Riot

Yes, I am thinking about the Detroit riots of '67, since you ask. Yes this is the corner of my street.


As reported in the national news, there was white supremacist involvement, inciting violence, as they do.

Meanwhile, a couple of armed men stood at one street corner, saying they were protecting protesters. At least one of these men was wearing a Hawaiian shirt, an outfit commonly associated with the far-right Boogaloo movement.

And just before the closing of our street and the massive number of police vehicles.

Things settled down for a bit, but then around 5 p.m. people began to once again target police vehicles near 200 East and 400 South, hitting one police car with a skateboard several times.

This mostly happened in the immediate vicinity of the Public Safety Building, police and fire headquarters.
This seems the most important bit. The young people protesting in the morning were replaced by agitators and idiots spoiling for a fight.

As of 6:30 p.m., the National Guard had arrived on scene. It was unclear at that point who on the scene of the protest was related to the original protest and who had come in from outside groups.

All above quotes via ksl.

This one in particular.

Brandon yelled, “that’s it,” got out of his vehicle, opened his back door, pulled out his bow and arrows and began to load it. A video clearly shows him loading his bow, screaming, “All Lives Matter*,” and then immediately aiming his bow at an unarmed black man. He then turned around, aimed at the crowd behind him, before turning back, aiming at the same black man, and then firing the arrow. The man fell to the ground in an attempt to dodge the arrow, and then quickly got back up and tackled Brandon McCormick in self-defense.

The helicopters were hovering a long, long time last night. I kept thinking about Boyz N the Hood. Tried to re-imagine it as the generators at our hospital site in Saudi when I had to sleep overnight there. That noise is unsettling.

*All lives matter, except for yours, so I'll just shoot you.

Affection

Zeppo tolerated me making photos of him.

He begins to really seek out affection.





In March I drifted into the rabbit hole of reddit. It's definitely not as wholly toxic as tweeter was. At least not the well moderated corners that I visit. The local one, cats, a history one, explain to me like I'm five, discworld.

Also AITA - a sort of advice column by consensus, which makes sense because people love to give advice. In one way it worries me how common clusterB* personality disorders/traits are. But then, only those of us who have experienced them first hand and for a long time can describe the confusion they create. Once you see one and know what you are looking at, it can't be unseen. It is an epidemic of a different sort, and it really should be dealt with. It implodes families and corrodes love. I'm sure it is the root of much child abuse, and those children spread the disease to their own relationships.

Nothing but clover and roses blooming. I soothe myself with the variation of greens and textures, aromas. I must water this morning. By the time I got home from work, knees were objecting to any motion other than rest.


*Which describes my father, poor terrible asshole that he was.

Reaching

The California poppies taking over.

"And I promise you this," he shouted, "if we succeed, no one will remember. And if we fail, no one will forget!"

Pterry.

We had a couple of people over to our porch this afternoon. And a zoom party tomorrow afternoon with friends in southern Utah. Everyone reaching out safely, figuring out how to keep friendships in difficult times.

Spent this morning watering, and getting immensely frustrated with hoses and their kinks and catches. I think I have to start again from scratch and figure out how to do this. The rain barrels have been largely used up already. I really want to keep the garden green this summer, to keep the house cooler. And give the new plants a chance. The catnip is going nuts, so I've been digging up some to give away, replanting on the verge, and in pots on the porch to repel mosquitos.

Turned the compost pile on Monday, and watered it well since it wasn't doing anything. Last night I dug into it, and it was exotherming away. Needed water to do its chemistry. When it rains, it rains well, but it hasn't been raining often.

Virually

Our Saturday (virtual) movie night, we did from bed. Eleanor liked this.

Zeppo is getting more comfortable with us walking around. He doesn't even wake up for photos sometimes.

Gust

Between my arm and
Body my warm purring cat.
Tail covers elbow.


Lots of rain overnight. After whistling gusting winds. A good soaking rain, much cooler. Garden is ruffled, and very happy. I'll go out and find the sneaky weeds this afternoon.


22 May 5:54 pm 62˚F Winds NNW 44 Gusting to 53MPH 3.00 miles visibility

At work everyone is still adjusting, after a couple of months of minimal work, more sitting than any of us have had since we started in the OR. We remember that it took a while for our bodies to adjust to standing on hard floors so long, and we have to learn again. I was the resource/break/lunch person yesterday, and I racked up 16k steps. My legs are seriously pissed off at me today, and were complaining all night.

Memorial Day feels very weird this year. We normally don't do anything on these civic holidays, nor do I exactly need a day off. So... yeah.

High up, it snowed.

Looking

Heavy

And finally, rain. Heavy rain, too. A bit of hail. My meadow is happier.

Geranium

Rose, geranium,
Veronica and lentil.
Beauty small and sweet.

Sprinkle

Both dying bushes are gone, as is the broken sprinkler system. Even as plain dirt, it looks better. The two grasses are planted, scarlet flax sown to fill in a bit. Neighbor let me borrow his yard waste and trash bins, since ours were full from both the dig out and the garage cleaning.

The Distant Picnic on the porch was lovely. Just sitting and chatting, eating take out from Hong Kong Tea House, everyone had their own tongs and tea mugs. We were extra careful, of course. Much as I dread getting this virus, (it's a vicious disease) I am more worried about passing it on to someone else, especially friends. So, yeah, many precautions. No hugging.

Ahchoo

Going to try watching the rest of The Nose later.

