Stumbling Through Adulthood

1. I absolutely fucking love this image. I may purchase it. Artist is Akira Kusaka

2. Feeling a bit better since last week. I absolutely fucking bombed an interview I should have had no issues with, but I was sabotaged -sabotaged I tell you!!!!- by my phone. Let me tell the story, because, wow, I still have no idea what happened and since I was forced to react, I didn't gather all the information necessary for a post-mortem.

Interview was with the library system, for a part-time job as a library page. Second interview. Teams, like the previous one. As I've done before with many a Teams call, I started it on my computer. Tested video and sound. Which were not working. Went through basic troubleshooting. Went more in depth. Nothing. Called dh over in a total panic. Nothing that he could see. We went ahead and started the call because otherwise I would be late and miss out on the interview -urgh- and there were four peopl on my screen. First, I was flustered because dh was there, but he left quickly as I said I had no sound. And then sound, which had failed when I tested it, was now working and they could hear but not see me. Weird. I could hear and see them, at that point. And then I noticed my phone had a message on it about starting video. WTF? So I swiped something and they could see my kitchen counter. Huh. So I flipped the phone around and attempted to come down off the stress of technical difficulties. I had to use my phone for video of me and as a result I always felt like I was looking at the wrong place, ya know? And the phone wasn't properly propped up and I kept worrying it would slip, which it did. Twice. Anyhow, they'd sent then interview questions 15 minutes before the interview, but I'd spent most of the time trying to troubleshoot my video and sound issues. Normally I'm pretty good about giving a complete answer and then summarizing my point in a short sentence at the end but I was completely unable to do that. So blah. I rambled too much, though at least I didn't go over time.

Here's the thing. I do not have Teams on my phone. But apparently, from what I can tell, Teams on the PC sends out a link delegation message. Android was monitoring something somewhere, I'm not freaking sure how, and decided to take over the Teams call. The permissions were closed on the Windows side, I don't have Chrome installed on my PC, and don't use it on Windows, it's installed by default on the phone and I can't delete it, but I use exclusively Edge. I never login to my Android account from my PC, but there you have it. I've never had this supposed link delegation get triggered and I've taken many a Teams call on my PC with no issue. I was completely freaked out by the whole thing and again, after what was a rather stressful week, was not really able to pull it together to project a calm and collected demeanor.

So yeah. That was a miserable experience. Only the second interview in the past 10 months... LOL. The other one was also a CF. My interview, set up on Thursday, was for the following Tuesday. HR called me Monday morning to say they'd changed the job description between the time the PI had asked me to interview and the actual interview. I was not qualified for the new job description, which I told HR but eh, the interview was already set up with the PI and the lab postdoc so HR said we'd just go ahead with the interview. The postdoc told me why there were new job duties. I guess the other postdoc showed up on Friday, packed up her stuff and left to move 'somewhere back East'. No warning, but he did mention there had been "issues" with her project. Note to the PI: if you don't want the lab's dirty laundry aired out, don't let postdocs do interviews by themselves. 🤣

I really wanted that library job. Sigh.

3. I took this a bit ago, I've been meaning to share it. Isn't a great photo, but I got the aurora and the Big Dipper!




4. Sunday, dh and I climbed Mount Si. It's one of those hikes that we'd never felt we'd be able to do (8 miles, 3200 ft elevation) but we figured we'd try. It's also one of the... local hikes that pretty much anyone who hikes who can will do, if that makes sense. So up we went. Almost nobody goes to the true summit (it's a bit iffy) most everyone stops at the false summit, which we did it. It's a scramble up the last bit over big rocks. Which is fine. Except then there is... the scramble down. Some photos.



There were a lot of clouds so no view of Mt Rainier, but you can see Bellevue, Lake Washington, and Seattle over the Snoqualmie Valley. Dh was able to see the train and we could hear it.



Grey jay. They are little beggars and thieves. I adore them. The dude whose head you can see started feeding them and two of them pecked at his head later. Serves him right. These are the birds who stole a cookie right from baby Perry's hand when he was in the backpack on a long ago hike. The look of shock on his face was priceless.


