Following Tangents

Henry & Eleanor together at 
I love that she's reading a book and he's asleep.

As some of you gentle readers know, I write novels. Two are in print, and there is a third in production. I am heavy on research and accuracy, especially in the new book where I am dealing with real events...even if they happened at the end of the 12th century. This means I have spent much of the last few years studying maps, travel times, battles, and armor. I confess, I'm better at clothing parts than almost anything else...years in the theater can do that to you, but I happen to find that particular time period fascinating because so much was happening and almost everything we read about it is from a single perspective: that of the Crusaders and the church. Life at the end of the 12th was messy, bloody, disease ridden, smelly, toxic, and really, really colorful. I love the people who populated that period: Eleanor of Aquitaine, Salah ad-Din, the Jews of al-Andalus, and the tribes of the Maghreb. Of course, Eleanor is my all-time favorite kick-ass heroine. She was one tough cookie who managed to pretty much live life on her terms. She was a force of nature, out-dealing both her husbands, and especially by outliving Henry II who was, even by history's loose standards, a total putz who couldn't keep it in his pants. 

I always thought Peter O'Toole did a fine job capturing his essence in THE LION IN WINTER, while Katharine Hepburn was a great Eleanor. Thank the playwright/screenwriter, James Goldman, for the fabulous script. I feel like I've spent enough time with those two, Eleanor and Henry, to think they must've sounded much the way Goldman wrote them. Their disagreements were legendary, as were how they behaved toward each other despite producing a whole lotta kids, 8 in all,  including King Richard the Lionhearted and King John - aka Lackland -  who happens to be best remembered for being the usurper-villain in the Robin Hood stories. Never mind that he was the one who signed off on the Magna Carta, but who's looking, right?

I confess, I love the research. I love digging into weird stuff, following tangents, and filling my head with wacko-factoids. Yeah, I'm usually pretty good at trivia, too, but this is different. When I was doing the research for Dream Dancer, I spent hundreds of hours in the libraries at the University of Minnesota because the internet was in its infancy and for the early research years, Google didn't exist. Yeah, I used Mosaic and some library-sharing sites, but they were in their user unfriendly period and answers were not fast or reliable enough. I did make some good friends in the U of Mn School of Mines and Metallurgy, especially in their maps library. These guys got so excited about my weird questions, that I had all sorts of help finding answers. It was fun. Whereas I was inventing a culture and a people for Dream Dancer, the characters in the new book lived in a real historical period in real places with some pretty real battles. Sometimes that made stuff easy, other times, it made it impossibly hard to make sure I was getting it right. Since lots has been documented, I was swimming in the sea of info-overload. 

Lately, it feels like it's enough already. The book has been through continuity, line, and copy editing, as well as a trip through the machete machine. I am in the death throes of getting this tome out the door to the woman who will do the interior design as well as the cover. I am just about ready to lock it down and send it off. I'm really excited about this, and really tired of looking at it. 

Retiring didn't mean I was gonna stop working. If anything, I'm working harder these days. There are three novels behind this one in various stages of completion, and one of them actually gets the most attention since it will be next. That one's about an art lawyer. And yes, I have a team of legal eagles who have been great about answering the endless stream of questions I send out. With any luck, that one will go to editors sometime next winter, probably around February, but don't hold me to it. I'm terrible with deadlines. 

Enough whining.

Apartments at the Rodney

I do want to mention the collapse of the condo building in Surfside. Until the folks retired to Delray Beach, we spent a whole bunch of Thanksgivings about 5 blocks from the building, at an oddly magical place called The Rodney. I have great memories of my whole family...aunts, uncles, cousins, all taking apartments along the row...and running amok. The Rodney was totally out of place amidst those gleaming buildings. I used to wish my folks would buy a place in one of them. They were so glamorous with their shining white balconies, with chandeliers in the lobbies visible from the street. Oh, to be on the ocean side and stand looking over the water. But having grown up on the South Shore of Long Island, I was pretty familiar with salt-water erosion. We saw it on a small scale at our beach club where every year, some structure was in need of new concrete and general "realignment." As I listened to the reports on the news today, they were talking about the same stuff our earth-sciences teacher was talking about in high school: the importance of properly established run-off paths, sand settling, stuff like that. And I have to wonder why in this day and age, when a report about just this issue was filed in 2018, no one acted on it. We have enough deep-earth-discovery technology that testing for stability should be routine on a sand bar...and that's exactly what Miami Beach is. This is a tragedy that could have been prevented with proper maintenance. What is wrong with our nation that a structure with routine safe inspections can fail catastrophically like this one? Are we so focused on cheap that the price of life is not even in the equation? Where are our priorities?

