Quite the array of instruments at our second Trad Music Jam on Saturday. Hearing the sound waft through the library makes me deliriously happy.

Some happy things:

• -- Artemis2 Moon Joy: to hell with Musk and Bezos, this is the way we go to space. The precision of science, the diverse crew, the contrast in diversity to the 1974 control room.
• -- Orban loses re-election in Hungary, hopefully the first of several dominoes to fall; the opposition party gets a supermajority. This could be what November looks like here.
• -- Daffodils are pushing up stalks and the crocus are crocussing.
• -- The Pope is going all Chicago south side on the crazy guy who wants to blockade the blockcade of the strait. Bishops backing him up on 60 minutes. Go Leo.
• -- Almost a full house at the theater for a return of one third of Red Molly who played here in 2008. Excellent guitar playing of Eben Pariser. Kevin S. was there for his first time and I suspect he will make a difference in the folk music future of the theater. I haven't explained to him how that will happen yet. Leaving this marker for adding it to my initiatives list.
• -- The ease of getting to and around Boston on the bus and Uber. The compressed energy density of cities.
• -- gravel pad & shed (maybe) going in before trip.
• -- the sparkle of the lake now that ice is out.
• -- reconstituting my pre-2017 mixes as Spotify playlists and hearing Rodrigo e Gabriella play Stairway to Heaven.

Reading group today was relieved that no one's civilization got wiped out overnight as promised by the mad king, and we discussed two good books, both highly recommended. Both authors are great story tellers and they mixed in background from their lives with their attempts to correct false information about religion and American history. Fugelsang's Catholic upbringing was familiar and led to some speculation about why Catholic churches are seeing an influx of new people. Possibly it's the pope and bishops' firm stance about the humanity of immigrants and the evil of war. I support churches because they build community, but when discussions turn to the minutiae of dogma and the accuracy of details in the goat herder's guide to the galaxy, I have to tune out or feel anger rising.

Ideas for battery backup for the library and community center include powerwall type batteries, but also smaller batteries plus a bi-directional outlet for plugging in EVs and using their batteries. Making our warming centers resisient seems very grant-worthy, and we like the idea of modeling affordable solutions for other community players. We will start out with a visit from Revision, but scale it down from there.