Us. I'm smiling because I have not yet started to think that I have to get back down that big pile of rocks before I can hike back down the trail. 😂


We were up there.

5. Week before last dh, me, my sis and BIL went camping at Crater Lake. The plan was for a hike or two and some astrophotography, it was both a new moon and the Perseids. Sis and BIL made it one night tent camping and went back to Bend, but aside from being cold, they will do it again, which is nice. I was hoping they'd continue to camp after selling their big rig! Anyhow, we got some good Milky Way photos, I'll have to figure out how to upload them and did a really nice hike. LOL. About 1/3 of the way up, I noticed that I didn't have my car keys on me. Which meant they were in the car. Which meant that the car wasn't locked. Since it ws my fault, I scooted back down the trail, grabbed my keys, and went back up. It was ok. I know people slag a lot on Big Pharma, but I will never not be grateful to them for the things I can now do without it being a big deal. I mean, I've done that hike to Watchman's Peak before, but I never would have hoofed it back down and up again, ya know? Some photos from Crater Lake....



Wizard Island and Crater Lake from Watchman Peak.




The car, LOL. When we arrived at the parking lot to hike up Watchman Peak, it was packed, but we had the Parking Goddess, ie my sister, with us and found a spot, the car is second from the right. The thing is... there was loads of park ranger trucks all over when we got there, and I just thought they were doing work or something. We also noticed a lot of people dressed in fancy clothes. OK? See the big empty paved area overlooking the lake? Turns out... we'd arrived at the tail end of a naturalization ceremony. I'm happy for the people who became American citizens there.


Sunset.


It was a nice trip. I'll have to see about uploading some of the astro photos at some point.

And now I'll shut up and stop posting photos, LOL.

Today is August 15th, the Feast of the Assumption of Mary (which is the belief that she was taken to Heaven wholesale and didn't rot like mere mortals. There are a lot of weird and wonderful beliefs in Catholicism. That one isn't my fave, but it's high up there).

(Didn't get too far, continuing this on Monday!)

When we were living in Tunisia we used to go to the beach a lot. At least once on the weekend and often a few times a week in the late afternoon after my dad got off work (at about 2 pm in the summer, iirc). However, after 15 August those trips to the beach would taper off.

Could it have been that my parents/my dad was just tapped out on the beach? Maybe. So maybe this is just an excuse. But when I asked, one day in late August, if we could go to the beach, he looked at me and said no, because it was past "La Madonna".

I probably didn't think "What The Ever Loving Fuck does the Virgin Mary have to do with anything?", but probably some equivalent and I did ask what he meant.

Here's the story, confirmed by some internet research. On August 15th, the Italian fishing vessels would go to sea and either throw a statue of the Virgin in the water or throw flowers and flower petals or both, to both thank Mary for the blessings of the sea, and to ask for protection and further blessing. Typical stuff, right?

Except.

They claimed that 'the sea changed' on that date. Insert teenage me with big rolly eyes. This is what my dad told me. And when I asked a few other people of that generation -the ones who grew up in the big cultural melting pot of my dad's era- they all agreed. You didn't go into the sea after 'La Madonna' because the water was bad.

🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄
(Enough eyerolls for you?)

It seems the holiday in Italy is still celebrated or extended. And fisherfolk in Boston still do a blessing of the fishing waters on the 15th, based on an old Sicilian tradition. Yeah. That.

So. We have my dad, nominally Muslim but I personally think he was more agnostic that a believer, invoking the freaking Virgin Mary to justify not going to the beach from August 15th on. Yes, I know, my dad did the full Jesuit education thing, but this wasn’t that. This was pure local custom and superstition.

And then... we spent a month at the beach one summer, when I was a bit older. My brother and I went snorkeling every single freaking day. One day when we went out, the water was crap. Not clear but cloudy with sand, and the currents had changed and no snorkeling happened that day.

Or the next.

Or the one after that.

