Reading post: September

It's the last day of September, so it's time for a reading post. It was a decent reading month, overall. I finished 10 books, several of which I either enjoyed or at least was glad to have read. 

The books I drew from my "Briefly Noted" envelopes this month were Woman of Interest, a memoir described as "dark" and "deeply funny," and Taiwan Travelogue, a Taiwanese novel pretending to be a translation of an old Japanese book, described as "metafictional."

• Woman of Interest by Tracy O'Neill (2024). I liked this a lot! It's the story of how the author, adopted from South Korea as a baby, went looking for her birth mother, found her, and traveled to Korea to meet her. She's warned repeatedly that this may not be a good idea, and whaddaya know? It isn't. But she gets to meet a congenial half-sister and I assume is glad she now knows more about where she comes from. Really interesting writing style -- sometimes I couldn't understand what she was trying to say, but I kept trying. Oh, and there are several good dogs involved. Definitely worth reading.
  
  
• Taiwan Travelogue by Yang Shuang-zi, translated from the Chinese by Lin King (2024). I have no idea why I clipped this from the New Yorker originally, but it was fun. It's a kind of lesbian romance between a Japanese novelist, Aoyama-san, who is spending a year in Taiwan and her interpreter, Chi-Chan, in 1938, when Taiwan was ruled by Japan (I did not know this before I read the book). The titles of the book's 12 chapters are all the names of local foods (e.g., Chapter III: Mua-Inn-Thng/Jute Soup) and most of the book's almost 300 pages deal with cooking and eating (Aoyama-san has an amazing appetite). There's so much food detail that it gets boring. But it was still fun, and I learned SO much about Taiwan.

Best books of the 21st century so far

In September I planned to read some more books off the New York Times list by authors with last names beginning with the letters N or P. There were three books in that category that interested me, and when I finished them, I added one by an R author. 

The Friend by Sigrid Nunez (2018). I tried to get my book group to read this, but one of the members objected because of the dog. "The dog doesn't die," I said (spoiler: not true, it dies). "I don't care," she said. "It's about a dog being sad" (this is true). So we didn't read it, but I was looking forward to reading it by myself, and it did not disappoint. It's the musings of a woman writer whose dearest friend and mentor dies by suicide, and she ends up with his Great Dane. She and the dog grieve the man together. She writes about writing, which both she and the man have devoted their lives to, she writes about their complicated relationship, she writes about suicide, she writes about dogs (and cats and rabbits). I read it in two days, really enjoyed it. Recommended.

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen (2015). This is a novel about the Vietnam War, told from the perspective of a Communist sympathizer who is posing as a member of the South Vietnamese Army. He works for a General in the army, escapes with him to the U.S. when Saigon falls, and continues to send information to his friend and contact on the Communist side about the General's activities in the U.S. The book starts out well, gets really boring during their time in the U.S., and improves a little when the narrator goes back to Vietnam. I didn't really enjoy this book, but I felt as though it were telling me an important story that I ought to listen to. It's been made into an HBO miniseries that would be interesting to watch.

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters (2021). I tried to get my book group to read this too, but no dice. So I read it on my own, and again, I'm glad they didn't take my advice. I'm not sure this is a "good" book -- more of a valuable book. It's the story of a trans woman, Reese, whose former girlfriend Amy detransitions back into a man, Ames, and gets a straight woman, Katrina, pregnant. Katrina isn't sure she wants to raise a child, but then Ames gets Reese involved, because she has always wanted a child. For a while they plan to raise the child together, as a threesome, and then everything starts to go south. I learned so much about trans women from reading this -- that's the valuable part. Whether it was a good book or not, I'm not sure. It's kind of a mess, and very preachy. But it's a start.

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth (2004). I was looking forward to reading this book, Roth's imagining of what would have happened if Charles Lindbergh had been elected president in 1940 instead of FDR for a third term. But I couldn't do it. I got through a few pages, but then I stopped and couldn't go on. It was too depressing, seeing as how we're living through the dystopia of Trump's second term. So, maybe I'll come back to it sometime and maybe I won't.

Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine (2014). Honestly, this book wasn't much better, but it was short, so I made it through. Citizen is Rankine's attempt to explain, in poetry sort of, what it's like to be Black in America and face little racist jabs all day long every day. And it was devastating. After the first section I had to stop, because I felt so terribly guilty. But I kept going and finished the whole book in one evening. I suppose it's easier to read about something that I have some control over. Some of the things she described I didn't remember, or only vaguely, like the way a white umpire kept calling Serena Williams' shots out when they were obviously in, in the 2004 US Open. While reading, I kept making little promises not to do some of the things she talks about, and that actually made me feel better.

So I've now read 55 of the books on the list of the top 100. I should reach 60 by the end of the year with no trouble.

