Today I walked over to A’s and worked on the garden. I finished laying a brick path down the middle of the herb garden. I cleared and leaf-mulched the area for edible perennials (strawberries, prickly pear, horseradish, and soon, asparagus). I cleaned up Percy’s grave and the path to it. I watered the garden. I also did some housework. Y told me all about the total eclipse viewing.
Later, we all (except E) went to Seoul Taco at the Loop in U-City. It was great food in a fun atmosphere.
Eerie and uncanny only begins to describe even a partial totality. My phone camera kept trying to compensate for the unnatural darkness, and editing didn’t help much. I was trying for an angle through my dirty porch window that didn’t quite include the sun, for obvious reasons. It looked like when an evening storm is threatening but the sun is illuminating the trees against the dark sky. The service station lights came on automatically. Then the sunny day resumed. I can only imagine what the total eclipse was like.
Yesterday was a beautiful spring day for walking to A’s and gardening. I transplanted the hardened-off cilantro to the herb garden and lettuces/greens to the veg garden, then cultivated between all the rows, and watered everything in. Of course right after that it poured for like 45 minutes, just to make sure everything was watered enough.
Everyone was busy getting stuff done, playing, running errands, or getting ready for tomorrow’s eclipse field trip. It was charcuterie Sunday, wherein we all gather round to eat and meet about household planning, with varying degrees of engagement and amusement. Eventually it all gets sorted, even the unclaimed vagrant socks.
Today I’m “home” doing homey stuff while the others travel south to one of the totality site events in MO, at a park where astronomers and science types will be setting up. I’m glad the kids will get to experience this rare occurrence firsthand.
Most of my days now consist of walking to and from Avdi’s to perform garden and household maintenance routines. I think I have finally attained “fixture” status. The kids and I get along, and S keeps saying “I love it when you come over.” Avdi even seems disappointed if I don’t just hang out while he’s too busy working to even say hi. So I’ve gotten more comfortable just being there. And there’s never any lack of things to help with.
Since I spend more time there than at my apartment, I actually have too much food to eat myself, even after asking Food Outreach to cut back on my monthly allotment, so I’m able to contribute food to the Avdi’s (and myself, since I eat there a lot). This way I feel like I’m giving back something for all the many ways they give to me. Hopefully the garden will take off and provide lots of supplements.
You know I have to throw in some obligatory eclipse metaphor, it being the day before a very historical total eclipse of the sun. I undoubtably won’t live until the next one. Avdi and the kids will be traveling to view it (with the appropriate gear). I’ve seen more eclipses in my life than they, so I chose to sit it out.
Here comes the metaphor: aging makes me very aware of being eclipsed [SWIDT] by the next generations, which is as it should be, but still scary. So I’m trying to live my limited days left prioritizing time with them, which I neglected for so long, so I can be a part of their transitions/rotations/revolutions…ok, end of metaphor.
The weather here is so confused–one day it’s summer, the next it’s winter. I guess if you average it out, it’s spring?
Anyway, it was so cold I had to skip a day of walking to Avdi’s, then made up for it yesterday. All the little green babies are coming up downstairs, though the outdoor ones are taking their time–they’re also confused. I did the usual routine, then just hung out. Avdi has been hard at work and frustrated a lot. S seems to really like his new school and bus.
Today I’ll walk over again (bundled up in several layers) and do erev preps.
After that storm (minus tornadoes), Avdi’s yard became a pond again. It doesn’t drain into the drainage culvert as you might think, just sits there. Avdi had to set up a sump pump with a hose emptying into said culvert. The above-ground pool is sitting in a big pond! Fortunately the back patio and garden are raised just above flood level, probably not by accident, being situated in a flood plain. All the leaf piles are de-raked. I keep expecting to see critters swimming around.
I had walked over after municipal voting, to take care of the usual jobs (other than watering the garden, which was done for me!). Avdi was out, so I just came and went. On the way home, he drove by and stopped to say hi. I kind of liked the feeling of just being in the neighborhood and running into each other, instead of being separated by hundreds of miles. We even vote at the same school (S’s ex-school)!
Supposedly we’re getting another one of those severe t-storms tonight with high winds, large hail, and possible you-know-whats. So I wasted half a day bunkering down to wait, like a fool, then said screw it and walked to Avdi’s. I watered all the indoor and outdoor green babies (just in case) and then walked back home. It was still just warm and breezy. Avdi was working away, with all the kids at school, including S at his new school all day. He managed to say hi and bye! Now I’m back home re-bunkering, I guess. Hopefully the so-called tornadoes will fizzle out like last time. How do people live like this?!