By then I was going nuts. Bored out of my skull, needed more books and something to do and swimming obsessively only got me so far. I complained bitterly to my parents that the water had changed so no, I could not go snorkeling and that this was pretty awful. (Yes, I was a brat, why do you ask?)

My dad just looked at me, pointed to the date on his newspaper and said, "La Madonna."

I probably stomped away, which on tile floors doesn't have quite the effect as on wooden ones.

And yet. Here I am, half a world away, noting the changes in the season that start happening mid-August. Ok, so maybe not on exactly August 15th, but the year has shifted from summer to fall and I can start to really see the effect.

The lake was covered in mist this morning. My lake here, but also, Lake Union in Seattle where we row. The mornings feel darker -normal, but this is when I start noticing-. The birds come back to the feeders more insistently. And I noticed some leaves have started to change. This morning, our coach (who had to cox because the cox signed out after finding out they were assigned to cox, grr) pointed out that fall had arrived, that we'd start to see the fog more often. The quality of the light has changed a bit, it feels different as the sun's path tilts towards the Equinox. The changes are subtle, but they are happening.

I suspect that mid-August in this Northern Hemisphere of ours is really where the tipping point is. We're headed towards winter, and nature is letting us know that.

Our Lady, Star of the Seas. Stella Maris. Notre-Dame, étoile de la mer. La Madonna.

MIL had a doctor's appointment and late in June -dh was with her- and he pointed out that her left ankle/leg was majorly swollen with what looked like it could be cellulitis. Or maybe shingles, wondered the MD? Or something else? Anyhow, abx were prescribed and it turns out MIL did manage to take them in a timely and consistent manner.

So then, 7 days in to the 10 day course SIL noticed her mom's ankle is still majorly swollen on a Sunday a few weeks ago. She wanted to go straight to the ER. Dhand I cut short our walk and dinner out and he went over. They called the doctor who did suggest the ER or seeing her for a follow up soon. But SIL insisted it needed the ER so to the ER dh and MIL went, MIL was pissed and reluctant. They waited almost three hours -til like 10PM- only to be told it would probably be another four hours minimum to which MIL said, basically, fuck this shit. Can't blame her. Seven hours is waaaay too long to wait to be seen.

What follows is a few weeks of backs and forths, with a doctor visit in between. There are now lesions and redness on her arms and chest. The leg isn't healing. The MD is reluctant to prescribe more abx. SIL is freaking out more and more and talking about getting (well, dh getting) a conservatorship and/or calling adult protective services. MIL is getting more and more stubborn.

Note that through all of this, there is no fever, her blood pressure and other vitals are ok.

Another appmt with the doctor was made, for last... Tuesday. Doctor wants her seen by a dermatologist or the ER so suggests that dh try to make an appmt and when he can't -because they don't have emergency appointments- she can then tell his mother to head over to the ER, in the same freaking building, right?

First dermatology appointment available is AUGUST 27th.

The doctor tries to insist MIL go to the ER. She refuses and will not budge. Doctor gives and up prescribes more abx, antihistamines, and steroids.

That was Monday. There is concern as to if MIL is managing to take her meds: she isn't great about eating reliably (a lot of milk and eggs) and she refuses to use her pill thingie properly, dumping all her meds in the AM slots so nobody quite knows what has been taken and what has not.

Her doctor called her back yesterday afternoon and MIL supposedly agreed to go to the ER. MD calls Sarah. Sarah rushes over to take her, only to find that MIL denies having said that to the doctor and refuses to go to the ER.

Note that the ER is the only way she can get seen by the specialists the doctor wants her to see in a timely manner (dermatology and allergy).

So they come over here for Linnea's birthday dinner. SIL's plan, which I completely disagree with and tried to gently say so, was to wait until after dinner. At my insistence, they agreed they'd pitch us taking her in "as she's promised" after dinner. Dh is 100% going along with this, since he's been pretty frustrated with her refusal to do anything to help herself. When, as expected, MIL refuses to go, SIL executes on the next part of her plan: calling 911 to get paramedics here.

Which she does. She then goes to hide in the bathroom and let dh and I deal with paramedics and an absolutely fucking PISSED OFF MIL. This did not go well.

