Saturday Social

It’s been a long time since I’ve been quite this social, and been this social for so many days in a row. In the last fortnight, I found myself reaching into a bank of ways to be that I haven’t used in ages. The newness wasn’t surprising; the delightfulness was, though.

 Today’s foray into the world included a gorgeous conversation in Bibliopub, a place that I’m coming to think of as “my local,” as the Brits would say. Yes, there’s alcohol, but the sense of home is made by the stacks of books, the perfect cup of tea, the couch that feels like an old friend and stretches long, inviting conversation to stretch, too. 

Lori and I had passed more than two hours before I thought to look at the time, surprised at how comfortable we both were and how the conversation had taken a journey of its own.  The pounding rain arrived just as we did, and did its worst while we were inside discussing road trips, band camp, life moments, good books, and the secrets to life, the Universe, and everything.

Once home, the red sauce that I had set up earlier in the day greeted me with a welcome that smelled savory and inviting. I haven’t made red sauce from scratch in a handful of years, and didn’t realize that this was what that was missing, the last ingredient needed to have the Loft feel like home. 

Geo and I set up the pasta and tossed together a salad while the noodles boiled. I taught them how to play Hand & Foot last week, and they are now regularly running the table. Tonight was no exception: they wiped the floor with me on the third hand. Conversation turned to anything and everything, with laughter and stories and Tales From Back When as well as delights from right now, and things that might yet be. This is the magic of cards, of meals together, of life simply lived.

We put the rest of the spaghetti away, glad that we had made a double batch, and looking forward to a slow lazy Sunday. We gamed together and called it a night. Saturdays are becoming my favorite once again. 

Local Food Tastes Better

Picked up the Farm Share and the milk, after a wonderfully cool-by-comparison morning and a long-overdue Very Good Rest. This is the way.

July is truly the month of salads and peaches.

Compostable picnic ware made my life easier and my Druid heart happy while I’m dogsitting.

Happy July, Friends.

Downtowning, once again

It’s been a while since we poked around downtown, so we headed out and hit the shops, stopped at our favorite burger joint, and had a seasonally good time all around.

New World Order

“No right is safe in the new legal regime the Court creates.” –Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

One of the most chilling sentences I have ever read.

Growth in the Shadows

A tree

Cannot grow

In its parents' shadows.

—Earthseed: the Books of the Living 

Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler

Namik's Manifesto

There will be times when the struggle seems impossible.I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy.

Remember this: Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they’ve already enlisted in the cause.

Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward. 

And remember this: the Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear.

Remember that. And know this, the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of the Empires’s authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege.

Remember this:Try.

Sovereignty

How is setting up “national defense areas” in border states not a violation of the sovereignty of New Mexico, or whatever border state they are in? These was unthinkable last year, and every year before it since the Treaty of Guadalupe.

Truly, this boggles my mind, and has me thinking of what Jefferson Davis or John C. Calhoun would say, or even George Wallace. The states' rights folks whould be raging in the streets. It's also getting periolously close to treading all over the The Posse Comitatus Act. 

The national defense areas in New Mexico and Texas bring up some interesting questions, including how the population in those zones are counted (as residents of New Mexico and Texas, still, or as residents of the militarized zone), and how that will affect a lot of other residency-based things, not the least of which is how it affects the numbers for representation in the House. Who is responsible for paying for the infrastructure in these zones? Who is responsible for the downstream (literal and figurative) messes that are created by this initiative? Are the states owed reasonable market compensation for what is essentially a militirized application of eminent domain? What happens when a legal resident enters the area?