Other reading

I started the month with the book for the book group, The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro. At our last meeting, one member said she had started reading this and it was interesting. So we chose it. I put off getting the book until six days before our scheduled meeting. My first thought was wow, 535 pages! But, it's Ishiguro, no problem. Well, it was a bit of a problem. This novel was Ishiguro's first after The Remains of the Day, and I kept imagining all the people who loved the book about the sad butler, maybe pre-ordered this one hoping for more of the same... hmm. That said, it was interesting. It's basically one long dream sequence. The main character, a pianist visiting a city in Europe to give a concert, wanders around trying to follow a schedule he can't recall, interacting with people who may be strangers -- or possibly family, driving miles and miles to a house that has a door that leads back to his hotel... It's so long and so weird. But I kind of liked it. Thought-provoking.

 

I also read another book from my "Briefly Noted" envelopes: Poor Deer by Claire Oshetsky (2024). I pulled it out of the envelope by accident, but decided to read it too if I had time. It was quick -- I started it Sunday evening and finished it Monday afternoon. But such a weird book. It's about a little girl named Margaret who accidentally contributes to the death of her best friend at age 4, and can never forgive herself. Her guilt takes the form of a deer wearing the blue bathrobe of the dead girl's mother, and she carries Poor Deer around with her until an odd sequence of events when she's a teenager propels her in a different direction. A little too weird for me, but interesting. 

 

Then I finally finished No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin, my third and last biography of FDR. I can't remember when I started reading this -- July? It took me a long time to get through those 636 pages. I already knew the basic story, but Goodwin gives a lot of detail about the war years. Too much detail, really. But two things about the book really struck me. First, how rudimentary medicine was in the 1940s. FDR had heart disease (among other things), but there were almost no treatments for it. Today, he would have been on a statin and blood pressure medicine and beta blockers, and they would have made him quit smoking, and he would have lived to be 90 (instead of 63). Second, Goodwin's exploration of Eleanor and Franklin's complicated relationship. I already knew that FDR had been seeing his former lover, Lucy Rutherfurd, behind Eleanor's back in the last few years of his life, but this book brought home what it must have been like for her to find out that he had been with Lucy when he had the cerebral hemorrhage that killed him. My heart just ached for Eleanor. Anyway, I am now done with FDR and I'll try to read a biography of Harry Truman in November.

 

Last, I read I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai with Christina Lamb. I read this with Teen A for school (he had to read a memoir). We worked our way through most of the book and then he got mad at me and didn't want me to read anymore, so I finished it on my own. I had never had any interest in this book and couldn't understand how a teenage girl could write an interesting memoir. It turns out that the book is mostly a history of Pakistan and its troubles with the Taliban, not just about Malala's early life (and her life is actually very interesting too). So it's a terribly depressing book, but worth reading, much better than I expected it to be. Not sure what Teen A thought of it.

 

Next month

In October, since it's the spooky month, I went through my "Briefly Noted" envelopes and pulled out several books that sounded vaguely spooky, so I will try to read some or all of those. I'll also try to read a few more from the NY Times list -- again, focusing on spooky, if I can find any such. The book group is going to read a book about Captain Cook which doesn't sound spooky at all, but it will probably be fine.

Fall is really here

When we got back from the cabin last Sunday, I remember looking around the neighborhood and thinking, well, it'll be a few weeks before we see signs of fall here. But of course I was wrong. Fall is happening down in Boulder too. When I went for my walk yesterday I decided to take pictures of signs of fall, and there were too many to choose from. This shot is of a tree in the park. It's funny how some branches turn yellow before others, but look -- there are already yellow leaves all over the ground.

I still have my hummingbird feeder up, but it's pointless -- the hummers are all gone. I hope they made it over the Rockies before the first snow last week (we didn't have a first snow, but the mountains did).

So, what should I write about this week? It was a fairly quiet week, this first week of fall. I titrated down to 7.5 mg of Mounjaro, from 10 mg, and was just as sick as ever, so that was a little disappointing. Maybe it will take some getting used to. Just like on 10 mg, I slept most of Tuesday, felt awful on both Monday and Wednesday, STILL felt somewhat bad on Thursday, and not even that great on Friday. It's the nausea more than anything. I have such a cranky stomach. I think the fatigue might be less, though. 

I'm trying to transition to afternoon walks (since it gets dark too early to walk after dinner, now), and I thought I'd also try to take longer walks, at least until it gets cold and icy. So, on Monday and Tuesday I did nothing, Wednesday I took a normal walk (1.19 miles in 26 minutes), but on Thursday I took a longer walk (2.05 miles in 46 minutes), and Saturday I took an even longer walk (2.6 miles in 58 minutes). What I'm aiming for is 3 miles in an hour. When I lived in Michigan I walked for about an hour most days, and I think it was about 3 miles. Surely I can get back to that, 30 years later. Maybe. Right now, walking for an hour seems terribly difficult. But maybe I can work up to it, and maybe I don't have to do it every day. Three times a week would be good, for this old lady.

