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Good newses:
We've been generating solar energy since March 22nd! Unfortunately, because of reporting user interface suggesting our import & export to the grid numbers would be available, i assumed we were waiting for Duke Progress to connect. But no, it's been running. Yay! Meanwhile, Duke Power's interface for the smart meter is all FUBAR so it is hard to see the impact.
But yay, solar power!
--== ∞ ==--
Blueberries, apples, blackberries, strawberries, mulberry, and the wild serviceberry are all blooming. The blueberries have been at it a while, as have the wild black cherries. I worry that the cold snaps we had hit at bad times for the blueberries, but there will be some berries, if the bees are evidence and there's no more cold snaps.
The apple in the front yard had been abused by someone right before we bought the house -- cutting off all the branches leaving trunk with stubs. This year it has many blossoms, "covered" relative to any time before. The Aunt Rachel tree in the back has one cluster of blooms. The other two trees, Johnson Keeper and Grimes Golden, don't seem to have any flowers. I know i planted them in a poor shady location, accepting i'd likely have few apples. But some?
I was looking at the mulberry, which had its first flush of leaves freeze-burned. Inside the first pair of leaves i looked at were also some flowers. Fingers crossed.
--== ∞ ==--
Saturday evening i went up to Carrboro to hear my nephew play in his prog metal band. So very very very loud. But very cool to see him, even with the sort of dissonance of the high school senior playing with 30 year olds.
--== ∞ ==--
Dad came over yesterday to help me plan the shed. My sister had shared how Dad had just ignored her telling him about W--'s gig Saturday morning and had gone back to talking about wone of the two women he's fixated on. At some point when Dad was talking to me about the women, i brought up the incident because it's part of the pattern that has been somewhat irritating. Admittedly, he'd come over to help me! But the self centered focus Dad has had for years and years .... well, i was blunt.
He wasn't exactly defensive. He did assert "Well if people aren't sharing, it's prying," but i'd also mentioned how he asks so many questions of strangers to engage with them. I don't know if there will be a significant change, although he immediately asked Christine a question out of the blue about assembling music from tracks after taking his leave. Points for effort, but somewhat performative. But yay, effort! Jeeze. If they had engaged with Christine or my brother's wife decades ago....
This morning i called to apologize. But he seemed to appreciate my comments. Sometimes i do think there are some people for whom nudges are too subtle, blunt might have been needed.
--== ∞ ==--
Edward has a cold and has been sneezing since midday Sunday, appetite lost since Friday. Marlowe has sneezed this evening. I don't think this is correlated with my sense that i now have a cold. Fiddlesticks.
We've been generating solar energy since March 22nd! Unfortunately, because of reporting user interface suggesting our import & export to the grid numbers would be available, i assumed we were waiting for Duke Progress to connect. But no, it's been running. Yay! Meanwhile, Duke Power's interface for the smart meter is all FUBAR so it is hard to see the impact.
But yay, solar power!
--== ∞ ==--
Blueberries, apples, blackberries, strawberries, mulberry, and the wild serviceberry are all blooming. The blueberries have been at it a while, as have the wild black cherries. I worry that the cold snaps we had hit at bad times for the blueberries, but there will be some berries, if the bees are evidence and there's no more cold snaps.
The apple in the front yard had been abused by someone right before we bought the house -- cutting off all the branches leaving trunk with stubs. This year it has many blossoms, "covered" relative to any time before. The Aunt Rachel tree in the back has one cluster of blooms. The other two trees, Johnson Keeper and Grimes Golden, don't seem to have any flowers. I know i planted them in a poor shady location, accepting i'd likely have few apples. But some?
I was looking at the mulberry, which had its first flush of leaves freeze-burned. Inside the first pair of leaves i looked at were also some flowers. Fingers crossed.
--== ∞ ==--
Saturday evening i went up to Carrboro to hear my nephew play in his prog metal band. So very very very loud. But very cool to see him, even with the sort of dissonance of the high school senior playing with 30 year olds.
--== ∞ ==--
Dad came over yesterday to help me plan the shed. My sister had shared how Dad had just ignored her telling him about W--'s gig Saturday morning and had gone back to talking about wone of the two women he's fixated on. At some point when Dad was talking to me about the women, i brought up the incident because it's part of the pattern that has been somewhat irritating. Admittedly, he'd come over to help me! But the self centered focus Dad has had for years and years .... well, i was blunt.
He wasn't exactly defensive. He did assert "Well if people aren't sharing, it's prying," but i'd also mentioned how he asks so many questions of strangers to engage with them. I don't know if there will be a significant change, although he immediately asked Christine a question out of the blue about assembling music from tracks after taking his leave. Points for effort, but somewhat performative. But yay, effort! Jeeze. If they had engaged with Christine or my brother's wife decades ago....
This morning i called to apologize. But he seemed to appreciate my comments. Sometimes i do think there are some people for whom nudges are too subtle, blunt might have been needed.
--== ∞ ==--
Edward has a cold and has been sneezing since midday Sunday, appetite lost since Friday. Marlowe has sneezed this evening. I don't think this is correlated with my sense that i now have a cold. Fiddlesticks.
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I hope everyone in your household feels healthy soon! And yay for confronting your dad, too.
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And very tangentially, what you've been saying about your father suddenly reminded me of a This American Life I heard yesterday, third story. In it a grieving and suddenly widowed husband just wilds out in mania following bereavement. (I am not thinking it's parallel with your experience-- in many respects distinctly not at all-- but I found it kind of horrifyingly fascinating, and you might, too.)
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I agree. It's better to be clearer sometimes.
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Edward is definitely on the mend and whatever wave of malaise i had - pollen allergy, maybe? -- faded quickly.
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And very often a woman widow is extremely evidently liberated by male spouse's death. Even when that male spouse was "good," within the pretty sucky parameters that are social standards.