Maybe that's easier to answer than one might think. Our priorities have moved away from science into fantasyland not only with vaccinations, but with infrastructure as well. It's easy to call the pandemic the big lie...as long as someone you love hasn't died from it...the same way it's easy to ignore the cracks in the roadbeds of bridges or on the walls of tunnels. It's also about cutting costs, saving a buck, and accepting okay, not best, practices in construction. It's about pseudoscience replacing fact-based medical practice. Look at any penis-enhancing drug, or miracle weight loss beverage. Someone is buying that bull-oney hook, line, and sinker. 

We have become easily deluded into believing whatever slick nonsense is on television or the internet. We have chosen to believe the snake-oil salesmen because they wear expensive-looking suits and Rolex watches...real or fake. Doesn't matter because we are a gullible people, a nation of dupes. The sheer number of telephone scams people fall for should tell you something right there. The princes of Nigeria may be gone, but yesterday, I got a voicemail telling me there was an unauthorized charge on the credit card assigned to my Amazon account and to press 1 to report it. Not even the DO NOT CALL lists work. Clearly, I'm not the only one who thinks we are patsy nation. 

I don't see a lot of hope out there on the horizon for straightening out the priorities of this country. There is no middle ground any more, and too many MAGA hats are still running the GOP. Unless that changes, or the Senate goes blue, this stalemate will go on for yet another election cycle. I wish President Biden luck in his quest to get the GOP to move on any issue. Even one would be a baby step in the right direction. You just gotta hope.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

If you don't recognize the number, don't answer the phone.

If someone is for real, they will leave a message. 

Duh. 

Message on a Menu

So, my cousin Matt posted this picture on Facebook. Now, Cousin Matt is a level headed, no drama-kinda guy, and even he found this to be rather bizarre. I know we've all heard how wearing a mask is a kin of a gold star (and I kid you not, that bright star herself, Marjorie Taylor Greene really said this) from the Nazis:

Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazis forced Jewish people to wear a gold star...

I don't know about you, but that makes all those gold stars I got at my last job seriously suspect. Anyway, I'm equally sure Solzhenitsyn is spinning from having his name taken in vain in this way. 

We managed to have an interesting back and forth about the meaning behind the message:

Me: I’m not sure I would want to eat there. What other health and safety rules do they feel are part of the lie?

 Matt: I don’t think it’s a bad place, but a lot of people around here are very dramatic and put upon by mask wearing. You see nazi comparisons, the don’t tread on me flag, still trump flags all over the place eight months after the election. Everything is another infringement on their rights and there’s a constantly simmering resentment that never goes away.

Me: I get that. Really. But when health regulations are minimized, I can't help wondering about how the kitchen is run. We had a spate of kitchens with violations during the pandemic here in MN. The other part is why even put that on your menu? What message are you telegraphing? Does that become a valid question?   

And here comes the part I really liked:

Matt: Sure. And the most foolish part of it is that a business is choosing to needlessly alienate at least half of the people who see the sign. But there is no logic or reason involved in these things. A lot of anti vaxxers around here too, those things go hand in hand.

Let me repeat the key sentence in that last graph: The business is choosing to needlessly alienate at least half the people who see the sign. 

I am certain there will be people who will defend the right of the restaurant to post that notice. I am sure there is an audience for that sort of thing. I am equally sure that people want to eat in a place with the risk to their health is minimal at best. But it raises a bigger question, one I've written about before and I am sure I will write about it again: appearances matter.

When a new business opens its doors, usually a great deal of thought has gone into the name of that business and the visual branding of said business. You want me to learn the name, know the name, associate the name with good stuff. That's pretty much a given. Inside said business, you want your employees to appear confident, qualified, and well-versed in their chosen field. This is true to everyone from the bottom rung up. It doesn't matter what the job is, it should be done well. This is pretty basic stuff, folks.

So why go out of your way to tell strangers who come into your establishment that you think the pandemic was overblown and masks were there to make you unhappy? Really? Ever hear of Typhoid Mary?

