Bolero? in Everyday Ramblings

It is crepe myrtles on the flower clock. And sunflowers.

We have turned toward fall. And today it is overcast and cooler than it has been. I was able to sit on the east side of the bus this morning on my way to the grocery and look out the window at the flagship community garden down that way that is big and sunny with no precarious overhanging oaks like we have.

The oaks have filtered the light that my tomatoes are just ripening. This morning I harvested the first of what will be a number of Gold Nugget Organic Tomatoes that I grew from seed! I feel like I have a personal relationship with these two intertwined plants. It is such a simple joy.

I have one plant with a couple of traditional sized tomatoes that are still green and one that I think is a Sweetie Tomato. A nice mix. Some of the flowers I planted late are coming up adding some color. I did have a fail this morning when I knocked over a healthy chard seedling that I carefully carried down there and broke all the stems but one. Luckily, I have a couple more I can get in and the one I planted Monday looks great.

Nuts and carrots and tortilla chips are back in my diet rotation. Yay.

It is clear with my current schedule that I can only manage two weight sessions a week. A third is too much. It is a relief to let the attempt at the third go.

One of my long-time students mentioned in passing this morning that I seemed happy. Later in the produce section of the store I realized that she was right.

We need hope. We need joy. Even if based on our circumstances we feel like either of those things are not available to be experienced right now.

I think about our Black Americans and the difficult circumstances they have endured for 400 years as a group and how much their perseverance, strategy, faith and hope for the long haul have sustained them.

One of my Marine friends used to tell me back in the days when I was a stockbroker…failure is not an option. If we can celebrate the incremental wins and hold out for the long term, I do think when it comes to rights for all people failure can indeed not be an option.

Setbacks, sure, and we have experienced some with rights, currently and proposed being taken away. We will prevail.

I talk about all sorts of things with my classes beforehand. We have had an influx of active daylight injection drug use in the area right where I live and normally walk with the warmer weather, including a woman standing across the street shooting up with her back to the sidewalk at 4 PM the other day. People lying sprawled on pathways, zonked to the world. I was talking about this. It was a bit of a depressing way to start class.

My LWV Unit Coordinator sent me an email this morning with a link to how you can get on the list to testify in front of the mayor and city council and suggested I try that. One of my other students was saying the mayor is in denial about how bad it is out there. I am not sure about that, but this would be a way to find out.

It isn’t safe, that is the issue. The drug use is what it is. It is the fact that there is so much crime around drug use and the new drugs are making people psychotic.

It so sad. We need safe injection sites until we can get a handle on the causes and flow of drugs. Gavin Newsom, your veto is a bad look. I can understand why people don’t want the safe injection sites in their neighborhoods but come on would you rather have to step over someone you aren’t even sure is alive on the path ahead? Or have your kids do that?

Anyway, I brought the class around to a happier place at the end by reading a poem about a guy dancing alone in his kitchen in his socks to Ravel’s Bolero. They didn’t exactly understand it, but we had fun talking about why.

Fingers crossed; the plan is to go for a walk tomorrow morning with Mrs. Sherlock.

Last updated August 27, 2022