That went fast

And here we are at the end of September already! I don't know if it really went all that fast. I wasn't very happy, so the individual days kind of dragged. But they always pass, and now it is September 25th. 

I haven't been exercising much, but yesterday I managed to convince myself to get out for a walk, and I took a few pictures of "fall color" with my phone -- it isn't quite there yet, but you can see it starting. There was actually more than I expected. October is when everything bursts into flaming red, orange, and yellow -- but October is only 6 days away.

I have some things I want to accomplish before October descends upon us in all its glory. First, I want to finish Grover Cleveland: A Study in Character. I'm currently on page 322 (out of 456). Oh God, it's boring. Not the personal parts -- I enjoy reading about his family life and his cancer surgery and all that. But the political parts -- the tariff battles and the bimetallism controversy, oh my god, it's so boring I feel like I'm going to shrivel up and die when I'm reading it. I keep losing the thread, because it's so boring, and then I have to go back and read it AGAIN. Sometimes I say to myself, who cares if I lose the thread -- no one's keeping track of this except me. But that's the problem. I'm keeping track. I can't say I've read a book if I didn't pay any attention to it while I was reading it.

It is odd that it's possible to read something without comprehending it. I can read each individual word in a paragraph and not understand any of it.

I feel as though I should be interested in the bimetallism controversy because it involved Colorado. Colorado was a silver-producing state, and it was badly hurt when the country came to its senses and stopped treating silver the same as gold (since all other countries in the world used the gold standard). But oh my god I don't care at all. Part of the problem is that I don't understand it. What IS the gold standard? What does that mean? I seem to be not intelligent enough to take it in.

The other thing I want to finish in September is more cleaning. This week with the FlyLady we'll be in the living room, and I certainly have a lot to do in the living room. But I really want to keep working on the twins' room and the desk room too. I'm afraid I'm going to burn out if I try to do too much. But Rocket Boy will be coming back, probably at the end of the first week in October, and I want to get rid of a lot of things before he does. This week I got rid of SO many things in the twins' room, it was amazing. It's starting to look almost spacious in there. And yet -- not. Still need to work and work on it.

We'll see how this week goes.

***

This morning, weirdly, Teen A did not want to go to Starbucks. So Teen B and I went alone, only to discover that our regular Starbucks was closed, perhaps for cleaning. We could see plastic sheets over the equipment, and people were moving things around. Perhaps they've had an infestation, or something broke down. Anyway, that meant we had to drive to the 30th Street Starbucks, which was naturally more crowded than usual, and I got my first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the year (Teen B got one too). They were delicious.

The 30th Street Starbucks tends to have homeless men hanging around, transients, and there were a few in the store today, spending the cash someone had given them on coffee. Dirty, smelly, with that lean, mean, defensive look they usually have. Hard to love.

I was thinking about homeless people because we have an issue on our ballot this fall that I can't make up my mind about -- whether or not to form a library district. Most pro-library people (of which I am certainly one) are very pro-library district, but one of my favorite local commentators wrote an opinion piece about why this proposal isn't a good one. It's very expensive (funded by an increase in property taxes). Someone who owns a $1.5 million house (the Boulder average) will pay an extra $345 a year. Our two houses put together are probably worth almost that much. I have a hard time paying our property taxes already -- $345 is a not insignificant increase. Small businesses are apparently going to be hit very hard by this, and that's the last thing small businesses need.

But what really got me was an article in today's paper about what the city is going to do with the money it won't have to spend on the libraries anymore (about $12 million) if a library district is formed. Top of the list: a day shelter for homeless people. I read that, and I suddenly turned into a Republican.

They're going to make me pay $345 more per year so that homeless people can have a day shelter?

I don't want to be a Republican, so I am trying to come down from this. 

It's a complicated issue and I think I need to do some more reading about it. It's possible that a library district is a good idea, but it just needs to be funded a little differently. The impact on small businesses may actually be more important than the increase in my property taxes. 