Otherwise not too much went on this week. I managed to write on a couple of days, but did no pruning at all. Just kind of low energy. Rocket Boy made his special mac & cheese for dinner on Monday and we had the leftovers on Tuesday. Wednesday I fixed tilapia with almonds and lemon juice, and Thursday I made the Thai pineapple fried rice that is a family favorite. 

On Friday night, Rocket Boy, Teen B, and I went to see "Black Box" at the high school, which consisted of five short, one-act plays, each directed by a different student. They do this every year, and last year, Teen B and I tried to go to it but it was "sold out" (it's free, but only a certain number of tickets are available). So this year I made sure to get tickets early. The audience was seated on the stage, in a semicircle, and the actors performed in the middle of the stage. Minimal props, simple costumes, but good acting.

The first play was about some stupid rich people on the Titanic, the second was a serious play about a family whose members didn't listen to each other, the third play was about a guy who wanted to be a vampire but the existing vampires didn't like the taste of his blood, the fourth play was about a couple communicating through post-it notes, and the fifth play was about a couple trying to assemble an Ikea dresser that turned into a robot that planned to kill them. The whole thing only lasted about an hour, from 7 to 8 pm. It was fun.

This coming week, actually tomorrow night, is Showcase, the concert where all the musical groups perform, so we'll go to that too. Normally it's on a Saturday afternoon, but this year apparently they couldn't find a good Saturday to do it, so it's on a Monday night, which is weird. But we'll be there. 

Rocket Boy always likes to do things on the weekends, which somewhat conflicts with my great desire to rest, sleep, read, write this blog, etc. But I try to go with him every two or three weeks, just to be nice -- and to get myself out of the house. Today, Teen A and his friends decided to hike the trail to the Clifford Griffin monument, near Silver Plume, which Rocket Boy and I have done in the past (pre-twins). Rocket Boy wanted SO much to be invited along, and tried hard to convince himself that they wouldn't mind his company. To keep him away from the teenagers, I suggested that he and I go to the Denver Botanic Gardens, so we did that.

It was a perfect day to be out and about and the gardens were soooooo pretty!

I couldn't remember the last time we were there, but it was a while ago, and I thought maybe early fall would be a pretty time to go, and oh, it was! So many flowers were in bloom. The ones in this picture were actually a deep purple, not the magenta that my camera picked up. I don't even know what they are. They were gorgeous.

We saw multiple couples being photographed among the blooms, possibly for engagement pictures? We also saw a young girl in an enormous purple ball gown, who I think might have been there for a quinceañera. There was an area that was roped off for an "event" and people were arriving for it, so that might have been it.

There was also an actual wedding taking place in the Woodland Mosaic Garden and Solarium and we saw the bride! That's a tiny place for a wedding -- I think it would only accommodate 20-30 guests. But a very lovely setting.  

I didn't use my app, so I don't know how far I walked, but I was tired when we left around 4:30, so it was something. And my eyes were happy! So many pretty flowers to look at. We also looked closely at the grasses. Rocket Boy is trying to grow buffalo grass in our backyard, so he is very interested in grasses. There were bees everywhere, frantically gathering pollen from all the flowers, definitely not wasting their time stinging anybody. But no hummingbirds. They're gone.

And now we're home and Teen A is home (he won't tell us about his hike, but I gather it went well). We're having leftovers for dinner, so that's easy. We ate out at the Nepalese restaurant again last night -- I like that place a lot. Very homey. 

The week ahead looks pretty basic, after the Showcase concert tomorrow, that is. No appointments that I know of, just the beginning of October. I'll try to write, and prune, and walk, and do all the usual housework, and grocery shopping, and cook dinner at least twice. 

We are very worried about the looming shutdown, even though neither of us has a job to lose. Our money is so tied up in the government -- social security, and the Thrift Savings Plan, and all that. If the economy crashes, that will affect the twins' college funds. But mostly I worry about the country. It seems clear that Dear Leader is trying to move toward martial law, so that we won't have elections next fall. It's so frightening to think about. The next big protest isn't until October 18th. Maybe I'll work on my sign this week. Doing something is better than just worrying. Like a scared rabbit (like this one in our side yard). But that's what I feel like these days.

Summer ends

We went to the cabin today, on the last day of summer, because when Rocket Boy came up a few weeks ago, he couldn't get the door to lock (he got it unlocked, just couldn't lock it up when he left). Even though I always think it wouldn't matter if the cabin went up in flames, I decided I didn't want to leave it unlocked until next July. Plus, this was supposed to be a good leaf peeping weekend, possibly the best this year. The twins didn't want to join us, so we went alone.

On the way up we saw yellow, orange, red, and completely green aspen. Very mixed. We also saw hundreds of cars and trucks full of people who had come to look at the fall color. Highway 287 in the opposite direction from us was clogged -- worse than I've ever seen it -- and this was at 2:30 in the afternoon! Apparently everyone had come up very early, or maybe the day before, and now they were headed home. Crazy.

