The Five Meals I Can Cook

(1) Pasta with cream sauce. I like either linguine or frozen ravioli. Does this actually count as cooking? I do reduce the cream sauce.

(2) Baked cod in a lemon and butter sauce, with asparagus on the side. Or some other sort of white fish with the sauce -- whatever the store has available fresh. Frozen fish just isn't as good.

(3) Tuna casserole. This is the one with the potato chips on top, which I like a lot, but am sick of eating at the moment.

(4) Beans and rice, except Dr. Skull won't eat beans and rice. He says beans are poison, which is something he got off one of his YouTube food cult videos.

(5) Chicken pie, except you need to roast a chicken first and we can't get whole chickens at the moment, due to the avian flu situation.

I can also cook frozen pizza or tuna fish sandwiches or crackers and peanut butter. Mmm, dinner.

Five Things I did before Noon Today

(1) Got out of bed. Because honestly, that's award-worthy in itself these days.

(2) Put the medicine in the cat's eyes. She's got some kind of ideopathic eye condition, which the new vet is managing to cure (the one in Fort Smith never could), but it requires eye drops twice a day and boy does she hate it.

(3) Made coffee and drank a lot

(4) Graded / reviewed 16 assignments submitted by my students, some of which required extensive commentary.

(5) Drove Dr. Skull down to Fort Smith to see his pain doctor there since we can't get in with the pain doctor up here until June 25. We spent two and a half hours at the clinic, two hours of that in the waiting room. We did get him an earlier appointment with the person who does the corticosteriod shots, so that's something.

I did 3 and 4 at the same time, and also a load of laundry while I was doing 3 and 4. So once again this is six things I did.

While we were in the Fort, we ate at Las Americas, which was excellent as always. So I don't have to cook tonight at least.

I had pupusas 

Five Things I did Today

(1) Overslept through my dental appointment. Rescheduled for next Wednesday, at noon. 

(2) Graded 19 assignments from my students, most of which required comments and requests for revisions

(3) Broke down lots and lots of boxes and made a recycling run. (I am still working through recycling all the boxes from the move, though I am almost done.)

(4) Took a walk in Wilson Park, which is where I used to do most of my walking when I was a graduate students. It's much more developed now, with a huge playground for kids, tennis courts, and an elaborate system of walking trails. Also a pool and a baseball field, but those were there when I was in graduate school. Dr. Skull made his famous home run on the baseball field.

(5) Wrote about 500 words on my new novel

Later I'm going to take the kid to buy groceries, so really I'm doing six things today. This is a big improvement over when I was in graduate school, when I would explain to Dr. Skull that I could do one thing a week that did not have to do with graduate school. Though I was taking daily walks back then, but that was just as a break from studying, frankly.

The waterfall at Wilson Park: 

That was there when I was in graduate school, but there's a much fancier bridge above it now. (That pocking noise in the background is from the nearby tennis courts.)

Five Things I Did This Week

(1) Graded about 200 submissions from students, most of them short, but all of them requiring feedback from me. (55 students times an average of four assignments per student, but several of them didn't turn anything in, so. This is increasingly common, by the way: students sign up for a class, but then just don't do any work. When I pursue them via email, they explain that they have other classes and full-time jobs and three kids, but they're planning on doing the work for my class very soon.)

(2) Made a chicken pie

(3) Wrote 3500 words on my new novel

(4) Took three walks, one of them when it was 12 degrees outside, and one of which was on the local trail system, Razorback Greenway. It's pretty cool.

(5) Read a bunch of books and wrote two reviews

What did you do this week?

Updates

This is the longest year ever. How is it still only February?

I continue to email my reps daily, and am considering calling them on the weekends or after hours, so I can leave a message without actually having to speak to anyone. 

I'm trying to get enough exercise. It's hard since we don't have a gym here yet, so walking around is all I can really do. Every time I go to the library, though, I get a real workout, since it's four storeys high and I have things I have to do on every single floor. So lots of climbing stairs.