But today in Starbucks I looked at the homeless men, the transients, with different eyes, or tried to. Why do I hate them so much? They are human beings -- extremely unsavory ones, but still human. Perhaps a day shelter would help them find homes, encourage them to be better people. Everyone thinks transients come to Boulder because of all the services they can receive here, the homeless shelter, the nice parks to camp in, all the rich people who give them money because they feel guilty, all the bikes to steal. But is that bad? (Other than the bikes, I mean. And the camping in parks.) And where do homeless people come from, anyway? Where do these lean, mean, defensive-looking men start life? In other cities, I think homeless people are often Black, but here they're almost all white guys, and they all look the same -- being out in the elements all the time gives them this weathered look, plus the drugs and booze, I suppose. Their eyes... they all look like they'd kill you for pocket change. I don't think they're born looking like that. 

Am I being a liberal sucker to try to empathize with homeless men? Or a Christian? I'm not really a Christian, but you know what I mean.

I don't know what the right thing to do is, the right way to think.

***

This was not a good week for cooking. Monday I planned that we would have mahi mahi burgers (from Trader Joe's), but instead we had more sandwiches because I was tired from doing the "home blessing" that day. Tuesday I did make veggie enchiladas (from Laurel's Kitchen), but even though I left out the green beans, Teen B still complained. In fact, he removed all the filling and just ate the tortilla and cheese and sauce. "I don't like healthy stuff," he said guiltily, noticing me glaring at him. Wednesday we had "Two Potato Gratin" from the Moosewood Simple Suppers cookbook, and that was not well received by Teen B either, even though I had a note on it saying everyone liked it. I don't know why I bother writing positive notes, because people's opinions change. Actually, Teen A had three pieces, it was just Teen B who was fussy. Thursday I made "Baked Ziti" from Jeanne Lemlin's Vegetarian Pleasures cookbook, and even though I had another positive note on that recipe, it wasn't liked this time by anyone. Maybe because I used shells instead of ziti. I don't know. It seemed dry.

Friday, Teen B and I had leftovers (I had enchiladas and he had dry pasta), while Teen A said he wasn't hungry (too many snacks). And the sad thing is that there are STILL massive quantities of leftovers in the fridge and I don't want to eat any of them. We went to IHOP last night (Teen B's choice) and tonight I said we'd either have leftovers or French toast. We'll probably have French toast and I'll throw all the leftovers in the compost tomorrow.

I have no idea what to cook this week. I'm going to the book group on Monday, finally, so I'll just get Lunchables for the kids that night. But that still leaves Tuesday through Friday. I don't feel inspired. I know, I should feel grateful that I can afford to buy the ingredients to cook dinner. I do feel grateful, sort of. Actually, it's more that I feel angry that lots of people can't afford to do that.

***

It's been a quiet weekend, no special activities. Yesterday I had a Zoom call with old friends and later went to the Bookworm and World Market, and after we ate out, we went to Target. That's what passes for excitement around here when Rocket Boy is in St. Louis. If he were here, we might have gone to the mountains. The leaves are starting to turn. I'll bet next weekend will be beautiful! But Teen B has a band concert next Saturday afternoon, so we won't be going anywhere. The weekend after that is probably when Rocket Boy will come, so the earliest we could go to the mountains would be October 15th or so. We'll see what the weather's like then.

Today, other than Starbucks, the main activity was homework. We're still getting used to the whole concept of weekend homework. I didn't want to stay up all night helping them get it done, so I set up a schedule, with time slots they could sign up for: 1 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm, 4 pm, and 5 pm. It worked pretty well, except that after Teen A finished his language arts homework at 2:30, he went off to Safeway to hang out with friends. So we still have to do his Spanish. But Teen B did his language arts, band, and German homework at the times he'd signed up for.

The day is almost over. I think we're going to have leftovers after all. I don't feel like making French toast. Oh, and think of all the meals I don't want to make this week. No, think about being grateful. Or angry. Or whatever.

The month is almost over.