We voted yesterday in the EU elections, but honestly, after hearing the results of elections all around the world, I wonder why we bother…I don’t feel like it makes any difference against the rising wave of nationalism, populism, right-wing rhetoric. Everyone I know expresses outrage and despair that the right-wing parties are gaining such ground, but SOMEONE must be voting for them. GAH. I really hope it doesn’t take a world war, climate explosion (beyond crisis) and a couple of generations to turn the tide again.
Karin and I got her taxes done last week and I took them to work on Friday to copy them, only to notice as I was standing at the copier that one of the papers had a 2019 date on it, and one page wasn’t completely copied over from her worksheet, but now we have to recalculate them anyway. GAH.
It’s been unseasonably, unreasonably cold, a sad change after a few days of full-on summer. So cold still at night that we haven’t been able to plant anything or get the tomatoes outside in the pots so they can get bee-pollinated. I’ll have to hand-pollinate them at this rate, if it’s not too late already. And while I had “net the cherry tree” on my to-do list, we were looking at it over the weekend and saw only THREE cherries on the way. Guessing frost killed everything before it even had a chance so no cherries for us this year. At least, no FREE cherries for us.
While I was sitting in a training session last week with our new graphic designer, I happened to mention something about my daughter occasionally helping our team out with certain tasks. “Your daughter?” she said. “Yes,” I nodded, “The one that sits right outside the door of this meeting room, the blonde one.” She had been introduced to Karin several days before, as “my daughter, Karin” but I guess in the round of intros to so many people, the fact that she was my kid didn’t register. “Oh!” she exclaimed. “The one with all the tattoos?”
Sigh.
Yes. Yes, the one with “all the tattoos”.
I told Karin about it later and she just laughed her head off.
Speaking of Karin, she and I pulled off a “Chuck & John” recently: watching as many of the “necessary” Marvel superhero movies needed in order to see (and understand what the hell was going on) Avengers Endgame before it left the theaters. We watched two Spiderman movies, Captain Marvel (meh) and Avengers Infinity War all in a blur. We were going to watch the Thor movies, too*, but we a) were running out of time and b) we figured what we’d seen was enough for comprehension, and we were right. I don’t know if it was worth it, though, since even though I thought Endgame was fun to watch, and had a decent follow-through and ending, the storyline offed the heart and soul of the franchise and really, the only person that I watched any of them for.
On Friday, I had dinner with Debbie and Camilla and it was lovely to make dinner together (Eggplant casserole with red lentils, DELICIOUS) and sit and chat and chat and chat. We hadn’t seen each other for a couple of weeks and a lot had happened to talk over and hash out. I am forever grateful that I have friends like these nearby. I don’t know what I’d do if they moved away, like so many other friends of mine. I can talk to them about things that I can’t talk about to anyone else or even write about (at least not publicly). It’s a godsend having a space like that, with people like that, for a need like that. I didn’t get home until nearly midnight, though, and the next evening when Karin and I went to the movies, we didn’t get home until after midnight either, and yesterday we had cleaning, voting and then dinner with Anders’ family, so I feel rather zombiefied today.
The lilacs are already fading, as are the grape hyacinths, but the pansies are thriving in the cold weather and all the pots I put a couple of plants in have exploded into full cupcake tops of pansies. The rowan (mountain ash) trees are blooming everywhere with dainty white flowers, looking like popcorn-headed trees. I love them, though they stink if you get too close to too many of them. The bush in our front yard appears to be dead, so we are discussing putting in a tree in that spot instead. A rowan might be just right! Or maybe a tulip tree. I’ve always wanted a tulip tree.
*I had written two Thor movies, but was then informed that there are, in fact, three of them. This seems excessive.