When we got to the cabin it was gloriously yellow -- every aspen had turned (and of course they are really all one organism). On the way there I kept saying things like, "I wonder if ours will have turned." And then I would think, "ours"? Do we own those aspen? I mean, technically yes, we could legally cut them all down, for instance, but the concept of owning trees has started to seem odd to me. I do say, referring to our Boulder property, "our honey locust," "our maple," etc. But even those I feel like we're mostly caring for, rather than owning them. I would not cut them down without a good reason, though I am working on cutting down the junipers -- but that's for a good reason, for fire safety. The aspen at the cabin do not seem to belong to us at all, they belong to themselves.

We walked down to the beaver ponds, of course, and on the way down we discovered something interesting: a new road! Carved by an Xcel Energy truck, probably, when they came to trim the trees that were too close to the power lines. We have electricity at the cabin -- I pay $8.14 per month for it, currently -- and so there are power lines on the property, and so Xcel has to keep the trees off the power lines. We've seen where they've cut the trees before, but this was the first time they've ever cut a road!

So that was weird. But it did make it easier to get to the beaver ponds, and really, what could we do? Complain to Xcel? (How dare you drive on our property to keep the power lines from setting off a forest fire?!) I don't think that would really get us anywhere. No, I think we just have to deal with the fact that we now have a road on our 12 and a half acres of wilderness (sort of).

The beaver ponds looked lovely and healthy as always, with a new dam I hadn't seen before. If the beavers can live with this new road, we can too.

It turned out that the door locked just fine this time around, with all the different keys. Rocket Boy had brought three different sets with him this time, and they all worked. And there was nothing to indicate that anyone had been inside the cabin during the almost-three-weeks that it was unlocked. So. We're fine for now.

*** 

This past week was a busy one. Monday I got bloodwork done, after waiting almost two hours while fasting. Apparently the lab is having staffing problems, and I should have made an appointment. I tried to be REALLY nice to the phlebotomist, when I finally got in to see her, because I figured they must be so stressed. Rocket Boy needs bloodwork done too, so we made him an actual appointment for this coming week.

Tuesday, I got my hair cut. It had gotten so long and straggly and icky that I told my hairdresser to cut it all off. "Shoulder length," I told her. She looked nervous, but she did it, and it is so cute. I've never liked having my hair this short before, but this time, somehow, it seems fun. The kids don't like it. "You look like Barbara," said Teen B, accusingly. "Is that a bad thing?" I asked. "You don't look like you." This is a kid who does not like change. "It'll grow," I told him. And it will. But I may not let it grow quite as long as before. I'll see.

Wednesday, Teen A got his hair cut. He doesn't have morning classes on Wednesday, so we made him a morning appointment, and he drove himself to it (I gave him the money) while I took Teen B to school (Rocket Boy had a job interview, so he couldn't do it). Then Wednesday night my book group came. I made an apple cake for them, which I served with whipped cream (the book, The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro, took place in a middle or eastern European country, so that seemed like a good thing to have). They liked my hair a lot (they all wear their hair the same way).

On Thursday I saw my doctor for my half-year check-up. Even though I weighed 5 pounds more on her scale than I had on mine that morning, I was down about 15 pounds from March, so she was very happy with that. She was also pleased with my A1c, which had gone down to 6.2 (it was 6.4 in March). That's still high, but it's a pretty good number for a diabetic. My fasting glucose level was 107, still high (it's supposed to be below 100), but lower than it has been for a while (it was 113 in March). My total cholesterol is now 117, still very low, but my HDL -- the good kind -- is now 44, which puts it in the normal range! My HDL has been too low for as long as we've been testing it -- I've never had it in the normal range. (Of course, they'd like it to be about 90, but we won't worry about that. Normal is good enough.) This has got to be Mounjaro's doing. I'm very pleased.

She had me get a pneumonia shot -- I've had it before, but she said the guidance has changed, and now everybody has to get this new shot. She also told me that since we all had Covid in August, we should wait three months to get the next booster. So I figure I'll get flu in October and Covid in November (the vaccines, not the illnesses).  

Speaking of Mounjaro, tonight I take my first shot of 7.5 mg since I think April. I'm excited to go down a level, but also worried. We're going into fall and holiday season, traditional weight gain time. Will I still have enough appetite suppression? My doctor scolded me about not getting enough protein, so I promised to be more vigilant about that.

It's hard, though. Thursday night I made soup (garlic corn chowder) and tossed in a can of chickpeas to beef up the protein a little. It was OK. Friday I made pasta with sweet potatoes and threw in a lot of extra cheese, but it still probably didn't measure up. Saturday night we ate out at Cracker Barrel, mainly to see if the recent brouhaha over the logo had affected anything. It was one of the worst restaurant experiences I've ever had. Not THE worst, because I've had some doozies, but bad. It took 45 minutes after we were seated (at a very prominent, visible table) for a waiter to show up. When our food finally came (we were starving) mine was inedible. I had ordered chicken tenders, in an attempt to get more protein, and they were like shoe leather. I managed to choke down one, after several attempts, and I ate my sides (green beans and cinnamon apples) and a biscuit and a corn muffin and I drank a glass of milk, so I didn't go hungry. But not a high protein meal, lol. We have now officially crossed Cracker Barrel off our list of possible restaurants. Never again.

