sunny with pancakes

October 30 , 2022

That winterberry sprig by the lake is interesting even in autumn. This lazy Sunday morning is welcome after yesterday's Halloween and book sale thing at the library. The kid is named Poppy and she made that mask in the activity. Kids are crazy about making shit. I didn't know that before the library.

Increasingly I get my news from substack author emails: Heather Cox Richardson, Joyce Vance, Stephen Bechloss, Timothy Snyder, Nadia Bolz-Weber and a new one today Greg Olear. Great humor and humanity. Andrew Sullivan occasionally hits the mark, but mostly he is slipping into crusty conservatism and veiled misogyny. As for other social media, as I explained to 10 year old Eli, Facebook is for friends stuff, Instagram is for pretty pictures, and Twitter is political.

Speaking of Eli, he brought in a 2009 HP Pavillion in perfect condition (Jo Kenny gave it to him) that had a solid molded white plastic body that reminded me of a storm trooper. He said what's a storm trooper, never having seen a Star Wars movie. I showed him a picture of one; he was not impressed. Some home schoolers are shielded from the dominant culture. And yet I think Eli will become a famous game developer. His design for a game he would like to create shows that maybe imagination and humor are more important than exposure to general culture. On the other hand, he spends a lot of time in MineCraft.

I know the Library Commission is meeting in October, but I can't find the date. On November 1st I'll call our regional coordinator and see if UPL was approved for membership at the meeting. It will be a major pinocchio moment. We are thinking of putting a shed at the back of the library lot for storage and for hanging a car charger on. The pedestal installation seems to baffle the installers. So many community development ideas floating around. Create a non-profit for the UCPA and use the 3 bedrooms to pay the expenses. Partner with Freedom and Knox to put community solar on a three acre lot that Freedom owns. Make a coffee shop in the food hub building. Get UBR to run a thrift store.

 

 

 

quebec city

October 23 , 2022

After three days in Quebec City with Colleen and David, we feel that we know the place better. Much walking and too much eating. I'm surprised that I like seeing the inside of churches so much. I can bask in childhood dreams and admire the architecture impartially feeling fully vaccinated. Breakfast twice at L'Omlette, the yellow awnings place where they serve the au lait in bowls. La Buche was a fun surprise with raucous Acadian music playing, excellent food, and efficiently run by, I'm guessing, gay men.Our 4th floor rooms at Manoir Sur Le Cap on St. Genevieve Street were perfect for hopping on the Funiculaire or having nightcaps at the Frontenac bar or walking the steps to the Plains of Abraham.

Tech update: my first Lenovo laptop, and EVO 12th generation i7 Yoga 14 inch. Speedy, but it's taking me forever to get my tools set up on it. I tried out a couple of free html editors (Atom,BlueFish) but am currently using Visual Studio. The upgrade was all about speed and WiFi6.

With weeks to the election, it's too scary to really pay attention. Democracy vs the price of gas. Fear of changing demographics. Crazy religion. White nationalism. Tipping points. We have rearranged the glass porch, had the stove lit, put two comfortable reading chairs looking out at the lake and spend more time reading rather than watching the screen. Reading Mad Honey and learning all about honeybees and transgender issues.

im

the fall

October 2 , 2022

We recently visited the library in Monroe and Andrea, the director, loaned me a copy of Alison Bechdel's Fun Home. It's the second graphic novel I've read this year, the first being Maus. Both tell the story of the author's father, and the humor or maybe the cartoon technique makes the disturbing part bearable. Becdel's blending of her family's story with the readings of Proust and Joyce is brilliant. It reminded me of another autobiography, Why Fish Don't Exist, in which Lulu Miller combines the life story of biologist David Starr Jordan with her own life story. The big picture books I've read recently (Piketty, MacAskill) are ultimately hopeful about the future of humans, they trace undeniable progress toward a better quality of life for all. The book I'm reading now, Sarah Kendzior's They Knew: How a Culture of Conspiracy Keeps America Complacent, looks at our specific time in the U.S. and is the opposite of hopeful. It's quite dark and her writing packs a punch. Here's a taste:

We have a class of megamillionaires who no longer need this country to exist. Should it collapse, they can carry on with their lives as before, with wealth that they can pass down to their offspring, and possibly with digital currency that exists beyond the dollar. They do not need to worry about civil rights, public schools, voting rights, or health care. They do need to worry about climate change, but the goal is to insulate themselves from its most deadly effects. They are not worried about the United States of America, for they are citizens of the world—citizens of a world that is ending, and they welcome death’s embrace.