanced. And don't worry, you won't spend half the film agonizing over Oppenheimer's downfall.  The time-shifting story solves that problem.  It also allows you to dig into the why 's . And those why 's will stick with you after you've left the theater. NB: See it in IMAX or 70mm with surround sound.  It was shot in IMAX.  It's a big film, a movie that couldn't be a play.  You deserve to see it at its best. ***** The NYTimes ran a story about the Folly Tree Arboretum , a "natural museum" curated by an arborist architect ,  Tuc...

The morning temperature was in the 90's.  It felt cool.   I drove to Pilates on empty roads.  School starts next week (?!?!); my guess is that families are sneaking in one last vacation trip. The parking lot was empty, too.  All the prime spaces - close to the door and under the trees - were available. Pilates practice was perfectly tailored to my needs.  By hip joints were swimming in synovial fluid by the end.  Motion is lotion, one of my physical therapist's bon mots, is as true as it is lovely to say.  I sashayed down the stairs with a friend, pausing to mail a postcard to Giblet, and got into my delightfully shaded car. Little Cuter says that Giblet squeals every time he gets mail.  I spent the drive home imagining his joy.   The cleaning ladies were busily at work as I said Hello I'm taking a nap and headed straight to the bed.  A brief phone call and a quick Amazon order later, I was asleep.  Not nap asleep.  C...

I'm still going to write about Oppenheimer and the soccer.  But Sister's morning text sent me reeling. so much for having some place to run to when the anti-semites come for us again. (sic) It's possible to be Jewish (or Jew-ish) and in favor of Israel's continuing existence while being revolted by the current political situation.  Gaza and the West Bank and the settlements are morally indefensible.  Greater Israel is literally indefensible.   Israel does not have a written Constitution.  It has a ruling coalition formed from the gazillion parties on every millimeter of the spectrum which make up the Knesset.  To call them far-right is barely extreme enough.  They are led by an indicted autocrat with a big mouth and a bigger ego.  And now their Supreme Court has been disemboweled. The people have taken to the streets.   The pilots are refusing to show up for Reserve Duty. The notion that there is a haven from anti-Semitism, a place that ...

There is so much to write about - Oppenheimer and USA Women's Soccer and grandkids' accomplishments (from holding a rattle to riding without training wheels).  But I have to finish what I started back in June .  After 4 attempts to get the replacement Comcast box delivered to my home, I went to the store itself, brought it home, and couldn't do a thing with it.  The tech was to come on Sunday morning, between 8-10.  He was here the whole time. He rang the doorbell at 8:01, a tall, laconic, middle aged gentleman with an inscrutable demeanor.  Neither TBG nor I could get 2 words out of him.  He looked at the tv.  He looked at the boxes.  He asked for a step stool to reach the control panel high up in the corner of a closet.  He wandered around the outside of the property; I saw him following the fiber optic line around to the open space behind our house.  He was gone for a long time. He spent a great deal of time on his phone, comparing re...

I once had a grant for Grandma's Garden from the Department of Agriculture, through COoperative Extension here in Tucson.  I'm now filling out an application for another grant, just as wonderful as the first one. I can look on Amazon and copy and paste exactly what I want into the form.  Everything I buy has to be in service of nutrition.  Luckily,  I've trained the scholar gardeners well.  They now routinely ask if I'll cut them some salad.  It will be a pleasure to buy starts of all kinds of lettuce, of Romanesco broccoli, of scallions, and of stevia, which the kids like most of all. What makes me happiest about all of this, after I get over thinking about the fun we're going to have in the garden with our new tools and soil and plants, is that I'm getting tangible returns from my tax dollars.  I share the roads and the common defense with every other American, but these supplies are just for us.   I'd be spending my own dollars, or donor d...