SIL told the paramedics that they needed to take her mother to the ER. As both dh's aunt G and I told her, they said they could not because she was clearly coherent (more or less) and VERY clearly refusing. The cops also come when the EMS are dispatched, and SIL was angry that the main EMS guy said that he would not tell the cops to take MIL to the ER, that there was no legitimate reason for them to do that.

They checked her vitals -all good- and eventually persuaded her to let Perry take her home, since she refused to get in a car with any of us.

I'm a bit annoyed with all of this, because this outcome was 100% predictable.

Anyhow, Perry got her home and she told him she didn't want to hear from any of us any time soon.

Fast forward to today. SIL calls David at about noon. TO TELL HIM THAT SHE HAD YET AGAIN CALLED THE EMTS TO GO TO MIL'S HOME TO TAKE HER TO THE ER.

OMG, can we all fuck this up any worse? Dh got a bit irked and told her it wasn't a great idea. I have no IDEA how that all ended up...

The on-call MD called dh, and told him that she'd talked to MIL and MIL had.... agreed to go to the ER if one of us would take her. Dh called and texted MIL. She is not responding to him.

So. That's been the sitch around here. Dh is stressed out of his mind. There is another round of layoffs at work. It's pretty tense.

Me? I'm going to make a plan to at least figure out meals for my MIL and send Perry and/or Perry and Linnea over every day with at least one meal. That's probably the best I can do.

Sorry about the freaking tome, but I had to write it all out.

-- No love lost for Lindsay Graham. However, I'm always sad when they die without suffering the consequences of their actions. Ah well. I do admire the fact that he did step up to raise his 13 yo sister when he was 21, after their parents died, and apparently did a loving and caring job of it, but aside from that, what a waste. Sold his soul to the devil.

-- I got my old lady lifetime parks pass, yay. I guess? It means, I'm old. I probably would not have bothered at this point except that Trump's photo is on this year's pass so I didn't want to purchase that. We picked up the pass at the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. There are usually loads of birds there and we try to go a few times a year at different times to catch various species. Not a lot of unexpected birds yesterday but loads of harbor seals! We got to watch as one poor little seal pup tried and tried and tried to get up on an island in the channel that mom was on. Eventually made it, to the (quiet) cheers of everyone on the boardwalk.

-- We stopped by Nisqually on our way down to Porland. We were headed down to pick up Perry who was... riding the Seattle to Portland for the first time as an adult! This time he was going with friends and attempting the one day. I didn't think he -or really, from what I could tell, any of them- were really properly prepped and yeah, pretty much. They had the strength but lacked the logistics (OMG, I'd have managed their ride better, LOL), endurance at speed (all but two of them) and the butt on bike saddle, the latter especially for Perry. So it was a rough ride but they all made it in! So proud of him. The scary thing is that he did wipe out, thankfully at very sloooow speed, and hit his head on the way down, ugh. A car popped up at a crossing and Perry was 4th in the paceline. One and two got stopped, three hit two's wheel but was able to stay upright, Perry hit three's wheel and went down as four hit him, skipped and just avoided riding into Perry now one the ground bike and three! At least I think it's how that went down! Perry landed in a muddy bit of bog, which was better than cement and I guess hit his head on a metal sign post. He was checked for concussion and cleared so scary, but not horrid. Anyhow, he did it, he's exhausted and omg sore today. He admitted that he hadn't been this sore the next day back when he did it as a kid. Dude, we did it in two days, not one and we did a lot of prep!

Don't know if anyone is reading but I posted another chapter of my novel over at my author site.

Links to all 8 posted chapters

I'm old enough to remember the United State's 200th. I wasn't living in the US at that point but got news as I could (local and European newspapers were a staple). I remember being sad that I was not there. We were, of course, invited to the party at the US Embassy, but my dad had a panic attack and we didn't go. Anyhow. The whole thing then slipped my mind until about Y2K.

Which is when I realized that I'd probably be here for the 250th, which was kinda cool.