Eating has become an issue. Dr. Skull's pain level is such that he can no longer cook, though sometimes he is well enough to stand beside me and tell me what to do next. This summer the kid can come cook for us, but he is far too busy with grad school at the moment. I have discovered that I really hate cooking, and since I can only cook about five things reliably, and I'm sick of all of them, it's a dilemma. Do I revert to frozen pizzas? Start living on peanut butter? 

There's a Reddit Fayetteville, and I have learned that if I can't figure something out, all I have to do is ask Reddit, and I'll have like sixty answers 20 minutes later. It's great.

I have to file for Social Security soon, and for Medicare. I have no idea how to go about this, so I'm a little nervous. Any tips?

The MAGA Mindset

Having (wincingly, and so you don't have to) had a glance at several MAGA blogs, sites, and pages, here is what I have learned about MAGA:

(1) If Trump/Elon is hurting them or something they care about, it's a huge offense and horrible and should stop immediately.

(2) If Trump/Elon is hurting other people/things they don't care about, it's wonderful and exactly what should be happening. Hurt those people more! Destroy more of those things!

This is the philosophy of a toddler, and not a very well socialized one. That's our country now.

Walking in the Snow

It got above 12 degrees, so I went for a walk in the snow.

Despite the socialist snowplow that plowed our streets, there was still a lot of ice on the road. People were driving anyway, and one truck was pulling a guy behind them on a plastic sled, which, wow. I guess that's the sort of thing humans get up to because we have no natural predators.

There were fewer people sledding on the golf course, probably because of the vicious cold. But the sun was out, making everything very pretty.

Here's a pine tree in the snow:

And here is Jasper, very pleased that she is not some idiot who insists on going out for a walk on a snowy, icy, frigid day:

What I'm Reading Now

Audrey Schulman, Theory of Bastards

This is the best book I've read in awhile -- one of those stay-up-until-2:00-in-the-morning books. Told mainly from the point of view of a MacArthur Fellow who studies sexual behavior in primates (mostly human, but in the book it's bonobos), it's the story of a couple months in her life, with frequent flashbacks to her past. She's disabled, which has made her, interestingly, a better scientist; and she's living just before and during climate collapse, which she ignores as assiduously as most people do, right up until she can't.

There are some great characters in this, not all of them human, and the writing is great. Five stars, can't wait to read more by Schulman. (Recommended on Jo Walton's reading list, where I get a lot of my favorite reads; and like her I have some nitpicks about the actual science, but by the time I was thirty pages in I didn't care, I would follow Schulman anywhere.)

Kathleen Flynn, The Jane Austen Project

Time travel and Jane Austen -- obviously a book written exactly for me! And I do like it a lot. A doctor and Jane Austen scholar (that's one character) travels back in time with an actor and a Jane Austen scholar (the other character) to meet and research Jane Austen and to get (if they can) the letters that Austen's sister famously burned upon her death, as well a completed copy of the Watsons.

Things don't go quite as planned, obviously; but what really works in this novel is Flynn's ability to give us the world of 1815, and the Austen family. There's a romance between the two Austen scholars which is pretty well done. I kind of wanted a different ending, but it works for the novel. Recommend for all fans of Austen and time travel.

Gary Groner, The Way

Also a post-collapse/post-apocalyptic novel. Here, a virus has wiped out most of the world's population and remains endemic, killing almost everyone as they age into their forties. Will, one of the few people to survive past fifty, is tasked with taking information about a possible cure from Colorado (where he is the only survivor of a bunch of Buddhist living in a retreat in the mountains) to San Francisco, where a group of scientists still have the technology to do something with the information.

We can gloss over that bit, since the cure is just a McGuffin. What we have here is a travel quest through a world where most of the surviving population are feral children and adolescents, and where any towns or groups of young adults have to try to survive in a lawless landscape. Will struggles to maintain his non-violent worldview, which keeps him from killing or harming anyone or anything, while knowing he benefits from violence done by others. Also, he has two animal companions, a crow and a cat, with whom he can talk. This is either magical realism or some side effect of the virus, I was never sure which.

