July 15

It's hot in DC in July. What else is new?

1966 (Mexico City)

I’m going to take typing starting Monday. Fiesta tomorrow night. I’ll be a wallflower, as usual. They’ll start out all attentive just because I’m an American. I wish someone would like me for myself.

1978

I’m reading Babbitt, which a marvelous book. It’s very subtle, and I think it’s going on me.

1980

A very hot day. It’s nearly 100 out, and I am out in it, for the excuse of “fresh air”. The house is all closed up and quite stuffy. I figure about half an hour should get that out of my system. But I do need a change of scenery…it’s been hard to concentrate on my work after two days at the kitchen table. Usually I walk over the campus in the afternoon, but not when it’s like this. There is a breeze; it feels like the air that rushes out when the over door is opened.

Back to work.

Comment 2023

Really. Spending several hours a day on an electric typewriter in a nearly unairconditioned house. That window unit the bedroom was trying its best, but it wasn’t enough. A truly miserable memory.

1998

More clearing and clipping last night. I also “harvested” several mosquito bites because I stayed out too long. My hands are soft and blistered. My strolls through the neighborhood have become idea-gathering expeditions. I find I like distinct beds better than “naturalized” ones. I love warm-colors - yellows, orange, red, pink - and dark-colored foliage. Beds with 2 or 3 types of plants look nice, or beds with many types of plants but in similar colors.

Plants I like:

Vinca
Lily-of-the-valley
Zinnias
Marigolds
Hosta 
Violets
Pansies

I saw beautiful tomatoes in containers at one house, placed in a single row at the top of a slope like the one we have.

First, I think, I need to clear.

Comment 2023

Deer like hostas, too. My 35 years in that house were a constant struggle to wrest  garden space out of our shady, sloping yard. Successes: tomatoes, peppers, various herbs. Failures: strawberries, rhubarb, cool weather crops in general because I never got them in early enough. Stupid DC climate. 

2003 (Bozeman, MT)

One day into the Museum of the Rockies job, and I am feeling tired and a bit out of my depth.

2011

Summer is about half over. In June and the first part of July, I completed the following:

Chesapeake project planning, training, syllabus revision, and final report.

Book copy edits

Advised two student research projects

General Assembly

STEP-UP work scheduled and done

In the next six weeks, I will

Complete revising the syllabus for the two new fall courses

Set up both course websites

Complete and grade summer courses

Plan and deliver workshop at SUNY Potsdam

Visit Bob!

Today I took my first walkabout is what seems like months. It’s not your typical July day; it was in the 80s, but dry, with a lovely soft breeze. Not a day to stay home.

First I went to the museum of Natural History toes the exhibit on Race. It was fabulous! Complex and thoughtful. The, after strolling the museum a bit, I headed to the Museum of the American Indian for Lunch, beet soup with crab, and a potato-yucca salad. After that, I put in some people-watching time on a park bench, and listened to Pema Chödrön teach about shenpa (again).

Now I am heading home. Feet a little sore, mind a little sleepy.

2023

By this time in the summer, DC is deep in the doldrums, and my journals show it. Even in our nice air conditioned apartment, I feel lethargic. The northerners that we are, it was nine years before we got central air in our house, and ten years before I got our first air conditioned car. “It’s only a couple of months a year”. Yeah.

Today I spent several hours filling out the application to teach a noncredit course here. Here’s a taste:

Thoreau’s America: simplicity and Anti-consumption in American Life

The iconic American Dream is often expressed in terms of possessions. In this class we will examine the efforts, movements and trends that criticized, resisted or opposed excessive consumption. Sometimes these impulses spring from necessity (the Great Depression, wartime) but often they are rooted in convictions about the moral peril of personal wealth, social justice, or about environmental sustainability. We will consider historical evidence (Puritan sumptuary laws, utopian communities, 60s communes) as well as recent trends such as voluntary simplicity and “slow living”, from the perspective of historians, cultural critics, and those who have followed the “simple life”.

So excited to teach again!

2024

It’s been a busy few days. The Early Music Ensemble had two concerts, and both went really well. It was an all madrigal program, a style that is challenging but so much fun! Between the Thursday and Saturday concerts, we had dinner with a couple of musician friends, followed by a rowdy pub sing-along in the clubhouse lounge. Sunday I got some good writing done, acquired a small mountain of very cool yarn from a friend, and then….! We had dinner at Kiddo 2’s place and Grandkiddo 2 introduced me to Mario Kart on his Nintendo switch. It’s been a very long time since I played games other than on my iPad, and it was a blast. I still miss Lemmings, Crash Bandicoot, Kirby, and Infocom text adventures. Yeah, I know, I can probably play some of those online, but I am TRYING TO WRITE A BOOK.

Kirby, as I remember him.

Today and tomorrow will be in the 100s.