Today of course we had lunch at the Cutthroat Cafe in Bailey and I had a delicious club sandwich -- but of course, could only eat half of it. I'm thinking I should just buy some protein powder and throw it in everything. Increasing protein the natural way seems impossible.

***

So, it was a weird week for the Constitution, especially the first Amendment, with Jimmy Kimmel being canceled for daring to criticize MAGA and our dear leader. He didn't even say anything bad about C.K. Today was C.K.'s funeral and NPR said "tens of thousands" of people were going to be there. That will probably get them all revved up to be mean and nasty again this week. On the other hand, people I cannot stand (Tucker Carlson, Ted Cruz) actually spoke up and told the right not to censor free speech. So that was interesting. Plus, we're apparently heading into a government shutdown in about 10 days. Oh joy.

Someone was saying the MAGA people think of C.K. as their version of Martin Luther King. So are we going to have a new national holiday in honor of him? I wouldn't mind, actually. The more holidays the better, and nobody will force me to actually celebrate it (at least I don't think they will). I wish his birthday were in March, April, or August, because we don't have any federal holidays in those months, but it's in October, almost the same day as Columbus/Indigenous People's Day. So that won't work. We'll see what happens. 

For me, personally, it was a pretty good week, at least in terms of getting my personal stuff done. I managed to do some writing on, I think, four of the five weekdays, and I managed to break through a minor block and have lots of ideas for what to write this week. Pruning went less well, but I did manage to do it on two or three days, and I had lots to put out for compost pickup. I also did a lot of reading and took a few walks. So all that was good. 

On the way home tonight we drove over Guanella Pass (11,670 feet). The aspen were not as beautiful there as at the cabin, but it was still a beautiful drive. 

At one point, on our way down the other side, we encountered a female Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, just walking down the middle of the road. We stopped, as did the cars behind us. She looked really pissed off as she trotted past us. I hope she made it off the road at some point without being hit. I was hoping for a moose sighting, but a sheep was even better. We always look for sheep and almost never see one.

And we didn't hit her. And we got home safely. And tomorrow begins another week and a brand-new season -- fall.

Assassination week

What happened this week? More than anyone wanted, that's for sure. A school shooting in Evergreen, Colorado, and then the assassination of a nasty right-wing influencer in Utah. That was Wednesday. And then on Thursday, a frightened, on-edge student at the other high school in town reported someone who looked suspicious (a guy exercising on the field wearing a weighted vest) and this caused a huge lockdown of all the neighboring schools. The sirens going down Broadway! It sounded like the whole world was on fire -- or there had been a terrorist attack -- or something like that. 

I looked up weighted vests online. They do look kind of creepy, like something you'd wear to carry extra ammunition. I don't blame the kid for reporting it. In any case, it's illegal for the general public to be on school grounds during school hours (even though that's rarely enforced). 

And of course in reaction to the thing in Utah, the president and his henchmen are now going crazy trying to outdo each other in clamping down more and more on free speech. If a government employee ever said anything critical about the right-wing provocateur (I'm intentionally not writing his name), they are going to try to have them fired. Of course, that will lead to a lot of lawsuits, but what will be the end result of all those lawsuits? The Supreme Court seems happy to approve anything the president does, these days. 

I'm trying to formulate a letter to the editor about all this, but it's not coming together clearly. I should probably just start writing and then it will work itself out. Mostly I feel this great hollow sadness inside, and trying to think about a letter seems to make it worse. What is happening to our country?

And then I think, oh well, I'll be dead soon and all this horror will be somebody else's problem. (I wish it were somebody else's problem.) But unless I get cancer or am hit by a bus, I probably won't be dead soon. I was planning to live to be 90 -- that's 25 more years. Ack. Twenty-five years is a lot more time to spend with the wreckage caused by the current administration, even if I'm kind of gaga for the last part of it. 

Recently I've been thinking a lot about how long I'll live... on account of retirement planning. How much can we reasonably spend out of our retirement accounts each month, to keep from running out of money at the end? I currently have $372,347.56 in my Thrift Savings Plan (government retirement account). Divided by 25, that's $14,893.90 per year. So I could start taking $1241.15 out of that account every month and it would still last me for 25 years (more, possibly, or less, because the stock market could easily crash). But it's in the Lifecycle 2030 investment plan, which doesn't expect me to retire until 2030 (sorry, Lifecycle 2030 plan). So really, we should start taking money out of Rocket Boy's TSP, which has a lot less in it, but which (I think) is in the Lifecycle 2020 investment plan. In another two years he HAS to start taking money out of his, the whole minimum required distribution thing. So we might as well start, once we spend out my TIAA account, which we should do by the end of this year. 

