I’m getting behind, what with all the work/sleep/work/repeat.  Not that you missed much, just the usual.  Erev preps and meal went well.  Stuff got done.  Oh, and it rained right after I lied about no rain, of course!

I think we’re having a drought, but it’s probably just what it does here in September–hot with no rain for weeks.  Even the drought-tolerant natives are giving up the ghost.  I finally relented and watered the worst of it.  Lives were saved.

I’m on a roll cleaning up the garden and yard.  The herb garden got a chop and sorting out.  You can see my path again.  Other areas also got made more presentable.

Avdi had a lot of errands to run as well as work, so I stuck around and made dinner–tacos with all the fixin’s.  Now it’s another day and I’m trying to wake up and rinse and repeat.

I don’t need to state the obvious about the Idiot at the debate last night, yet I will.  If his blind devotees can’t or won’t recognize obvious paranoid delusion and dementia when they see it, then a debate won’t reach them.  They prefer to be bludgeoned by a confused terrorist dictator to actual intelligent leadership that serves them.  Let’s hope there are enough of us to outvote the lunacy they deserve (or “insane asylum” they should retire to).

In tamer news, I continued my landscape tweaks yesterday.  It doesn’t look like much yet, but it will be an improvement.  I’m saving the major trimmings for the sukkah.  Meanwhile, Y has been adding some festive lawn ornaments of their own!  Like minds.  Also Avdi has cleaned up the pool, since there’s still lots of summer in September.   Does this mean another B&B is imminent?  Stay tuned…

If you politely follow this boring old grandma Blahg, thank you.  But the real story here is the stoic perseverance of my son, doing the work of ten people every day just to survive.  He’s not doing it to win Dad of the Decade awards, he does it to stay above water (sometimes literally).  It’s easy for others who’ve never been there to tell him to self-care, take breaks, reduce his work load, get some sleep, or throw money at the problem.  If you can lend him ten capable people, that might be useful but unlikely.  They’re busy with their own lives.

I’m not very capable or energetic, but I do what I can behind the scenes.  I’m pretty old-school and analog, also mechanically-challenged, being from my generation and upbringing, but I can clean up a house or somewhat successfully grow food, although lately I’m not so sure about that!  Neurodivergence can also be challenging, but sometimes just being there consistently and learning the ropes seems to make a difference.  I hope I’m helping, not adding to the load.

My son is an example of someone who had a rough childhood, had to grow up early and make a living, and like many people, at a young age made some intentional life choices that collapsed out from under him, leaving him alone with many kids to support and raise.  But he never dropped the ball and gave up, just kept doing the right thing, with or without help, and he’ll continue to work his ass off as long as it takes.  It doesn’t help to know many people are in the same boat, it just adds to his frustration.  But it also makes him empathetic and supportive of others in distress, because he gets it.

I guess this is just a shoutout to my example of an unsung hero, which is my son.  A “singout”?  Or a singling out of someone who struggles every day to do the impossible, often unnoticed.  But I do notice and respect him tremendously.  He’s helped me more than I help him, for which I’m indebted.  I hope my inadequate gestures to at least improve his surroundings and watch kids so he can go out help a little.  So when you politely glance at my latest boring garden or grandkid news, this is really about my son, Avdi.

On that note, yesterday I “created” a new garden space for K, to be continued, and almost completed the “future home of strawberries” plot.  The fall veg garden is coming along, with seedlings appearing.  Flowers continue to bloom and produce seed pods.  I’m methodically working my way around the landscape, making it more conducive and inviting.

My son can still get his leather goth on and look good, which is what he did Sat. night, while I held down the fort.  “Held down” is mostly a euphemism for being there and attempting to sleep.  There are times I just let S wind down on his own and don’t risk triggering a bedtime meltdown, probably not the best approach, but I’m not always up to it.  I’m only a Propagatrix, after all.

