Besides for erev preps, yesterday I reseeded the cilantro, planted native butterfly milkweed seeds in several places to stratify over winter, repotted some tropicals, and watered.

Dinner was quiet, as each of the kids quickly retreated to their various lairs.

Then I stayed late so Avdi and Joyce could go to a Gary Numan concert, which looks to have been epic.  It remained eerily quiet at home, as the kids may have worn themselves out with all their latest adventures.  I actually dozed off.  As I expect you’re doing if you’re still with me.

Today begins the sukkah building, a highlight of our year, so I must sign off.

I did a liquid fast for YK.  I took advantage of my old sick person dispensation and compromised!  Cuz I gotta take the drugs with something, y’know.

I walked to Avdi’s, did some serious garden stuff just to feel useful, then took it easy.  Around 4 I cheated a tiny bit (so I could take meds).  At drink o’clock (5), I broke my drink fast with a real drink!  I was impressed that Avdi fasted through the work day until literal sunset, and so did E!  Not sure about the others.  As I made dinner, E was prepping his own high protein diet.  I inhaled spaghetti and meatballs, then walked home at sundown under the moon.  The clouds looked like peach ice cream, my favorite summertime flavor!  (Me not obsessed with food!)

Here’s what I did in the garden: I covered the weed-overgrown section (formerly the strawberry patch) of the perennial food beds with cardboard and then wood chips, and watered it in.  It may be the only strategy that works.  I’ll have to get more plants in spring and start over.  But look how improved it looks!

I’ve included photos of the garden work I did yesterday (the silphium stalks came down after all), plus the neighbor kitty relaxing in the front garden.

Yes, the country is being destroyed by violent psychopaths as we speak, but that’s just too unspeakable for words.  I stick to what I somewhat understand.

This will not be your typical Yom Kippur post, whatever that means, being in an extremely non-neuro”typical” family.

While I was having a nice productive gardening day, Avdi was dealing with impossibly complicated issues relating to the kids’ mental health, ridiculously unaffordable and inaccessible therapists and psychiatrists for the whole family, and the vicious cycle of trying to focus on the work that will not ever quite support all these needs, while having to lose work focus/time to deal with delinquent kids, and feeling like a failing parent.  Like I said, complicated.  That’s only the synopsis.

Skip to our monthly date, which Avdi needed to keep if only to briefly escape all the trauma at home.  For me, it was another colorful adventure in this strange city that never fails to amaze.  So much going on around each corner.

First, I finally got to see Avdi’s workspace, Nebula.  It was nothing like the boring office space I had been picturing!  See for yourself!  I just love the touch of the urinal planter!

Then we hung out on Cherokee, bar-hopping.  These two joints, The Whiskey Ring and Yaquis Pizza, were both interesting in different ways.  I had a very good Sazerac with absinthe in the first, where we went and sat outside.  The whole time, Avdi was having to deal with Y’s latest misdemeanors.  But at least he was able to share a little with me.

The second one had excellent pizza, and live jazz.  I actually didn’t get a second drink, GF.  Amusing drunk characters kept talking to me.  It felt a little like Baltimore, sort of eccentric/homey.  Sadly, Avdi’s concerns were still pressing, just not as adjacent.  Inevitably, he would have to go home and face it all head-on.

As we walked to the car, these people were creating some kind of indescribable (analog electronic?) music out in an empty lot, under the moon.  We hung out there for a while.  As I said, this city is full of unexpected surprises and creativity.

So now it’s Yom Kippur, but the continuing drama of dealing with divergent needs doesn’t stop for even the holiest of holy days.  I know Avdi feels hopeless much of the time, and I can see why.  Of course it’s the system failing us, not him failing to handle the impossible singlehandedly, but that doesn’t ease the worry.  I feel powerless to help ; all I can do is hope to keep supporting myself so I don’t become an additional drain, and try to find small ways to ease his daily reality.

If I believed in the gods of vengeance, I would insist they quickly bring karmic hell down upon these wicked, depraved fascists, as justice demands.  That’s my YK “prayer”.

Yesterday I raked out the whole front length of neglected rock garden along the fence, except for the remaining silphium (cup plant) stalks that haven’t keeled over yet.  I’m trying to keep a balance between leaving things alone for critters to overwinter in, and prepping the area for native flower seeds that I’m going to introduce to stratify over winter.  Once everything is seeded, I can go ahead and let leaves naturally mulch all the beds.

I also raked out the two raised beds in the back along the same fence.  I’m not sure yet what to use them for this time around, since the pumpkins, melons, etc. didn’t work out there.  For now I’ll just mulch them with leaves and wood chips to break down over winter.  (Just thinking out loud here; my strategies change every five minutes.  It’s the middle of the night, and playing garden chess in my mind is what I do for fun.)

It may not look like it to an outsider, that is, someone who doesn’t see the whole underground picture, but with a little “help” from me, our small part of the landscape will hopefully become even more attractive and beneficial to more native pollinators and wildlife that are essential to balance the whole ecosystem which includes us.  Another small island of life in a barren manicured wasteland of exotic invasives, toxic chemicals, and development.  If you think I’m exaggerating, fact-check me.  It may not change the eventual destruction of our planet, but it’s what I can do right now.  Oct. 1, and still summery.