Welcome, August

And so now it is August. Month of heat and dryness (sometimes thunderstorms, too). Month of summer vacation ending (twins go back to school on the 14th!), but summer continuing. The nights are getting longer, though, and sunset is coming earlier -- 8:12 tonight (7:33 by the end of the month). I have to be sure I get out the door for my walk before 8 pm, or else I get stuck walking in the dark. 

It's funny how our neighborhood feels less safe as the sun goes down. Mountain lions and bears start to roam (though I think mostly later at night.) We don't have a LOT of homeless people in our park, but there are some, and they start gathering as the sun sinks lower. I've never been hassled by any of them, but they still make me nervous. It's different if Rocket Boy goes with me, but he usually doesn't -- he prefers to go swimming. And Teen B hasn't gone on a walk all summer.

There are also kitties here and there. I took a picture of these two on a recent walk because I thought they were so cute, with their matching rainbow collars.

The walks have been paying off for me, in terms of weight loss. I haven't done a Mounjaro report since the beginning of July, so it is time for another.

• July 1, 2024: 251.4
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• Jan. 1, 2025: 228.8
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• July 1, 2025: 217.8
• August 1, 2025: 214.8 

The weight continues to come off, little bit by little bit, a few pounds a month. I figure I just have a few more months to lose, and then it'll stop, because I don't get as much exercise in the winter, and at some point Mounjaro stops working as a weight-loss drug, usually after about a year and a half. It'll still help lower my blood sugar, but I won't keep losing weight. There's a feeling of urgency, then, like OMG, must lose as much weight as possible before it stops working! But I know I can't do that. I can't diet. It would be nice if I got below 200 pounds, but if I don't, I won't. I'm really happy with my weight as it is, even though I'm still large. 

This week, Teen B and I went shopping for clothes for him, and we started at Kohl's, because that used to be a good place to find inexpensive clothes (and it would be a change from Target). He tried on at least a dozen pairs of shorts, but didn't find anything he liked, so we ended up at Target after all. But while we were at Kohl's, I made him wait while I tried on a few things. I picked out a couple of tops and a pair of pants in size 1X (I've been wearing mostly 2X for a long time). The pants fit, but didn't look good, and the tops fit higher up, but were tight around my stomach. I can't seem to lose that bulge. So that was a little disappointing, but oh well.

I'm still feeling totally crummy on this dose, though. This week, in addition to the nausea and fatigue, I've been feeling like my blood sugar is too low. Not sure what's going on. I'm shaky and keep almost falling over, things like that. But if I eat too much I get sick. Something to ask my doctor about when I see her in a month. 

We visited another college this week -- CU, on Tuesday morning -- just me and Rocket Boy and Teen B, since Teen A had toured it last year and thus wasn't interested. Since it's just down the street, we took the bus (which Rocket Boy almost missed, because he was primping). Teen B and Rocket Boy thought I was having us get off at the wrong stop, but I was right. It's the stop I used to get off at when I was teaching and when I was a research assistant. We walked over to the new CASE building and took the elevator to the fourth floor. There was a large balcony/deck with a buffalo statue which most people took pictures of while standing next to it. Teen B refused to stand next to the buffalo, so I took a picture of it all on its lonesome.

Then we went inside and listened to a long presentation about how wonderful CU is. I'd say there were close to 150 people there. They didn't call out exactly where people were from, but the presenter asked people to raise their hands if they were from the eastern time zone, central time zone, pacific time zone, etc., and there were people from everywhere, and I think some internationals too. It was a weirdly foggy, humid day, and she asked the central time zone people to please take the weather home with them.

Then we broke up into six groups to tour the campus. Our tour guide was a creative writing major from southern California. She had a curvy body and was wearing bright pink shorts, so I kept thinking "follow the big pink butt." I wondered whether she had worn those shorts on purpose, because it was actually very helpful. The tour groups kept running into each other and I would get mixed up, but then think, "big pink butt," and there she'd be.

I just can't take CU seriously, having taught there. Apparently lots of people really want to go there, though. The presenter told us how many people apply, and it was some enormous number. She also said, very helpfully, that if you have any C's or D's or F's on your transcript, you need to EXPLAIN WHY in your personal statement. In other words, they don't want to accept anyone with grades like that and you'd better have a good explanation. Teen B has 2 C's (both in English) and 2 D's (both in social studies) on his transcript, and up until now I don't think he cared. Maybe now he'll care, but it's a little late. 