Right now? Don't give a flying fuck. I'm so unhappy with where this country is now, with where we are going, with the scum that got us here that I just don't have the energy to be excited about it. Everything Trump touches turns to dogshit and this is no exception. Even the World Cup, which should be exciting isn't, and I'm so eye-rolly about the Olympics he's going to ruin next year too that it's, well, eye-rolly. He's stolen so much joy from so many of us. The Smithsonian had been planning a major event for the past decade and he cancelled that for his piece of shit jingoist failure of an event.



And think about it. All the babies born in the second half of 2026 are going to be stuck with Trump's "Freedom 250" logo on their social security cards. I think if I were having babies now, I'd burn the card and apply for a new one. Because 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮 Along the same vein, I got a piece of US government sponsored Trump propaganda in an email from the Social Security Administration. Anyhow who thinks that low life is not planning on installing himself as president for life isn't paying attention, imo. He may die before then, but if he doesn't? He's planning on dying in office as president, sometime long past the end of his second term.

But. Some bits of goodness. A reason why this country matters, and why we should still fight, maybe.

I sent this to my siblings, siblings-in-law, spouse, children, and nieces and nephew earlier.

---
Let's face it, most of us did not go through the US education system. And those of us who did might not have benefitted from the best history teachers or had school programs geared towards the larger world --yes, Perry, you learned all about Idi Amin, Pol Pot, and the Japanese invasion of Nanking but might have missed, um, the founding of the United States. Enter Heather Cox Richardson.

This is about 40 minutes long, but I think would be worth everyone's time. It's the most understated and profound display of love of country that I have ever witnessed. I see now why, of all of the current commentators about the shit-show that is the current United States, she might be the only one who really believes that there is something fundamentally worth saving to this country, that we can and should get it together so we can get through this and come out better.

I've read through the Declaration of Independence, used to listen to them read it every 4th of July on Morning Edition. This is perhaps the first time I've grasped some of what it meant, how it fit into its time, and again, why we should not throw in the towel on our country.

40 minutes. Do it.



Thinking about it more. Again, in her very own understated way, this is the same call as John McCrae made in In Flanders Fields :

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Thinking about it more -sorry, people, I don't have a job, my brain needs something to cronch on, today it's this- I realize that for most Americans, that moment, that we cannot lose this and must fight on moment is probably more embodied in Lincoln's Gettysburg Address rather than in McCrae's poetry, but World War I and the existential fight there is where my brain goes first. So.

Anyhow.

---

I don't know where we go from here, if there is ever a post-Trump era. The SCOTUS is corrupt, Congress complicit, and clearly the vaunted US system of government relied on our not electing dogshit to the presidency. What will be left by the time this is done? Not much. The environmental damage is widespread, they're selling off public lands to destroy as fast as they can. They're destroying science. I expect that National Parks will be in the process of privatization by 2028, and that Social Security and Medicare will be gutted.

All because a bunch of racists misogynistic fucks couldn't vote for a woman and/or a Black woman.

Thanks Bernie! This is the county you have wrought.

Oh such fun. Doing the Seattle (Half) Marathon, supposedly, on Saturday.

Start: Seward Park.

Just found out that:
-- there is no bus that gets you there in time for the start.
-- Lake Washington Blvd is closed to traffic all weekend so no parking there.
-- The course runs through the parking lots in the park (if you can even drive there, see above.)

So. I can't figure out how get to the start. No public transit. No parking. I'd park elsewhere and bike, but there are not enough bike locks in the world.

Of course, I usually purchase cancellation insurance and didn't this time. Grr.

No, I don't have any friends who can drop us off.

This is seriously worse than the start line and the finish line being miles apart.

I mean.... there is a total if every parking lot in the park is open, of about 400 spots in the whole park, and 2100 participants for the event. I know Seattle is anti-car, but if you are going to be anti-car, you need to provide fucking transit.

ETA Going to drive our car to the last light rail station on this side of the lake, get an Uber to the start, then bus and light rail, with a few transfers, back to the light rail station with the car. Fingies crossed.

