tiger_spot

Things I am up to:

* Renovating the chicken coop. Current point: caulking all the tiny gaps in the interior of the coop. This is maddening and smells like cleaning pennies.

* Homeschooling Morgan. This has switched from homeschooling proper to mostly school-provided materials now that the school district has, like, realized it won't be reopening this year and taken actual steps. Unfortunately they are trying to do a lot of things via Zoom, which Morgan is more or less violently allergic to (as versus pre-recorded videos or email or any other possible method of transmitting information) so their steps are not really working as well as my steps were. But there are fewer of them, so M is a bit less stressed, maybe?

* Baking. The other day we made a beautiful braided loaf of challah from a recipe in a children's book. Both kids helped with the kneading. Morgan did the braiding part all herself and was very proud.

* Deciphering 19th-century handwriting. I've been transcribing anti-slavery correspondence for the Boston Public Library. This is more or less fun depending on the specific handwriting in question, but a nice useful thing to do from home. I found them via Zooniverse, which has many other citizen science type projects you can help with.

* Writing postcards. Do you want to be politically involved but hate making phone calls? Me too. So I signed up with Postcards to Voters. The kids helped me decorate the first six or so postcards, so those are adorable and the rest of them are rather staid. But informatively and encouragingly staid! I hope they tip the balance of someone's decision to bother filling out that ballot. Several someones, ideally.

Today I am thankful for the two hummingbirds that were hovering around a bush on my morning dog walk being adorably decorative and unusually noncombative.

Today I am thankful for transcontinental airplane flights. I complain, yeah, but also I can go basically anywhere I might want to be in less than a day (maybe two days if I am going to literally the other side of the planet). That is pretty cool, you guys. It's not teleportation but it sure beats walking.

Today I am thankful for stained glass and the artists who put it together.

Today I am thankful for my bicycle. Whoooosh!

Today I am thankful for washing machines and clothes dryers.

Today I am thankful for modern dentistry, anesthesiology, and medical professionals who are legitimately good with kids. (Morgan needed several fillings but was too anxious to cope with the dentist while awake. Everything went very smoothly and she is all better now.)

Today I am thankful for Google Maps. Hooray, turn-by-turn directions to arbitrary destinations!

Today I am thankful for andres_s_p_b, particularly for his mad kid bedtime routine skills and enthusiasm. The color pirates salute you, sir.

Today I am thankful for pipes. We're right in the middle of a truly nasty multi-year drought, and I can still turn a knob to make clean water, at any temperature I want, fall from the ceiling. That is pretty cool, you guys. Heck of a technology, running water.