Mary Mallon in the hospital 1909

Mary Mallon was not a comic figure or an urban legend. She was an asymptomatic carrier who infected the families for whom she worked. Follow the link; read the Wiki article. It's short enough. Granted, this took place at the start of the 20th century. But there are lessons to be learned.

A young woman I happen to know confessed she was scared of getting vaccinated. Yes, her kids got all their childhood vaccines, but she was needle-shy and worried she might get sick. At the same time, she has asked her mother to come to her between rounds of cancer treatment. I explained to her, as I am sure her mother's medical team will explain to her, that she cannot be around her mother if she remains unvaccinated. "If you insist your kids get their shots, how can you tell them you are too scared to get yours?" We had a long talk about it, we talked about asymptomatic carriers, but she said "all that stuff on the news" from the anti-vaxxers scares her. They do say some pretty scary things. I don't know if I convinced her to look at the science, but she said she will get her vaccine because she wants to see her mother. Any reason is a good one as far as I'm concerned. I just hope she actually gets it. 

Look, I'm just as happy as the next person that restrictions are being eased, and we are returning to some kind of new normal. But I do not believe for one New York minute that this is over. As the virus mutates into new, more contagious forms, we will all be getting boosters and updated vaccines. People who are not vaccinated will continue to carry and be at risk. The reality that the vaccine will not always keep you from picking up corona virus, but will lessen the impact if you do, seems not to be registering with some people. You can still get sick, but not AS sick.  Just look at the path of the Delta Variant. 

In the United Kingdom, where the Delta variant makes up 91 percent of new cases, one study found that the most reported symptoms were headache, sore throat, and runny nose. (US publication Healthline).              

The appearance of that strain is increasing in the US and more people, when testing positive, will show up with Delta Covid. Muppet News Flash: it won't always be that variant; soon another one will come along and once again, there will be a scramble to adjust vaccines. Hopefully, the bottom line is that thems that get vaccinated have a first level protection from the worst symptoms of the disease variant. No guarantees, of course. 

HOWEVER, and gee, isn't there always one of those. 

We are not outta the woods yet. Which makes me continue to don a mask in the grocery store. I don't know who's vaccinated and who is not. There are parts of the world where no vaccine is available, and there are pandemic pockets everywhere. As much as I want to go to Israel in the fall, it's not a foregone conclusion that international travel will be the best idea in a few months. All one can do is wait-and-see.  But none of that is giant. There is a much bigger elephant in this room...and it has less to do with pandemic and more to do with science. 

Going back to the article about Mary Mallon. Never mind that she was a cook who admitted she didn't wash her hands very often. One line really jumped out at me:

For example, Milton J. Rosenau and Charles V. Chapin both argued that she just had to be taught to carefully treat her condition and ensure that she would not transmit the typhoid to others. Both considered isolation to be an unnecessary, overly strict punishment.

Nice thought, but completely wrong. Again, she was transmitting typhoid to almost everyone she came in contact with. AND, she had one of her friends providing test samples which, of course, came back negative, while she was continuing to infect others. Do you really think times have changed?

No, they have not. In those days, the doctors and the hospital administrators were the ones pooh-poohing cleanliness and other assorted procedures we think of as sensible. Nowadays, we have whole broadcast networks declaring their lame-ass opinions are smarter than science. Sure, they are. And the leviathan lives at the edge of the ocean. Just like the restaurant with the message on their menu. Their opinions were not based on the science of Pasteur and Lister, fathers of germ theory, guys who changed medicine for the better. The anti-vaxx opinion is based on convenience. 

Solzhenitsyn

Ergo, the real problem with the notice on the menu is the message it sends the patrons of the establishment. Instead of acknowledging we are coming out of a pandemic and they are doing their due diligence to ensure the safety of their patrons, they are calling the actions taken to stem the pandemic a lie, and citing Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to do it. Do they know he was a dissident who was jailed for exposing human rights abuses? Do they think requiring people to behave scientifically responsibly is a human rights abuse? 

Is the lie the part that attempts to save lives, or is the lie the part that encourages a false sense of complacency? 

I cannot help but wonder what Solzhenitsyn would think of his words being used in that fashion. And I cannot help but wonder what other science they discard in their quest for their version of the truth. 

And even if Matt thinks this is an okay place, I'm not so sure if I lived near there, I would eat in that establishment. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Yeah, the masks, for the most part, can come off.