Anyway, compelling story and great characters. Even an acceptable ending. I liked this one a lot.

Ray Nayler, The Mountain in the Sea

I finally read this one, which everyone was raving about a couple years ago. I love Nayler's short fiction and his novellas, but I could never get past the first ten pages of this one. Finally I just kept reading, forcing myself through the first hundred pages, and it did get better. It's still not my favorite by Nayler. I think he works better with shorter fiction.

Anyway, this is another apres le collapse /apocalyptical novel, and it's about that -- how humans are destroying the ecosystem -- but also about some human fighting to preserve a small bit of that ecosystem, as well as a scientist who is studying octopuses in that preserve. The last half is pretty good, but I don't know if it's worth slogging through the first half to get there.

Weather Report

It's not going to get above freezing here until Saturday.

Good thing I got the bread and milk.

Snow in Sunlight

The view out behind my house:

Now that the sun is out it is five degrees outside.

Snow

It's three degrees here, y'all. High of fifteen today.

It looks like we got six or seven inches of snow, from what's on my deck:

These are pictures from the windows, since it's too cold to go outside. Maybe when it gets to be 10 degrees, I'll go outside.

Here's the chicken pie we made yesterday, during the snow day:

It was delicious.

SNOW EMERGENCY

We're having a snow event. Ten to thirteen inches expected, says the weather guy. I'm dubious, but it certainly is coming down.

Pix later!

Cats on a snow day

New Recipe on Cooking with Delagar

 Yes, I have cooking anxiety:

Splendid Pie Crust

Getting a Reply from my Useless Senator

One of my senators finally wrote me a reply, explaining that it was necessary to allow Elon Musk to destroy the country because we needed to cut spending.

He didn't detail which spending cuts were necessary, but from what we're seeing, it's cuts in things like medical research, environmental protection, and OSHA, as well as WIC and Medicare.

What's not being cut, clearly, is the money being poured into Elon Musk's pockets.

Lies and Nonsense and GOP Rhetoric

...but I repeat myself. In case you were thinking of taking Elon Musk's regime seriously, here's a thread on his very own website: 

This speech is full of half-truths, distortions, misleading claims and outright lies.

Basically living up to every meme, trope and unfair stereotype, of Americans being ignorant morons.

I'll go through each of the claims he made in this segment and what the actual facts are. /1 https://t.co/w2oXBvvB88

— Danny Boy (@Care2much18) February 14, 2025

And, as he notes a little further down in the thread:

 

It's also the contempt they have for the intelligence of their own citizens.

That speech was fully aimed at an audience of Americans, via delivery to an audience of Europeans.

Aside from pissing-off half of Europe, he's assuming Americans are too stupid to know he's lying. pic.twitter.com/LhT0N9gWJN

— Danny Boy (@Care2much18) February 14, 2025

Six Ways to Send a Message to Your Reps

 From Nicole & Maggie:

Six Ways to Send a Message to your Reps

Keep messaging, call if you can, write if you can. Let them know we aren't accepting this.

This app, 5Calls, gives you a list of things you can write/call about, and scripts you can use.

American Health Care

So we saw our new pcp, six weeks after calling for the appointment. The visit went well -- he seems like a great guy. And he referred Dr. Skull to a kidney doctor and a pain specialist right away.

The kidney doctor's earliest appointment? Two months from now. The pain clinic's earliest appointment? June 25. Though if we were willing to drive 50 miles, they could get us into their branch clinic in April.

Wow, it's a good thing we don't have socialized medicine, since then we'd have to wait weeks for basic care.

Gulf of Freedom Fries

Someone on BlueSky said the whole Gulf of America silliness reminded them of the whole Freedom Fries nonsense. To which I say, yes. 

Equally trivial, equally ignorant. Our GOP overlords, y'all.