Oh my god. My sweet little nutlet has graduated university. That tiny little girl who we were not sure would ever learn to read has a degree in freaking computer science.

It was never easy, for her, something both her siblings acknowledge with some sense of awe, how well she did given the cards she was dealt.

One of Linnea's main characteristics is... persistence. She does not give up. She goes until it gets done.

So she walked Friday night, in her beautifully decorated cap and her borrowed gown, lol, her varsity student athlete stole, and the maroon 'disability" cord.

Anne-Chloe took these photos, I'll link to some of dh's as well when I get them uploaded to Flickr. I should embed them but don't want to deal with making them public right now. I really hate that.

Clearly thrilled!

https://www.flickr.com/gp/nwhiker/26s76e26XV

Her graduation cap. Each of the flowers is for one of us, trillium for me, lupine for dh etc. And her motto.

https://www.flickr.com/gp/nwhiker/38k4e68cPM

I am so so freaking proud of her. She's just a fantastic kid.

In dh and me news... got them all through university. Phew. While it does not guarantee success or anything, I think it helps and I'm glad they all did it. LOL.

NPS has opened comments on the "Triumphal Arch" project.

I left one.

The parks out West are falling apart (no water at Mt Rainier last summer, for example) and neglect born of lack of funding permeates the system.

Spending money on the vanity project of an aging autocrat, to create a gaudy, ugly, overwrought monument to overstatement is not something that should even be on the table. While the felon otherwise known as the president of the United State may have been aiming for Greek or Roman gravitas, this monstrosity lands closer to theme‑park neoclassicism. The detailing is loud where it should be restrained, it is brash, self‑referential, and allergic to subtlety, grace, and timelessness.

Triumphal arches traditionally commemorate collective victories; this one seems to commemorate the triumph of branding over architecture. The design does, however, achieve one goal in its hideous, gaudy, tasteless, tackiness: it's a monument to the oversized ego of the profoundly stupid, uncurious, autocratic, pathetic human being who is pushing this project.

Leave a comment for the Park Service.

1. I am reading Nicholas Enrich's Into the Wood Chipper about the destruction of USAID by DOGE and the Trumpfucks. I am still so fucking angry at that. I've seen the good USAID does (full disclosure: mother worked for them, sis and BIL were contractors, and iirc BIL worked for them directly back when. So yeah, I'm biased.). I hope Elon Musk dies of Ebola. I am so done with the fucking edge lords ruining the world. Ready for the guillotines to come out. I've never supported the death penalty. I first read about it at age 10, reading the _Count of Monte Cristo_ and I remember my absolute fucking horror at it. I also remember my horror when I found out it was still in practice. 🤮 Going through the French system, Camus was a major influence, both his essay, which we studied later in high school in philosophy class, Reflections on the Guillotine and of course _The Stranger_ which I hated (_The Plague_ is one of my top 10 books). While I have no sympathy for murderers or people who harm children, I still do not accept the death penalty as a valid solution. Now, I'm starting to waiver. I do honestly believe that Musk, Trump, and Hegseth, at the very least, do deserve the death penalty for crimes against humanity. (I wouldn't cry if they got Netanyahu in there too.) I am shocked at how angry I am, how little I value their humanity. There are hundreds of thousands of human beings who are going to die because Elon is fucking racist and wanted to kill black people in Africa. I'm not too happy with these feelings.

2. Incredible hike on Wednesday, I'll try to get pix uploaded. Just spectacular. The weather, having been gorg 10 days before and with better weather ahead absolutely fucking sucked on Wed with winds that were scary enough towards the top that we decided not to summit, came just a bit short, but safety first as annoying as that sometimes is. I have a bunch of photos to upload from the past bit, some hiking, some trains, some knitting.

3. Treating the deck. Started last weekend, didn't get anything done this week, then worked yesterday and today. Cancelling our trip to Bend next weekend to finish, we kinda messed up timing on when Memorial Day is and thought we had an extra weekend, oops. Need to get it done before the week after Memorial Day because my sister is coming to visit and right now our outdoor furniture is in the main room. Heh.