That said, be smart about crowds and small spaces.

                                      And remember, little kids are not yet vaccinated.                                                            

When G-d Sends A Rowboat

Well, the nation is moving slowly back to some kind of normal. I'm not completely certain what that means or what that is, but I think that isn't completely realistic thinking. BACK is not the right word. We will never go back to what once was. We have lost our 21st century pandemic cherry to COVID, and while a hundred years ago we managed to survive Spanish Flu, this time, the vast array of transportation modes made transmission rates explode. For the moment, masks are off, people are gathering inside public spaces, and even I'm trying to figure out if my fall jaunt to Israel is gonna happen this year. The jury is still out on that one.

The first minyan back in the chapel
17 bodies/16 zoom boxes. Not too shabby

One of the more interesting conversations about the new normal came this weekend. Our shul had regular services with a full Torah service. Yes, masks were in place. At the same time over 100 intrepid souls sat in our regular places in the pews, we were still streaming live. That stalwart factor of my life, morning minyan, is now outside on Sundays, weather permitting, and inside on Tuesdays. We will gradually add more days. But therein lies the rub: our morning minyan now spans two countries and a bunch of states. 

We have regulars zooming into Minnesota from Canada, New York, Alabama, and Wisconsin. These folks are there every morning and as long as we can see 'em, they are counted to make up the 10 necessary for a minyan. As we go live, do we stop counting them? Does it have to be 10 people in the physical room? Or 10 faces we can see? But we have created this incredible, diverse community and we were there for each other during the duration. How do we not continue to count them to make a minyan? 

One idea is 10 in person is a minyan. 10 on zoom is a minyan. 5 and 5 is not. For a full Torah service with aliyot, 10 must be in the room. What happens if there are not 10 in the room? Is reading from a tikkun without aliyot permissible in this configuration? 

To many, this is a tempest in a teapot. This is our shtick and who cares so long as we make a rational decision for our community? Why does this matter?

Well, it matters to me. Or, should I say, the process matters to me. The conservative movement (not to be confused ever with conservative politics or political parties) looks to the traditions of rabbinic Judaism when faced with change. 

Balancing tradition and modernity is a dance, which ignites innovative ideas—those that shape our work to strengthen synagogues and those that influence how we live meaningfully as Jews today.                                                                United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism 

I'm not going into all the details of what the movement does or does not do, follow the link above if you're curious. But I am interested to see how the adjustments we have made this past year to deal with the pandemic become part of the new reality. It's really very exciting to be in the middle of these changes. 

Changes are not to be underestimated. They aren't always perfect or even tidy. Sometimes, they start small and snowball into something greater. Sometimes it's a small adjustment that ends up with a seismic shift. You never know. Kinda like the butterfly effect. 

And speaking of seismic shifts...

There's an old joke (#3 according to the ZJOD hit parade of humor and one of my all-time faves) where Sam is in a flood zone. He's on the porch when a man comes by in a rowboat, then the second floor when a motorboat comes, then on the roof when the helicopter comes, each time, turning away help by saying "G-d will save me! I have perfect faith!"  And he drowns. When he stands before the throne, he complains "Why didn't You save me? I had perfect faith!" And G-d answers, "But Sam, I sent you a rowboat."

G-d sent Israel a rowboat this week. 

Naftali Bennet & Yair Lapid

Look, I think the first PM of this shift, Naftali Bennett, is significantly too far to the right but here's the thing: this is a coalition government. An Islamist party is in the mix, and the ultra-orthodox are out of the coalition. This is progress. NOT having the Haredim in the mix means that the rest of the Jews have a chance of having more democracy in a place where the population is so diverse and the government these last twelve years has been so deaf. 

I was listening to Arieh O'Sullivan's interview with Jerusalem Post editor-in-chief Ya'akov Katz for KAN, the Israeli English news service. Like most Israelis, he sees this election as an opportunity for the government to actually work for Israelis instead of themselves and power. He points out that Bennett may hold right wing views on some policies, but in the past, while holding other posts, he has encouraged meetings with all sectors of Israel, including Reform and Conservative rabbis. The exclusion of the Haredim from this coalition means relations with the Jewish Diaspora stand a chance of improving. 