Even though CU is a smaller, more compact campus than CSU, we somehow walked much further on our tour. I still don't really understand how that was possible. We walked almost 3 miles! Uphill and downhill and all over. Then, when it was over, Rocket Boy suggested we go to Doug's Day Diner for a late lunch. Teen B just wanted to go home, so he jumped on a bus, but Rocket Boy and I walked to the restaurant (bringing our total for the day to 3.2 miles) and had lunch. And then we walked home, which was another .85 mile, so it was a good walking day.

I've given up on the idea of taking a short vacation at the end of the summer. However, I'm hoping we can do one more college tour this coming week, of Metropolitan State University in Denver. Teen B expressed mild interest. I don't think he wants to go there, but it would be good for him to see it, as a relatively inexpensive, relatively nearby option. Of course, it's going to be sooooo hot. Upper 90's all week, very August-like. I need to plan some cool meals, that don't involve cooking. Maybe we could eat out a lot.

I'm still trying to do at least one political task each week, but I'm struggling. Last week, as I had planned, I wrote a short letter to Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, thanking her for the great work she's been doing, standing up to the conservative members of the court. But this week was harder. I got so depressed every time I even thought about doing something political. Rocket Boy wanted to go to a protest on Saturday, but I was too depressed to go along (he ended up not going either -- he went on a tour of the Governor's mansion in Denver, but when he went by the protest later it seemed to be mostly over, so he just came on home). 

I did do one political thing this week -- it probably doesn't "count" -- but oh, who cares, if I say it counts, then it counts. I read a book: Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson. Oh My God. What a depressing book. And yet, I think every Democrat needs to read it. It lays out, in excruciating detail, how Biden declined, physically and mentally, and how everyone lied about it, covered it up, pretended it wasn't happening, fiercely criticized anyone who mentioned it -- basically pulled a Woodrow Wilson on the nation. That wasn't supposed to be possible anymore, in this age of everything being revealed. And the right-wing media was certainly yelling about it. But the "mainstream media" basically protected Biden, because nobody wanted Trump to be elected again, and in doing so they ensured that Trump would be elected again. 

It was a huge failure on the part of people who are supposed to be nonpartisan, and of course on the part of people who are partisan -- the Democrats who supported Biden, his team. His team lied to him, gave him incorrect and incomplete information, because they didn't want to lose their own power -- they wanted him to stay in the game and win, even when it was obviously impossible, so that they could stay in the game. Jill Biden and Hunter Biden also lied to him and encouraged him. The authors imply that this was self-serving, too, although in Jill's case it may have been mainly done out of love. In Hunter's case, he knew he would have nothing left once his dad left power, and sure enough, apparently now he's homeless and has been disbarred (I didn't get that from the book, but from Wikipedia).

I've been really depressed for the last three days, reading that book. But I'm very glad I read it. It opened my eyes about a lot of things, and I hope it opens a lot of people's eyes. I'm as guilty of suppressing criticism of Biden as anyone. I remember watching Seth Meyers on "A Closer Look," as he pointed out how weird Biden looked at a concert when everyone else was swaying to the music and Biden was standing still, like a statue. Don't criticize Biden, I thought, don't give Trump ammunition. That's what everyone was saying, thinking. And look where it got us. Trump in office again, ruining the country. 

If everyone had been honest about Biden, if he just hadn't decided to run again, we could have had a normal primary and gotten an electable candidate, and Trump might not have won. The authors show how Kamala wasn't an intrinsically bad candidate, but she was in a very difficult situation because (a) she only had a few months to put together a whole campaign, and (b) she'd been loyally supporting Biden all along, so now she had to turn around and say, oh no, I lied, he really was incompetent and he made some very dumb decisions, and she couldn't do that, she didn't have time to carve out a new political space for herself. And of course she was a Black woman, but that wasn't the only issue.

I don't know what I'll do (politically) this coming week. Probably no standing outside with signs, in this heat, but I'll see. I need to keep looking for opportunities.

One thing I definitely need to do is refill the hummingbird feeders. The one that the hummers like best is almost empty! I should do that tonight. I also need to water all my flowers daily, because of the extreme heat.

Rocket Boy and I took a huge bag of old clothes to Goodwill today. Mostly the twins' clothes, mostly pants and shorts, but some shirts, and a few of my shirts that I decided to admit were too big. I'm kind of afraid of giving away clothes -- what if I get taken off this drug, what if I gain all the weight back -- but I think it's OK to get rid of a few. Otherwise the tiny closet gets too crowded. Rocket Boy unpacked another big box (he's got his old Montero full of boxes from St. Louis) and pulled out a whole lot of blankets and pillows, so we have to find a place for them. Ha ha.

My book group meets on Tuesday, and we have that trip to Metro to plan, and maybe Teen B and I will go to a movie, if we can think of anything to see. And I don't know what else. A lot of ice cream, maybe. The last full week of summer vacation!