Late June

Here we are officially in summer -- the solstice was Friday night into Saturday -- and it feels as though it's almost over. It's not, of course, but it's going fast. We have seven full weeks left until school starts again. We have no trips planned (I gave up on the wonderful Saskatoon idea, too complicated, too expensive). We haven't even scheduled our dental work yet! I did finally call the oral surgeon's office, though, and the kids and I have a consultation scheduled for June 30th. So hopefully the work will be done sometime in July, and once that's scheduled, I can schedule something else. Like a fun trip. 

(A cheap fun trip. This dental work is going to be really expensive, even with insurance, and I just spent almost $900 on dental work for the CAT.)

Except... apparently now we're at war with Iran. Last night (Saturday), Rocket Boy and I watched the Friday night PBS NewsHour and then Washington Week with the Atlantic, and they were talking at length about the possibility of war with Iran. 

Little did we know that it had already started. 

The Atlantic folks mentioned that Pete Hegseth was being left out of the talks, ostensibly because he was in the doghouse for not having planned a better parade for Trump's birthday. I said to Rocket Boy, "I'll bet it's really because they don't trust him to keep his mouth shut. I'll bet they're planning to bomb Iran and they're afraid he'll blab it to someone on a Signal chat." And it turned out I was right (maybe).

A few things went through my mind when I saw Trump's announcement (on the New York Times website). He was standing there with JD Vance and Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth and I thought, what a bunch of bozos to be running a war. Maybe Rubio has some idea of what to do, but the others? And then I thought, this is going to increase Trump's popularity. People always love their president when we're at war, at least in the beginning. And I thirdly thought, what is Iran going to do to us in retaliation? How many people are going to die?

Last night (still not knowing about the bombing) I had the oddest dream. I dreamed that JD Vance was driving harp students to their weekly lessons, in Boulder. He had a fairly small car, something like our Prius V, with seats that folded down, and he was transporting multiple students at a time, like four, WITH THEIR HARPS, in this little car. Somehow it was possible to cram them all in, and the students even had seatbelts on. He would drive a group of them over to the harp teacher, then go back and get the rest -- or it might take three trips total. Then he would wait until their lessons were over and go back and get them and take them to their homes. After a while of observing this, I actually became JD Vance, so I was the one doing the driving. It was complicated, because I didn't know where the harp teacher lived, but I gradually figured out that she was in the 3500 block of Culiver. This is not an actual street in Boulder, nor did I know where it was in the dream version of Boulder, but I figured that was enough information to find it, given that JD Vance knew where it was, and he was still in the picture, more or less. And sure enough, it was.

I don't know if I need to say that I HATE JD Vance with a passion. I mean, honestly, I probably hate him more than any other person in government right now, even Trump. I hate his fat face. I hate that he can be married to an Indian-American woman and still be the asshole that he is. I guess I feel like he should know better, as opposed to Trump, who's just an idiot.

And yet in a dream, I became him. While driving harp students around with their harps. I love harps and harp music. I always look forward to the harp concert every Christmas at the library.

***

It's been very hot here the last few days, in the upper 90s, although bearable with our big-trees-and-overnight-fan solutions. We haven't felt the need to flee to an air-conditioned mall, or anything like that. Yesterday we went out to dinner at Red Robin and it seemed quite chilly. I wished I'd brought a sweater. At bedtime, I didn't think I'd be able to sleep because it was so hot in the room, but in fact I dropped off right away, even without my usual medical aids (Tylenol and Pepcid-AC). I thought, oh, if I have heartburn I'll reach over and grab the bottle of Pepcid-AC, and that was my last conscious thought. 

I haven't been getting much of anything done. I suppose I can blame the heat, at least partly. No political stuff. Not much cleaning. No writing. Some reading -- I'm grinding my way through an enormous biography of FDR. I take walks most evenings.

At least I've been getting up a little earlier. I managed to get the cat to the vet before 8:30 am on Tuesday, and I met two friends for breakfast at Lucile's at 9 am on Wednesday. The other days I mostly got up around 9 am, but that's better than 10 am. It seems terrible to sleep through the cool-ish mornings, wake up when it's already hot. 

Cooking went well this week. I think we've settled on a workable system, to wit:

• Monday: I cook something easy (this week I just bought hummus and tzatziki and labneh and an orzo salad at Trader Joe's and served it with pita chips and carrots)
• Tuesday: Rocket Boy cooks (this week he made mahi-mahi burgers)
• Wednesday: Rocket Boy cooks (this week it was leftover mahi-mahi burgers, plus some veggie burgers)
• Thursday: I cook (this week I made Thai pineapple fried rice)
• Friday: I cook (this week I made stovetop cheese quesadillas and a salad kit from Trader Joe's -- which wasn't very good)
• Saturday: we eat out
• Sunday: forage night (eat up all the leftovers) 

 My sickest days are Tuesday and Wednesday (after taking the shot Sunday night), and by Thursday evening I'm feeling better, so I can cook again by then.

This coming week is Pride Week (according to my summer schedule), so I am going to make rainbow foods. Tomorrow (Monday) I'll make rainbow veggie pizza (red, orange, and yellow bell peppers, plus green zucchini and black olives). Thursday I'll make rainbow pasta, and Friday I'll make a rainbow salad (possibly incorporating the leftover rainbow pasta). I'll try to remember to take pictures of at least some of these.

I made the first smoothie of the summer yesterday, at Teen A's request. I didn't have orange juice or vanilla ice cream or frozen bananas, though, so it was basically frozen strawberries and iced tea. He drank it, so I guess it was OK. I put the other things on my grocery list. 

I guess there were protests scheduled for today, emergency protests over the new war against Iran. We decided not to go. It's not that I think this war is a good idea, it's just complicated. Iran is a terrible regime, its own people hate it and would like to see it gone. Also, nobody wants Iran to have nuclear weapons. On the other hand, if the regime does topple, the replacement might be worse. Also, we might not have destroyed their nuclear capability after all. And it's not very American to go around bombing people we don't agree with. 

I mean, it actually IS very American to do that, but it goes against our ideals.

Plus, we're doing what Israel wanted us to do, and Israel is a nightmare right now, attacking everyone in sight and genociding Gazans and all that. 

I don't know where I stand on all this. I'm puzzled and almost numb.

I feel like drowning myself in ice cream and chocolate, but I still have a very limited capacity for those things, due to Mounjaro. I'd make myself sick long before I achieved a state of oblivion. Of course, being sick is a kind of oblivion, there's that. 

We're thinking of going up to the mountains in a little bit, maybe do some hiking. That might be the best kind of oblivion I can manage.