Thick day yesterday, but got to work with a very good, if still inexperienced scrub. She's pleasant, utterly professional, still laying down her knowledge base, but made two of our more cranky surgeons happy. When we finished, the other three rooms were coming down as well, so everyone pitched in and we all got out before 1800. Yesterday was the first time since going back to a full schedule that I've been on a case that started early. Every other day, every other case, has run long. Not surprizing, we are not doing routine cases, the backlog were the more complex cases that didn't quite reach the level of Urgent - Must Be Done ASAP!. They did a lot of clearing out of infections, fractures, a few toe amputations then. Now we are getting to the Need Doing But Could Wait surgeries.

I picked up a roseacea ointment at the store, didn't realize until I got it home that it was "homeopathic." Used it anyway figuring it probably won't hurt. It has a faint odor, took me a while, then floating up from the distant past... clearacil. And it did help, probably due to the other ingredients rather than the overpriced and frankly nonexistent trace of whatever they diluted out of it. Well, plus I covered my face with castor oil at night, which by itself had only been soothing the worst of the dryness. Anyway, this is the best my poor face has felt in months. Next time I'll just get generic clearacil. Time seems to be looping back around on a 40 year twist.

Friend from work is planning on coming down with spouse and truck to pick up the salvaged back porch windows. And what spare wood I've kept, in order to build a cold frame for their garden. Hoping to dump the wood stain buckets on them, they were left by Previous Owner as well. Which is why I cleaned the garage on Thursday, it's been about two years since the last time. The drift of leaves and elm seeds, dust and blown in trash was threatening to engulf our little car.

I do scrounge, can't face throwing away decent wood in particular. As I may have mentioned, this is the one aspect of my father that I actually liked and respected, and he thought I was ashamed of him for. Nor was he a hoarder, nor am I, happy to clear it out for anyone who can use it.

Somewhat later:
Cow-orker and spouse gladly cleared the rest of the garage, windows off to better purpose, scrap wood as well. They also gushed over Garden. I then went after the other bush, but not before digging out the remains of the sprinkler system. I'm tired, and dirty and quite happy.

After

Didn't think to take a Before shot, but this is what is going to the city compost.




Pulled out some old reed garden fencing to cover the meter after this. One tall grass, one shorter. Mint already going nuts.



The other side will need attention later. The little spruce(?) is slowly establishing, drowned out by mint and various deep rooted weeds. The other red bush gets to stay another year. Getting the first one out was a job, and I'm hurting. Still, satisfying. Couldn't have done any of this last year. Much improved, mud better than dead bush.





Golden Celebration roses getting ready to bloom.

Digging

The bush close to the house has been dying for the last few years. Today, I dug it out. Yes, I am tired. Tomorrow we will plant a tall grass Erianthus ravennae if I can find it. Never really liked it, always a job to keep in trim. The red in the spring was nice, but never lasted, and it's been going yellow with dead bits. This year it was clearly suffering. The last one was from two years ago, and it was in much worse shape this spring. Dug out old irrigation tubing, I suspect its disintegration was part of what killed the bush. The one on the other side isn't doing well either. I'll probably tackle that one soon as well.










Cat in her garden.

Explosion

One on day one.

Two on day two.

On day three...

Poppy

Tumbleweed Tornado.

First poppy!



Dylan says it's been a pleasant birthday, so that's alright then. We walked to the park, masks in pockets just in case. Watched dogs and people and kept to ourselves. He made chili, and all is as well as can be for these days.

I agreed to work tomorrow, it's hard to object these days.

Bearded

First bearded irises blooming.

They often don't eat together, Eleanor prefers her privacy. But sometimes.



On the table.


In a sunbeam.

Up

"We can be up here."

Yes, yes you can. They like the new table, and the ultrasuede cover. It's a very good table. With two lovely cats. Who like to be UP.

Zeppo doesn't always scamper when we walk by him. He comes up for petting, although still slinking down so I can only really give his tail a rub. He wants to sit on laps, he's just not there yet. One day, in his own time.

I'm on vacation. Yes, I know. Originally, it was to have six days off in a row, Wednesday through Monday, and it's really only two days that I would have worked. Not to mention I forgot that bit and drove up to work this morning. When my name wasn't on the assignment board, I twigged to it. At least I remembered to bring up the bag of catnip culled from the garden that I'd promised to the cat people. And I'd rather go in and be wrong than not go in and be wrong. They asked if I wanted to keep my days off, in the midst of lots of days off, and I said, yeah - I'll keep 'em, but if you need me I'll come in anyway.

We are getting busy, but in a limited way. Other staff are desperate for hours, and I have plenty of paid time off (PTO) still. They have paid us for our lost hours, as long as we were there for whatever work was asked of us. I answered Care Navigation calls, stood door guard shifts, as well as the rare actual surgery shift, so I was given "admin" pay. Which does inspire a certain amount of loyalty.

This is the traditional May holiday, surrounding Dylan's birthday. He's a bit blah about this, since he hasn't worked, and won't be working for another ten days at least. He's been going a bit stir. I'm so glad he was born, and that I get to live my life with him.

I finished shredding the sunflower stalks and small branches and twigs yesterday. Shoveled clear half the walk around the garden in back, the rest today. Make it look tidy for a little while.

I'm off Monday as well, unless asked to cover.

Motown

Ok and this one. The haircuts, the Motown, it's all there.

Meetings

I found this so touching.

Backwards

The annual Papering of the Elms.



Shredded sunflower stalks and sticks this morning. Not done the job but my back was done for the day.



Flowers both intentionally planted, and volunteers, all welcome. If it wants to grow behind the compost, who am I to object?



Raspberries thrive. This is possibly where I planted mini pumpkins, succulents slowly spreading. Fennel and chives. Clover and Fescue crowding out weeds between pavers.



Mustard and allium blooming, bearded irises on deck. Bergamot spreading. Poppies have more buds than I can count. Our little juniper dwarfed by soft seeded grasses, lemon balm, lamb's ear.