Israelis are exceptionally good at criticizing their own government. They have raised it to an art form. Bibi is still a MP and is already saying he will bring this government down. Haredim are planning a march for tomorrow (Tuesday) to protest the new government. Bennett et al are not going to sail smoothly into fixing what's wrong. But they get to begin that process. They will learn to navigate the reefs and the shoals. With luck, they'll have lots of co-pilots willing to help out when and where needed. With even more luck, they'll all cooperate and learn to listen to each other.

This election isn't a rescue helicopter or even a motorboat. It's definitely a rowboat, but one that might help Israel to move slowly forward out of the morass that it is in politically, socially, and internationally. 

Yeah, year, I'm Pollyanna. We know this. But I need to believe that there is hope for the new government the same way there is hope for our government.

Meanwhile, back at the golf club: Yurtle McTurtle made one hellaciously stupid pronouncement today. As The NYTimes reported today:

Senator Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican and minority leader, threatened on Monday to block any Supreme Court nominee put forward by President Biden in 2024 if Republicans regain control of the Senate next year.  

“I think in the middle of a presidential election, if you have a Senate of the opposite party of the president, you have to go back to the 1880s to find the last time a vacancy was filled,” Mr. McConnell said in a radio interview with the conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt. “So I think it’s highly unlikely.”

Why now? Why say something this stupid before the midterms? Well, when you have a teeny-tiny tootsie like the other guy and you're under his thrall and desperate to keep him from exposing whatever teeny-tiny Acme Anvil he has dangling over your head, you're going to say anything to keep him happy. The GOP is not in control of the Senate. The GOP continues to prop up that less-than-benevolent despot because if they don't, he will drop that anvil on their heads. Which, of course, speaks to the larger issue of whether or not our rather fragile democracy is in danger. The biggest hope we have is that in their investigations into tax returns and business practices, the various attorneys-general will be able to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Feckless Loser is a fraud, a phony, a thief, and a charlatan who has preyed on his minions. We can only hope that his minions finally come to understand they have been betrayed in the worst possible way. If not.......

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

COALITION: 

an alliance for combined action, 

especially a temporary alliance of political parties forming a government 

In Israel's current state, this is a good thing. 

Mowing As A Metaphor: Care-taking and Care-Giving

Today is June 7th. 

My honey, John Deere

I used to make it a point to mow the lawn on June 7th, but them days are long gone. As is my beloved tractor. It was the zen of mowing that I loved. The idea that there was a beginning, a middle, and an end. With earbuds in place, a Broadway show on the iPod, and the big green mufflers over my ears, I got approximately 54 minutes of total alone time. FIL would stand on the deck, moving his arms like one of those guys guiding planes on the tarmac, pointing to a line of lawn I may have missed, but I couldn't hear a damn thing but the music.  That was the good part. I couldn't hear squat.

Those 54 minutes were important to me. Those were 54 minutes during which I could quiet my mind, focus on something specific, and not be afraid of the next minutes. Yeah, I was always afraid of what disaster would strike next. It was never an if, it was a when. But as long as I could drive the mower up, around, and down, all was right in my world. For the moment, anyway. 

But I always mowed on June 7th (unless it was Shabbos because I never mowed on Shabbos) because that's Ziggy's secular date of departure. The secular part is the rationale here. Ziggy was fiercely devoted to his suburban lawn, and caring for it fell to me. Mowing, weeding, feeding...all symbolic acts meant to preserve something. I couldn't do much for the lawn at the cemetery, but I could take care of his lawn.

Sometimes, when I feel particularly bleak, I remind myself that care-taking  and care-giving are inexorably linked. Sure, it's easier to care for and about things you love, that confront you, that force you to pay attention. Other things may dance around the periphery, but don't fall into either care-taking or  care-giving categories. Thinking about stuff like that can make your head explode. Or, it can make you revisit some priorities. 

I happen to know a guy who is up at the Enbridge Line 3 protest. I envy him. He's putting his convictions on the line. I happen to think, along with a couple of petrol-engineers I know, that this pipeline is a bad idea for a whole host of reasons. From The Washington Post: 

The intensifying conflict over Line 3 has been driven in part by Indigenous activists who see a double-barreled threat in the pipeline: a carbon-producing fossil fuel project at a time of worsening climate change and one that also risks polluting tribal lands in the headwaters of the Mississippi River. Emboldened by some victories — such as the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline, and the gatherings at Standing Rock — protesters hope to intensify pressure on the Biden administration to suspend the pipeline permit before the project is completed.

