Just Give Me One Thing in Everyday Ramblings

The community garden in the morning a few days back. It is peaceful and lovely to apprehend.

I repotted the leggy tomato seedlings yesterday and was so sad to see that because of how I watered, in half of them the seedling soil was soaked. It was quite the lesson. About a third of them are for sure not going to make it. I need to toughen up a bit as a gardener, I am discovering. The ones I did repot are all still alive today so there is some hope.

Down at the plot, the thinned carrots are doing great. It is almost time to pick a few Chard and beet leaves for a salad. I, of course had to order a ecologically sound garden basket for carrying them home.

Doing my best to support the new economy. Don’t you know.

As I develop strength a little bit at a time in Handstand Club, I realized this morning that I have kind of been cheating on pushups. My teacher has us bring our chests all the way down to touch the surface we are pushing up from. Eek.

She did tell me today that my short arms are actually an advantage in cartwheels.

Afterwards Mrs. Sherlock came over to pick me up. It was clear right away she was distracted and not ambitious. It turns out a long-time friend of theirs (someone Mr. Sherlock went caving with for years) lost his 29-year-old daughter this last week. She was murdered. They knew her as a girl. The local authorities have arrested the boyfriend. It is beyond heartbreaking.

The father called her while we were walking in this lovely historic neighborhood across the river. Mrs. Sherlock started crying so I took Frieda for a little run. There are so many things about this year, this time that truly sucks. I can’t imagine.

There are a bevy of creative and interesting gardens over there, as well as alleys and we just wandered and looked at things and chatted a little for a couple of hours. She was going to go home and putter alone in her own garden.

Kes got to see her best friend in person for the first time in about nine months last night. The friend stopped by on the way home from visiting other friends that live to the south.

Most Honorable is officially fully vaccinated as of today. It is a wonder. Things are opening up a little here. We still are posting around 700 cases a day with not half the state vaccinated and between 3 and 14 deaths a day from the virus. I was happy to see everybody still wearing masks at the grocery today and on the bus.

Mrs. Sherlock had an overnight away this week where they took their bikes and went to a rural area and rode 25 miles one day and 40 the next. They each had their own motel rooms. She said it was beautiful, there was a lake, and she is glad she got away.

Tomorrow I am hiking with Charity. We all couldn’t get our days to match up. I hope I am not as sore tomorrow as I have been after the last two Handstand Club sessions. Don’t tell anyone but I was having trouble walking with ease on Thursday. Hamstrings and Glutes. I was not the only person in the Club that was sore in those spots.

Plus, I themed my classes around hamstring strength this week. When we feel like our hamstrings are tight, it is more likely they are weak. Ordinary people. The classes actually helped me get a little relief.

The news is so dark. I can understand, sort of, a kind of, interpersonal cruelty. What I can’t understand is how it can be tolerated on a larger scale. And yet… there is a kind of complicity in not doing anything about Gaza, Myanmar, India, the southern U.S. border… there is so much suffering. One family at a time.

Like the siblings and parents of this vibrant young woman, an engineer in North Dakota, that my friends knew so well.

Make me an angel that flies from Montgomery… to believe in this livin’ is just a hard way to go.

Last updated May 16, 2021