Then there's my social security, which I could start taking. I still feel as though I should wait until I'm 67, though. "Full retirement age," ha ha, says the person who hasn't worked since she was 59.

I also read that you should expect to spend more of your retirement money when you're younger, because you have more expenses then (you're relatively healthy and you might want to run around the world having fun) (or you might want to finish raising your kids, who you had much too late in life). But what about when you're 85 and have to go into assisted living? Shouldn't you save your money for that?

Speaking of aging, Rocket Boy turned 71 this week, the week of horror. His birthday is the day after 9/11, so there's always somber news around then, but of course this week it was worse, because of the shootings. And his birthday is also the day we flooded, back in 2013, so that's always a somber anniversary for us too.

This just wasn't a great week.

I had planned to make Rocket Boy a plum cake, from the Barbara Pym Cookbook. I have made it before, but this time it didn't turn out very well. The recipe says to bake it for 3-1/2 hours at 300 degrees. I did that, and it turned out WAY overdone, rock hard, in fact. I hoped it would get softer as it aged, but it's not doing that. I had a piece this morning for breakfast and it's pretty bad. I mean, it tastes good, but it's hard to eat because it's so hard.

Oh well. Maybe when we finish it I'll make an apple cake, to make up for this one.

Friday evening we also finally went back to Best Buy and returned the Dell laptop I bought for Teen B (using some of his Social Security money) back on August 24th, which overheats when he's playing Roblox. We'd been trying to do this for a while, but Teen B never wanted to actually take the time to go back to the store. He also didn't want to look at possible replacements. And to be honest, neither did I. I don't enjoy shopping for tech.

The Geek Squad guy who took our return was very nice, very understanding -- until he noticed that it had been 19 days since we'd bought the laptop. You only have 14 days to return laptops. Oops. Looks like we just bought ourselves a laptop that overheats.

But he talked to his manager and they decided that if we agreed to sign up for some sort of Best Buy membership (for $50 a year), they'd let us return it. So I did, and we did. Whew.

Then we looked at some alternatives, but Teen B was in a very bad mood and did not want to buy anything else right then. So then we went out to dinner at the Bohemian Biergarten, sort of as a birthday celebration. (Teen A wasn't with us because he went to the football game. Their high school lost, 63-0.) I had a potato pancake with apple butter, which was quite tasty. And then we went home and had the very disappointing cake. Oh well.

Saturday morning, instead of sleeping in as we usually do (and NEED to do, because we don't get enough sleep during the week), we had to get up fairly early to be at CU by 9 am, for Year 9 of the ABCD study. Teen B was so irritated about having to do this that he didn't roll out of bed until 8:50, and then insisted on eating his leftover gnocchi for breakfast. So we were a few minutes late, but it's OK. 

We were there until about 3 pm. I could have left at 1 -- I was done with my questionnaires and we'd had the lunch they ordered for us -- but I waited for the kids. I had brought a book to read, but I was so sleepy that I couldn't concentrate on it, so I just sat and flipped through my phone, like a good American. In the room where they left me, there were a bunch of postcards and a sample letter you could write to ask our elected representatives to support science (see photo). Even at CU, people are totally desperate.

They paid me with a check (for $220) so I'll deposit that tomorrow. They gave the kids cash, and Teen A immediately handed his ($276) to me and asked me to put it in his account (he isn't a cash guy). So I just transferred $276 from my checking account to his. I'll put his cash, or some of it (the four useless $50 bills), in my checking account tomorrow.

It started raining maybe half an hour before we were done (the photo shows the clouds gathering), but Teen B wanted to go to Starbucks, and I thought I wouldn't say no, he was so unhappy that day. So we went to Starbucks, and it started to absolutely POUR when we got there. I parked right in front and the rain just SOAKED us in the 10 seconds it took us to run from the car to the store. We got equally wet leaving, and then Teen A wanted to go to Jamba Juice (around the corner), so I drove there and again parked right in front of the store, but he and I got DRENCHED running in. By the time we left JJ, the rain had abated somewhat, but I was still really wet.

We had leftovers for dinner and I managed to stay awake until bedtime, but it was hard. Rocket Boy and I watched "Washington Week with the Atlantic" which for some reason never shows up on Passport until Saturday for us. We watch the Friday night NewsHour and at the end they encourage everyone to watch Washington Week, but we can't. Anyway, we watched it on Saturday, as usual. I find Jeffrey Goldberg, the moderator, to be very comforting. He's a smart guy and seems to really understand the world. I always feel soothed after watching him, like: as long as Jeffrey Goldberg is there, I will be OK. It makes no sense. But I need something to reassure me, in this very strange world we're in.