Land mismanagement coupled with fossil fuels is a continuous recipe for disaster. We already know what fossil fuels do to the environment, yet no one seems to be in a hurry to stop its usage.  Yeah, yeah, cars and power plants. I know the drill. But if this was your house, wouldn't you be working to keep it healthy for your family? The pipelines have long been under fire as environmental and cultural hazards, yet they keep trying to push them through our state. If Enbridge wants a pipeline to Superior, let them run the damn thing through Thunder Bay and keep it the hell outta Minnesota. 

That pipeline is not taking serious good care of this state, tribal lands, or the air we breathe. If we cannot take a moment to pop our heads out of our collective ass, we deserve to keep breathing methane and other fossil fuels.

I can hear Ziggy in my head: You can't fix stupid.

Trickle down stupidity, just like trickle down economics, doesn't work. This has been proven about a zillion times, but some politicians like to take it out for a spin every so  often the same way people ride around in Hummers telling you they're fuel efficient. Sure they are. Not.

I can hear Ziggy in my head: The size and the decibels of a vehicle when added together are inversely proportional to the size of the owner's winkie.

Regardless, there are some pols who think We, the People, don't notice this stuff, that if they say it, we're gonna buy it hook, line, and sinker. Just like the people who still think the election was stolen. They will never be disabused of that notion because people who tell them "Trust me" are lying through their teeth. They're not caring for their constituency; they are caring only for themselves.  

But lawns and lands are not even close to where our care-taking, care-giving responsibilities end. Not by a long shot. There is a democracy at stake here. Sitting by while voter suppression is the legislation du jour is bad governance. If you're still grousing about electoral fraud, why aren't you demanding recounts of all the Republican elections as well? Or only if you win, it's fair and square? Declaring your allegiance to a habitual liar and unrepentant huckster is bad for your constituents. 

Can you say double standard, boys and girls?

Sometimes, you have to listen to what the hucksters are selling. If a political party comes along and tells its constituency, 

we're against:

• increased access to voting, 
• increased access to affordable health care
• increase access to reproductive health care
• increased access to early education
• increased access to modern curricula
• increased civil equity in gender, religion, and sexual orientation matters
• increased background checks and sensible gun legislation

you can safely bet your last buck they are also against a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. These are not the folks working toward a just and civil society, they are in it for the money and the power, in that order. These people are privateers and they are just like pirates on ye olde open seas. And just like those pirates, they are trying to steal you blind, hoodwink you with their fancy ideas that this is for the sake of small government. Don't buy that precept. It's garbage, and figuring it out is not rocket science. 

Jeff and Mark Bezos

But speaking of rocket science, Jeff  Bezos is  taking his little brother on a joy ride into outer space. Excuse me for  being a little sister AND the mother of  sons, but any time an older child says he's taking a younger sibling on a joyride of any kind, it's time to start worrying BIG time. This is from the same school of thought as, Frozen flag poles taste the best. Like a chocolate Tootsie Pop. You should try it!  

Seriously? Lick a flag pole? Go up in your big brother's rocket ship? Even if this rocket ship is one giant safety feature, how selfish do you have to be to risk a sibling's life? Meanwhile, where is their mother? She's alive, but why hasn't she grounded them both?!?!? Has the woman slipped a cog? 

All of which circles back to caring for a lawn. Which by now you realize is a metaphor for figuring out what is important. 

I cared for the lawn with organic, not hostile fertilizers. I avoided weed killers. I kept a wide apron between my lawn and the pond to avoid run-off. I worked diligently to remove buckthorn and other invasive species from that apron....and I have the scars to prove it. I sowed prairie flowers and grasses back there to help suffocate as many of the non-native weeds that I could. I have no idea if the new owners of my house held on to the information I left them about the protective apron. I don't know what they use for fertilizer, but I hope they pay attention to the needs of the big pond. I hope the loons still stop there on their migration route.

I was a caregiver for that plot of land, and the longer I am away from that role, the more I realize that I still do care, and that I miss being the steward of that small strip of Mendota Heights. I'm sure there's a lesson in there somewhere. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Whether you are care-taking or care-giving,

make time to care for yourself. 

If you are stressed and burned out, 

you won't do the job you want to do.