Good morning. Hello. How are you? #1107
School activists, slipper emergency, killer headaches, therapy putty, Jon Stewart, Pittsboro and PFOAs, construction debris recycling,
Good morning! Greetings from Chatham County, NC. It is Valentine’s Day. Big deal in this house. Happy Valentine’s day. Jane brought valentines for everyone in her class. She is very excited. Mommy woke up with her and put pink extensions in her hair. She is wearing a heart shirt and heart pants. Man. Jane loves Valentine’s Day.
At the school this morning there was no G Wagon again — strep, I assume — but there were a bunch of.. picketers? Canvassers? TAKE ACTION their signs said. They did not say TAKE ACTION for what. They were handing out flyers. I didn’t get one. They didn’t offer me one. Coincidence? My brooding goth look? Who can say. Are these people protesting some benign thing like parking pick-up hours, or are they freaky Moms for Liberty with whom I do not want to engage? Who can say. World is a beautiful place and a mirror world of horror layered on top.
Drive through suburbia on the way home listening to “Slow Disco” by Saint Vincent and it worked. Beautiful and sad. Sun shining through the trees. Lotta kids in shorts in 30 degree weather. So many women walking dogs.
Congratulations to the anonymous friend who just emailed about their divorce. You are doing the right thing.
Action item: if you could like the REAL WILD CHILD Instagram page and/or click “interested” on the Facebook event, I would be forever in your debt.
Horrible headache all day yesterday. Had to shower with super hot water in a jet stream pounding on my neck for half an hour, nap, take way too much Advil, do a ton of stretching, pound on the thing with the Theragun, take a gummy, drink a ton of fluids. And I still went to be with it hurting a fair bit. It was very unpleasant.
But at my last PT appointment they gave me something called Therapy Putty and it is the best. I am supposed to use it to learn to squeeze my hand shut without using any of the tendons or muscles on the top half of my arm, just the ones on the bottom. This is really hard! I put the putty in my hand, put my other hand on top of my forearm, and try and close my fingers without my other hand feeling the tendons moving in the forearm underneath them. If that makes sense. But the Theraputty is so great. Makes me so happy. I was doing my exercises for, like, an hour. Addictive. But even by the end, I still had trouble making a fist without activating the upper tendons. I think I can do it now, but I swear it takes all my concentration.
I am listening to a band called Trash Pandas because yesterday I watched a demo video for a distortion pedal and the band in the demo video’s drummer had a Trash Pandas shirt on and I try and listen to every band I see mentioned that I do not know. They sound exactly like a band that would be in a video for a distortion pedal. They weren’t the band, to be clear, there was just a band-shirt of them. But it’s the same genre. Shades ofd Taylor Momsen’s (wildly underrated) metal band The Pretty Reckless. Man I love the Pretty Reckless. Saw them at Don Hill’s. Great show.
My slippers are still missing and this is slowly entering emergency territory. Emma doesn’t know where they are, so, you know, not getting washed or something. Jane claims ignorance. No one else has been in the house. I am slowly being confronted with the undeniable truth that unless the cats or the robots got them, I am slipping into memory lapses. This is not great. Suddenly I am glad that my heated slippers have to be plugged into an outlet, and I did not get the roamin’ kind. Seriously. Where the fuck did my slippers go.
Exciting news on the local government front:
First, the town council of Pittsboro, county seat of our fair county, formally voted to send a Notice of Intent to Sue Apollo Chemical for violations of the Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Pittsboro’s town water is so, so bad. Like when The Guardian did a special feature on PFOA pollution in America’s water supply, Pittsboro was the first town listed. It’s been a giant hassle for years. I hope they sue the hell out of everyone involved.
Our water — the county water — is from the same river, sort of, but goes into a big lake and that lake gets water from other rivers too, so it’s not so bad. Is it bad?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
But it’s not as bad.
In other local government news Chatham County has now expanded its Construction and Demolition Recycling Program to my nearest recycling collection center and I am so excited. That’s just great. Hats off to Chatham County. This is gonna be great when I build a shed. Or remodel the attic. Or put a hardwood floor in that one room. Etc etc.
Watched Jon Stewart’s return to The Daily Show last night and it was… meh. I am annoyed at his both-sidesism. I am annoyed at his fixation on Joe Biden’s “lapses” decrying the media environment wherein we “cannot” discuss such things, but then he doesn’t bother to mention Biden’s lifelong battle with stuttering at all. I’m extra annoyed that he said “if your guy loses it doesn’t mean the end of America.” Lol, shut up dude, you know that’s not true. What irks me the most is he lets little things slip that make it very clear who he wants to win, and Jon Stewart “the human’s” politics are to the left of Jon Stewart “the character’s.”Fuck that shit. I mean, sure, okay, maybe you’ll reach someone I won’t. But I don’t especially need to see it. Also The Daily Show used to be great because of the roaming correspondents out there in the world telling me about wacky stories I wouldn’t hear about otherwise and there doesn’t seem to be any of that anymore.
And your first guess being the EIC of The Economist c’mon man could you get any more faux-centrist.
You can never go back.
I dunno. I guess I’ll give it a few more shots. It’s only once a week after all. Though I have to admit the new stable of correspondents actually seem pretty funny and good. Maybe they’d be better than Jon.
It is a bummer.
Another bummer is that I lost my Duolingo streak. Ever since Jane has started school, I’ve not managed to find a time to place the routine, if that makes sense. So I’ve been doing it willy-nilly throughout the day, trying to remember each day. It worked for a good long time, but, alas, the streak is gone. Disspiriting. I feel like one of those people who used to email us every day at Timehop begging for streak repair. They gave me plenty of chances to fix it. I am just a bum. Tan triste.
Today’s Media of the Day is Morning Songs, January 2024 by Laudadio. Nick has been writing a new song every morning. The first album of which is now on Spotify. It is great. Excellent minimalist ambient pieces, each a very digestible three minutes or less. Lovely album to listen to as the sun rises. A+ no notes. Can’t wait for next month.
Okay well enjoy this Wednesday and remember to send someone a valentine’s day greeting. It will make them happy. Probably.
is it strange that when anyone says they can’t find something of theirs i YEARN to help with the search? i hope you find your slippers ❤️