Some Sights and Sounds of Summer
ITEM: I saw a really tiny bunny in the garden, it was the size of a racquetball. It hopped three feet away and then stayed totally still until I got bored of looking at it. Sakiko reports that it finally hopped away and at the same time a huge rat walked along the edge of the yard. So yes, the rats are still around.
ITEM: I saw an 8 year old at the ice cream place wearing a t-shirt with the Kenneth Anger rainbow design but the rainbow was all sequins and instead of "LUCIFER" it said "HELLO". No problem.
ITEM: I spent a horrible piece of an afternoon pulling fiberglass insulation out of an office ceiling, yuck. But afterwards we went and jumped in the ocean and on the way there the lady at the strawberry stand gave us 10 pounds of mushy unsellable strawberries. We made 2 jars of jam and a strawberry rhubarb pie, and froze the rest. For dinner that night we had Swedish pancakes with strawberry sauce, and watched Poirot.
ITEM: It was really hot for a few days in a row and I pulled the bed into the cool room, where the lizard lives. I love sleeping in other rooms, it's like camping inside the house. Started calling the cool room "the alpine lounge".
ITEM: I made soy milk but at the very end of the process I strained it through a red t-shirt and it turned the milk pink. It was kind of a drag but I was happy to get some new life out of an old chestnut like "red sock turns the laundry pink".
ITEM: Fireworks season has a new style this year-- two or three times a day at seemingly random times there's a single huge explosion sound, nothing else. I don't like it, I want my fireworks to be audibly distinct from a boiler explosion. Thankfully there were still plenty of the other kind, with whistles or sparkles or krackles or that spinning zzzzwwwwzzzwwzzwz sound that some of them do. The good kind. The other night (it wasn't the fourth) the guys across the street put on a real show and since I'm on the third floor I was closer than anyone. It rocked. They had roman candles, big white chrysanthemums, reds and purples, car alarms going off, and the beer guy across the street (the guy who walks to the beer store everyday and says HOW YOOU DOOWAAAN), every time a big firework went off he yelled ALRIIIIIIGHT!!!
The fireworks on the fourth were the craziest I've ever seen them here, and they're usually pretty crazy. I was kind of annoyed by it at home but then we went out walking around the neighborhood and once I was in it, it was fun. The fireworks were everywhere-- every third house or so was outside hanging out laughing and sending massive plumes into the night sky. Everyone was partying on their own lawn or stoop and each party was also partying by proxy in the sky with the rest of the city. One house had a regular party with young people in tight clothes, and the air on that section of the sidewalk was dripping with cologne. But the air on the rest of the block was sulphur sweet, and the music was mostly just explosions and laughter. Last year there was a lot of talk online about whether fireworks were a psy-op or not-- something delivered by nefarious agents to try and destabilize the community. This year, on my block at least, it seemed like it was mostly people expressing joy.
ITEM: I'm trying to cut down on coffee, first by going half caf, then to decaf. The first couple days were pretty rough and I felt like I was just dragging my ass through time. But now I'm into it and I'm starting to feel the feeling of how I felt before I even started drinking coffee. For me that's 2007. Not like everything was perfect for the me of 2007, I just recognize the mindwave. I might bleach my hair again.
ITEM: A few weeks ago, before it got hot, in the late afternoon, I caught a perfect 40 seconds of orange sky, sun out, got rained on, massive rainbow, while taking out the trash. Then I came inside and thought I heard a huge flock of geese flipping out but it was just a faraway rap car catching up with its echo. If it was autumn I'd have called the time period "evening" but in summer it's just the day drifting slowly into night, without care.
links / misc
- On June 29th in Providence the cops were called to break up a fight between two adults, and when they showed up they beat and pepper sprayed over 20 children in the street. Now those families are under additional hardships from legal fees and other expenses. You can contribute to their fundraiser here: [gofundme]. You can also read more about it here: [link], and hear from speakers at a protest afterwards here: [link].
- Flan took a break from her blog but now it looks like she's back, which is great for those of us you like movies about music, movies, music, and/or Flan. [blogspot]
- I made soy milk a couple times before deciding that for my purposes I prefer oat milk, which is easier to make anyway. My recipe for oat milk is right here, it's the first part of an oat milk yogurt recipe: [fujichia]
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