The Elon Musk Press Conference

I'm not that much disturbed by what Musk's small child said or didn't say to Trump during that weird press conference. What seems really disturbing about the whole thing to me was the way Trump sat there, like a lump of fungus, while Leon Skum did all the talking. Is Trump even really self-aware at this point?

Life in Trump's America

What I did today (or I guess it's yesterday now):

4:30 a.m. Wake up and lie fretting in the dark.

5:00 a.m. Get up, make coffee, avoid social media as much as possible.

5:30 a.m. Email at least one (today, four) representatives. Today I expressed concern about the cuts in funding to science research, because what the absolute fuck. Only in more civil language. 

6:00 to 8:00 a.m.: Grade papers. My students have turned in their first paper, which the one where I teach them how to evaluate a source and then they find a source and evaluate it. We're working on sleep this semester, which seemed like a nice topic that could not be politicized. (I want them focusing on the evaluation process -- how we know what good evidence is vs. propaganda -- which if it's a topic like microplastics or climate change, for example, they can't do. They're too caught up in defending their priors to be able to think at all, let alone critically.) 

I have nevertheless a few students who have managed to politicize the process, sending me outraged rants about how I am teaching them to determine what a credible source is -- basically, one written by someone who is qualified and who works in the field; one published in a credible venue; and one which uses credible sources to support its claim.  Demanding that they base their paper on such credible sources is wrong, you see, because science is not always right. So therefore peer-reviewed sources written by experts in the fields are fake news. 

I treat these students as gently as I can, explaining the scientific process and how it works, and requiring them to learn about the peer-review process. This is probably wasted effort, since basing their belief system on propaganda rather than evidence is, in fact, one of their priors. And they will defend it rabidly. 

9:00 a.m. Shower. Try not to fall into despair.

9:20 a.m. Check social media and the three newspapers I read. Wince, close apps, thinking about dying. Start writing the emails I will send tomorrow. 

9:45 a.m. Call the pharmacy's automated phone line to refill my prescriptions. They can't fill one. Talk to the pharmacists, who gives me a list of pharmacies, some as many as 20 miles away, that might have the drug I need. Or, you know, might not. American health care, best in the world.

10:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m.: Beta reading a MS from one of my favorite authors. This counts as scholarly and creative activity, right?

12:00 noon: Took Dr. Skull to a medical appointment. This is both to establish him with a local physician, and to get referrals to the pain clinic and to the kidney doctor. We had to wait awhile, but otherwise the appointment went well. We both like this new doctor.

2:00 p.m. Stopped by the Harps to pick up prescriptions, some for Dr. Skull, some for son-in-law, some for the cat. Yes, the cat has her own prescriptions. 

"Name?" the pharmacist asked. 

"Jasper," I said.

"Date of birth?"

"....she's a cat. Somewhere around 2010?"

2:30-5:00 p.m. Beta-read MS some more.

5:00 p.m. Gave the kid a ride home from school since it was raining and cold, also so I could pass on the meds for SIL. It is rush hour in Fayetteville, which is nothing compared to rush hours in real cities, but I did have to cuss at some asshats who blocked the intersection where Wedington crosses the interstate. Asshats.

6:00 p.m.  Made dinner. Yes, actually cooked. Cod in butter and lemon sauce, plus grilled green beans.

7:00 p.m. Reading novels. I finished one and started another -- this one a novel by George Stewart which I'd never read before, called Storm. Written and therefore set in 1940. I'm not sure I like it, though Stewart writes wonderfully. Think about checking social media or the newspapers again; successfully manage not to.

9:30 p.m. Bed, after an uneasy check on the weather. We won't get snow tomorrow, probably, but maybe next Tuesday, which is the day I'm supposed to drive down to Fort Smith for my fiction workshop. Ugh.

10:00 p.m. Listen to Tana French The Searcher in the dark, which keeps me from despair at least long enough to fall asleep.

5:00 a.m. Wake up. It's raining. Lie brooding in the dark...

Going to Temple

Today I went to the local temple -- or really I guess ONE of the local temples, because my new town has more than one -- with my kid and Dr. Skull. 