Speaking of plants, Y and I hung out in the garden yesterday.  They like to help out.  Then they started chasing butterflies to capture and put in a terrarium they made, so when the latter die they can become earrings.  You’re only a kid once.  No vegetables died in the process, so that’s something.

E has been obsessed with baking cakes, cookies, sweet breads, and other confections that we can’t possibly consume fast enough for them!  I’m not sure what the underlying motivation is, if any, but the results are always impressive.

The other day K and I were observing S having one of his frequent fits, and K reminded me of his own childhood meltdowns and withdrawals, and how he has outgrown them to become a different person.  Good to keep in mind.

The weather has been a relief–not too hot or humid, with a hint of skeletons.  

It was a typical erev preps day and evening.  Good food, good company, making funny nazi jokes at the Shabbat table, y’know, just a normal meal at the Avdi’s!  “Did nazi that coming!”  You have to be Jewish and a little weird to appreciate the twisted humor.  Then half the family walked to the high school game and back.

For our monthly “dinner date”, Avdi took me to Kirkwood, an old gentrified town full of eateries, pubs, and boutiquey shops at a busy railroad crossing.  We watched trains go by–there’s an old but still in use station there–as we ate and drank our way down Kirkwood Road.  We had an assortment of excellent tacos and margs at Mission Taco, then craft brews at 4 Hands tasting room and patio, where we sat outside at sunset along the busy tracks and talked.  Then we checked out Andy’s for authentic frozen custard–my first, and really good.  Finally, we watched a freight train and Amtrak pass each other at a crossing.  It’s like a train lover’s paradise there.  It was a beautiful evening.

I am living the good life here—Avdi feeds me sumptuous steaks and gave me a fancy homemade soap!  Such decadence.  (I should mention the kids, including the new girl, got fed steaks as well.  We’re egalitarian here, not élite snobs.)

My recent sowings (plus the obligatory weeds) are germinating already, so hopefully we’ll get more food going into fall, or winter, or whatever the hell they have here!

On Labor Day, I agreed to watch S while everyone else went to the MOBOT Japanese Festival, but typically, at the last minute, S decided to go, and Y decided to stay home!  So Y and I got to spend some good time together talking and hanging out.  They often express serious concern about how humans are destroying the environment, and suggest we just go all the way and destroy ourselves so the earth has a chance to recover.  I sense this is one of many existential issues a lot of young kids are preoccupied with now.  I can’t say I disagree.  It’s just sad we’ve passed this apocalyptic vision down to them.

In the garden, I’ve now cultivated and reseeded every available space between ongoing crops, so the garden will hopefully continue to produce cool-weather veggies through fall, whenever that is.  The weather has been a little more conducive lately.  The tiny cantaloupe is the one that made it.  Watermelons did slightly better, but not by much.  Squashes and pumpkins simply disappeared.  Rumors about my “green thumb” have been greatly exaggerated.

It seems the kids have a little crew now that regularly plays in the house and yard, or rides bikes together.  A new girl joined the group, so it’s four.  Avdi and I sat drinking Palomas (by me) as he worked, enjoying the sound of kids happily trampolining and playing outside.  Avdi’s has become a sort of welcoming safe house for kids and grownups alike.  Not exactly the infanticidal “childless elite” of JD Vance!

I seem to be having a “day off”?!  The others went to Paint Louis (graffiti and music fest), which I did last year, see my FB cover photo.  (The car was too full this year, so Avdi dropped me home.)  I think I’ll have my own “Slainte” Louis ahahahaha…

I slept over last night, and actually slept and had at least one good dream, very unusual.  E was as usual baking up a pâtisserie of cookies, banana chocolate chip bread, and even pretzels!

I get to eat some of my free charitable food handouts at home!  And drink my not-so-free booze (hence,”sláinte”)!  Lately I mostly seem to eat and drink Avdi’s.  And hopefully mostly earn it.

Look at this gorgeous eastern black swallowtail cat on the dill!  And all the other colors of life going strong in the grueling sauna.  Apparently September is totally part of summer in MO.