Health, check, sun, check, krokbragd check

This is brief tonight, because the day got all filled up. Annual physical at which my doctor pronounced me very well, continue whatever I'm doing. 

Handsome Son drove me, picked up sandwiches for lunch, then we came home and lunched on the deck then when it got a bit hot, came indoors. And drank hot tea (!)

After he left I slept, then I was in online meetings. 

While he was here he helped me put up the summer linen panel sunshade in the passthrough. This is where that lucet braid will be stitched, on the hem. 

I thought you'd like to see what the afternoon sun is like, western exposure, and why I have the panel and the door curtain.

There's a reduced glare also reduced heat build up.

And I did more krokbragd yesterday, tomorrow I'll continue.

I'm getting the hang of it. This looks so simple but it's very clever. Each pick (row) sinks into the previous row to create the design. But it also makes it difficult to read as you go, unlike most weaving. 

After I finish this piece I'll get on to that hall floor design. First I have to figure out what kind of weaving it needs. 

Happy day everyone, from fit Boud, now battling our Governor and State Police on account of the appalling scenes at Delaney Hall ICE prison.

There's a hunger strike inside because of filthy conditions, by hundreds of people who have not been convicted of any crime and are being denied attorney access.

Large crowds have been demonstrating peacefully while ICE has been pepper spraying and teargassing. 

Then Gov Sherrill sent in the state police who, instead of protecting protesters from ICE, turned on them with pepper spray, rubber bullets and charging horses. Our senator Kim was pepper sprayed. 

He and another Congress member got inside, reported first hand on the conditions, spoke to many detainees. 

I tried repeatedly to contact the governor's office and the state police, and none of the online contact access points worked.

So I took a tip from a seasoned activist and contacted Gov Sherrill's endorsers for her position. The main higher education teacher's union and the NJ AFL-CIO.  I presented my family credentials -- three generations of union members -- and demanded they rescind their endorsement and notify their members why.

Then, gosh, amazing, late today I got four count them, acknowledgements from the Governor's office.  So now we know, if the principal ignores you, chop at their support.

A good day's work, I'd say. Someone thanked me for doing it. I explained that there's nothing a tiny Yorkshirewoman likes better than a good fight to get into.

Happy day everyone! Fight the good fight, it's good for your health.

Especially in Pride Month 

 

A Thing-Filled Wednesday

Rain today, gentle and just what my newly planted containers needed. There are tiny signs of flowers coming up, and hair like fronds of chives, last year's cosmos pushing up tall, and I'm hoping for reseeding forgetmenots.

This morning was my annual physical, or what Medicare grandly calls wellness check. Which they start with a form to fill out and bring,  asking about depression and illegal drugs -- would anyone ever really fill out those details? -- and go downhill  from there.

My doctor is one of the good ones who seriously does the whole exam, not just pro forma.  And she was very impressed that a month out from joint replacement, I was driving, dressing and undressing with no dressing aids, climbing unaided onto the exam table, and feeling cheerful about life. I lost a bit of weight, from my already meager total but she says it's due to the general circumstances of surgery, fine. 

All good. And on the way out, I met a baby. The mom had just put down the carbed in the lobby, waiting for their car to pull around for them, and this little guy was not having it. 

Grumbling loudly, shoving aside the pacifier, looking around indignantly ready to call for the manager. I asked their age. One month!  I had never seen so alert a baby at that age. Lots of luck to them. I bet they're standing at five months like Handsome Son and walking soon after!

While I was at the medical building, I left ACLU  Know Your Rights cards in  the waiting room where caregivers might see them, and in the exam room, possibly cleaners might see. A lot of documented and undoc. residents not citizens in those jobs around this area.  So a little bit more sand in the gears.

Home again very pleased with my day, to soup and cheese toast. Then I continued reading the Grantchester stories.

Now here's how it goes. At one point there's a discussion of a disputed old painting, expert says it doesn't have the careless seeming virtuosity of a genuine Goya.  Then someone explains it as sprezzatura. 

So of course I had to look that up and see the etymology and origin. Turns out it was invented for the purpose of describing the ideal courtier in Castiglione's classic work. He said it described making the many skills and talents of the courtier, from combat to table manners, look unstudied and natural.

So I had to find and read a bit of the sixteenth century The Book of the Courtier.  And so it came to pass that he is now in residence on my Kindle, zero cost after credits were applied. 

You never know what rabbit is in wait down which rabbit hole. Speaking of which, go to She Who Seeks' blog for a great rabbit themed post today. 

 Finally I returned to Grantchester, enriched.

Happy day, everyone, get rich in events today! They're all over.

Good health, good weather, good afternoon

The doctor visit went fine, heart ticking fine, everything looking good, instructed to get yet another COVID booster, keep moving, definitely address hearing, worse since last visit, otherwise routine tests. It's a good physical, thorough. And I'm glad it's done for another year.

Tomorrow is the hearing test, Friday the bloodwork, Tuesday the COVID booster. It's like a part time job.  I get Monday off, Memorial Day.  Next stuff not till September. Except I forgot the eye checkup in June. And whatever comes of the hearing test. Other than that, nothing happening around here.

I did spend the afternoon in the shade on the patio, watching bees working the sage,  reading and sleeping. 

Thinking idly I have to cut back that mass of lemon balm.

Great colors going 

I wove a couple of squares, they're adding up, not up for stitching today.

And found a Patrick O'Donnell Mutts

Happy day, everyone, be well, as they say, though I'm not sure you can do that on command.