I myself have always been pretty meh about religions and religious services, a side effect of living among Pentecostals and Evangelicals, who do their best to ruin the world for the rest of us. But I went today to show solidarity with Dr. Skull and the kid, and it was pretty all right. For one thing, this is a progressive temple, with lots of LGBQT people and disabled people, plus one of my former classics professors was there. We hadn't seen each other since I graduated, so it was good to see him again.

The service was mostly in Hebrew, and they sang it, so I had no idea what was going on most of the time, but the cantor/rabbi had a lovely voice. And there was a brief, not sermon, I guess, but whatever it is that synagogues have instead of sermons, which was great: the cantor told the story of how when Moses went to part the Red Sea, nothing happened. Caught between the Pharaoh's army and the raging sea, the escaping Hebrews fell into wailing despair -- what could they do? They were all going to die. But then Nahshon stepped up and walked straight into the sea, up to his waist, and neck, and over his head, and just as he was about to drown, the Red Sea parted, and the people could cross. It's about going forward even when you see no way forward, and so making a way.

The cantor also pointed out that once the Jewish people were on the other side, they were not in the land of milk and honey, but in an endless desert, with 30 years of struggle ahead of them. We don't win by a miracle, was the point, but step by step and by working together. It's clear she was talking about where we are right now, politically, and how despair and wailing won't save us; and what will save us. 

Also, everyone was very friendly and welcoming. Good vibes, as the kids today say.

I did notice that a police cruiser parked outside during the entire ceremony; and the doors were all kept locked. That part was a little disturbing.

Nahshon Walks Into the Sea

Something You Can Do Part III

 If you're having trouble figuring out what to say when you call or message or email your reps, here's a script:

Something You Can Do Part II

This was on Nicole and Maggie's list of things you can do, and I just want to highlight it:

https://myreps.datamade.us/

It helps you find your representatives at various levels (state, federal, city, county) and gives you their contact information. If you're not up to calling people, you can email them. I've made it my goal to email at least one person each day.

Be specific about what you want them to act on -- stop Leon Skum, or reject the anti-trans laws, climate change, Gaza, whatever it is you're worried about. I have a list, and I'm just going down it, one a day at least.

Speak up, speak out, resist. One voice is nothing, but there are a lot of us. Don't stay silent.

Something You Can Do

 Nicole and Maggie have a list.

Do one thing, whatever you can do. It's better than doing nothing.

Elizabeth Warren Speaks Up

 

This is Grim

All those people who threw endless tantrums over Obama not being an American citizen, because his father came from Kenya, are now perfectly find with Leon Skum dismantling the country to fill his own pockets.

Everyone who wailed about liberals being anti-Christian are fine with this current government attacking Christian churches because a pastor spoke out against Trump.

Everyone who insisted that ten year olds were old enough to bear children and fifteen year olds were old enough to be tried as adults are now happily redefining 19 year olds as children.

Honestly, I feel powerless. The GOP and today's conservatives are fine with all this. The rule of law is whatever Trump says it is. Or rather, whatever Leon says it is.

What am I, with my tiny little blog, supposed to do? 

Do what you can do, I tell my kid, but honestly, what can we do?

I mean, It's a Little Rude

 I've seen posts about how we shouldn't call them Nazis, since they don't identify as Nazis (or anyway most of them don't), but frankly calling them idiots, bootlickers, and fascists seems a little more rude to me.

Also, remember how whiny they got when we called them weirdos?

I don't know, it's almost like they think we should call them by whatever names they identify as, except I thought they had a whole rant they would go into about not being forced to use names for people that don't agree with (what they consider) reality. So weird. It's almost like they believe people should respect them, but that they aren't required to respect other people.

Happy February

 

(Image: Homer Simpson in a car shouts to two guys on the roadside, "It's because of DEI!" Next panel: One guy asks the other, "What did he say?" and the other guy says, "I don't know, something about being a fucking idiot.")