Oh, and the other thing I did that evening was buy Teen A a new computer (using HIS Social Security money). He's much more decisive than Teen B. When he heard that I had bought Teen B a laptop, he said he wanted a new computer (a desktop, for gaming). I said, OK, do some research and tell me what you want. So he sent me a link to some Chinese thing on Amazon. I said, no, let's buy it at Best Buy, that's safer if we need to return it (if you don't sit on it for 19 days first). So 15 minutes later he sent me a link to a Best Buy computer, half price because it was "open box." OK, fine. I ordered it. Meanwhile, Teen B is still dithering about his. But that's OK. No hurry. 

Now it's Sunday. I took my Mounjaro shot on Friday night because I'm trying to get back to a Sunday night schedule, so I'm taking the shot 2 days later each week. Thus, today is Day 2 and I feel pretty crummy, but at least it's Sunday. Of course, the kids have a lot of homework to do, since they couldn't really do it yesterday. Teen A and I have so far spent about an hour on language arts and Teen B and I have done 5 statistics problems. He also has language arts, and there are a lot more stats problems to do (this is homework that was due Friday, but oh well). 

A busy week ahead (hopefully with no more shootings, but I'm not counting on anything). I should get bloodwork done tomorrow morning (I'm supposed to fast, bleah), then I'm getting my hair cut on Tuesday afternoon and Teen A is getting his cut on Wednesday morning. Wednesday night the book group comes, so I've got to prepare for that, somehow, and Thursday I see my doctor. Saturday I have a Zoom call with Michigan friends. I think that's everything I know about so far. Of course, there are dinners to plan, shop for, and cook, and laundry to do, and a lot of cleaning, due to the book group. 

Oh! One more thing I should mention -- I saw a hummingbird today! I keep thinking they're all gone, and then another one will show up. This was a female, but I'm pretty sure I heard a male yesterday. So they're still coming and I will leave my feeder up for another week. 

I should note that I managed to work on my novel I think four days this past week, despite the madness, so that was great. I also pruned at least three days. I'll try to do both of those things every day again this week, although it may be hard. I keep thinking about what they say, that you should do what's most important to you first each day, not put it to the end of all your busywork. What's most important to me is reading and writing... except, is that right, really? Probably the most important thing to me is keeping my family going, even though I don't enjoy it much. But if I just sat around all day reading and writing and the family had nothing to eat and no clean clothes to wear, I wouldn't be happy. So I'll try to find a happy balance.

I hope it's a better week. 

Post note

I wasn't going to write anything else about what happened in Utah, but the news that I read today is just so overwhelming. He did it for love, as far as I can see. The guy's "roommate" was actually his trans romantic partner. He's not cooperating with law enforcement, as they say, but it seems so clear. The provocateur who was killed was always saying terrible things about trans people, including right before the fatal shot was fired. The guy objected to this, because his lover was trans. He did it for love. OMG.

Feeling a little like fall

OK, I know it's only September 7th, and the flowers in my new planter are still blooming like mad, but it does feel different. A little cooler, a little darker. The weather is actually perfect -- low 80s during the day, mid 50s at night. I'm wearing sleeves again, but still only very light, thin t-shirts. It'll be a long time still until I switch from capri to long pants. But it feels different. Feels like summer is over.

It was a funny week, on account of having Monday and Tuesday off. Only three days of classes, and the first one was Wednesday, Super Late Start Day. This meant that we got wildly off schedule, and having to get up at 7 am on Thursday and Friday was a killer. I took my Mounjaro shot on Wednesday night, so I actually slept most of the day on Thursday and Friday (after getting the kids off to school, starting the laundry, etc.). I sure hope my doctor agrees to lower the dose when I see her on the 19th.

Speaking of Mounjaro, since it's now September, I should do a Mounjaro report.

• June 14, 2024: 254.6 (day I took my first shot)
•  
• Jan. 1, 2025: 228.8
•  
• July 1, 2025: 217.8
• August 1, 2025: 214.8 
• September 1, 2025: 210.8 

Look at that, down 4 pounds this month, almost a pound a week. That rate of loss should end soon, as I stop walking as often. You'd think I'd walk more as it gets cooler, but the problem is that I like to walk in the evenings, after dinner, and it's starting to get DARK in the evenings! Even 7:30 pm is now really too late to walk, and we often eat dinner around 7:00. What I do when it's already getting dark, I walk up and down residential streets, past people's houses, that is (instead of walking through the park and by the school). That feels a little safer. But mostly I prefer to walk when there's still a little daylight, and that gets harder and harder to find. I have to start walking BEFORE dinner, which means I run into people coming home from work, and the grocery store -- I don't know. It's less peaceful, somehow. So I start skipping days, and I don't lose weight, and eventually it starts snowing, and...

It's OK. Though I admit, looking at those numbers, 199 looks so close, so reachable! I used to think, back in the old days (25 years ago or so), that as long as I was under 200, I looked OK. You know, plump, but not obese. It's amazing to think that if I lost 11 more pounds, I might not look obese.

Oh well. I'd rather feel better, on a lower dose of Mounjaro. Even if I stop losing weight. Even if I gain some back. Seriously. It's not good to feel so tired and crummy all the time.

***

Since it was a weird short week, I didn't get too far on my plans to start writing and pruning again, nor my plans to clean the house (the book group rescheduled for September 17th, making that seem less urgent). 

However, I did a little. I worked on my novel one of the days, can't remember which one, and it felt good. This second novel in the series is a bit jumbled right now -- I can't figure out exactly what the mystery is -- but I still like it. I think I just need to keep going, and it'll sort itself out. Or, more likely, I'll figure out how to rearrange it once more of the pieces are in place. The first novel in the series, I figured out the whole mystery ahead of time, which made it easier to write.

I also worked on pruning -- I think maybe two days? Again, can't remember which ones (all that sleeping I did interfered with my memory of the week). Compost pickup was Saturday (delayed one day due to Labor Day), so I really wanted to fill the compost bin. And I did! I pulled a lot of weeds in the front yard, cut back the birch tree and some of the junipers, and cut back a whole lot of random plants that were spilling into the driveway and making it hard for Rocket Boy to park there. Now he should be able to move his car over by a foot or two.

And Rocket Boy went out on Saturday morning and did more. He dug up a lot of dandelions and the wild carrots, and even mowed the lawn. We hadn't mowed since June, I think, because the grass goes sort of dormant in the hot weather, doesn't grow much even if you water it. This should be the last mowing before it snows, probably.

I didn't do much housecleaning, but I did clear off one surface in the living room, uncovering a few things that had been missing. I'll try to do more this week. What I really need to do is vacuum, but sleeping most of Thursday and Friday interfered with that.

I think it was a good start! And I'll try to keep the momentum (such as it is) going. We don't currently have anything on the schedule this week, except for school and our yearly ABCD appointment on Saturday, so I'll try.

Maybe I'll even do something political. I just haven't been able to get myself to do anything recently, even write a letter -- it all seems so hopeless. Watching the PBS NewsHour has become really painful. But I must try. Somehow. 

***

Both cats had vet appointments this past week. Baby Kitty got his nails trimmed on Tuesday (about time -- I was covered with scratches), and Sillers went in for her yearly exam on Wednesday. They did bloodwork on her and everything was 100% normal, so that was good. We're doing something right. 

I told the vet about how she yells all the time, and he played me a YouTube video purporting to show what cats are thinking. One cat "talked" about being lonely at night after its owners went to bed, and how therefore "I sing the songs of my people," in other words, yowling. The vet said if it was a real problem we could put Sillers on Prozac. That made me laugh. I said we'd just work with it, although I have to admit it was tempting to think of solving all our cat problems with Prozac.

We didn't make it to the neighborhood Pancake Breakfast -- first time we've missed it in a while. We had a little altercation between the twins on Friday night, which made me so angry that when they didn't wake up in time on Saturday, I just let it go, let them sleep. Rocket Boy forgot about it, but when I mentioned it (around 10:45, and the breakfast ends at 11), he said "Oh! Do you want to still go?" I'm good, I told him. It's never that much fun, anyway. You pay $10 for one undercooked pancake and find somewhere sticky to sit and no one talks to you because you don't know anybody in the neighborhood (or anyone who goes to the Pancake Breakfast, anyway). Still, I'm sort of sad that we didn't go. Maybe next year. One of these years I'm going to volunteer to help, maybe the clean-up crew. I thought about it this year, but I wasn't sure I'd feel up to it. Stupid Mounjaro.

Now today, Sunday, I still feel pretty bad. Is this just Mounjaro? Is it still Covid? I have no idea. I feel like taking a nap, but maybe I should go read for a while instead. (Or read for a while and fall asleep while reading.) Rocket Boy went for a hike at Eldorado Springs -- I would have liked to join him, but I knew it wasn't a good idea. He'll have more fun without me dragging along behind. It's a lovely day for a hike, though. Oh well, another time.

Oh, I know something else I was going to write about. It's so birdy here, right now! Yesterday I went out in the backyard and turned on my Merlin app and it picked up 8 different birds! Robins, grackles, starlings, house sparrows, crows, a blue jay, a spotted towhee, and a white-breasted nuthatch scooting around the elm tree! I also saw a couple of magpies flying nearby, and there was a dove of some sort sitting quietly on a branch of the oak tree, and of course there were hummingbirds in the front yard. So, 11 kinds of birds on our property or near enough to see/hear, all at once. I'm not sure any of these birds were actually migrating (other than the hummingbirds), but it's migration season, so they might have been. It's just so lovely to think that all those birds were happy to be in our yard. 

Rocket Boy, after working on the weeds in the front yard, said, "I think we need to use chemicals," and I said, "No! No chemicals! I want our yard to be a happy place for birds and insects. Who cares if we have dandelions?" To be continued...

Have a birdy week!