Yesterday we had a great experience (another first for us) at The Muse science center with my son and the kids.  Note my youngest Gkid looking all mobster. They had a blast doing all the activities, including astronaut role-play, electricity, physics, and other tech-play.

After playing on the playground, we and friends of my son’s checked out a homey soul food restaurant, a modest family startup called “Jackie’s Dream”.  The atmosphere was very welcoming, relaxed, and kid-friendly.

Then we adjourned to their house as usual for pizza-and-a-movie.  I had fun playing with the kids while my son attempted (unsuccessfully) to take a short nap.

The pak choy bolted (flowered), probably due to extremes of temps and shock; you can eat the flowers and stems in stir-fries and salads.

And of course one can never have too many iris photos.

Erev cheers.

“Grounded” has several definitions, all unrelated, but the one I’m referring to here is the sense of being close to and secured to the physical earth, and sensing plants happily soaking up rain.  Yep, it’s what I do.

Here are some irises, anticipating.

Behold, our very first TN harvest: assorted radishes.  Did you know you can eat the tender radish greens?  They add a zesty zing to a salad or sandwich.

In other garden news, we saw our first TN groundhog and chipmunk to add to our collection of TN critter firsts.  Someone must be feeding the varmints.  Hmm…

In case you haven’t noticed by now, life is a constant process of readjusting and accommodating.  If you don’t adapt to changing reality, you give up and die inside.

Obviously, the happy scenario I had hoped to be a part of here changed drastically overnight, but our plans had been made, so here we reside for the duration, and we make the best of it.

I can either resign myself to a bleak future, or I can make the most of the opportunity and potential for alternative scenarios up ahead.  Nothing is permanently engraved in stone except death and gravestones.

Every morning I have to fight the anxiety, depression, and dread I wake up to, and just proceed.  Sometimes that’s all you can do.  Being from my background, my collective history is never far away.  Fate could have made me a concentration camp victim, or a deported refugee, but instead, I have all the basics I need, and family I love nearby for now.  I can avoid the local nazis.  You have to keep perspective.

Revelations can be as simple as the view from my own office window of fields full of songbirds, critters, wildflowers, and trees.  Trees!  (Remember, Ohio was one big flat cornfield with a few birds who had survived all the decades of toxic ‘cides.)

It can be watching the tomatoes and veggies finally coming up in our own garden, in our own yard.  Or looking forward to any time I get to be with my son and grandkids, and witness them maturing and finding room for hope in an uncertain world.  Maybe all of life really boils down to that, after all.

Here are some views out of open windows.  Note the squirrel making himself at home on the feeder.

Yesterday we got to spend time with my son and kids earlier in the weekend than usual.  First we met and had good, heartening conversations with some folks at Southland Books.  Then we met my son and grandkids at Vienna for coffee, and on to their house for pizza-and-a-movie.  I got a chance to finally catch up with him a little.

The coming weeks and months will be my last chance for concentrated time with the kids before they have to move out of state for years.  Then our finances will prevent seeing them very often.  I hope our positive interaction during these few months will help reinforce and build their sense of a loving support system to take out into their future world.

Here are yet more kid and flower shots.

Yesterday was a good day.  In honor of my granddaughter’s birthday, all of us, including my D-I-L who came up for the event, got together for the festivities and a pleasant reunion.  We rose above any differences or unease we might be feeling to convey a sense of security and solidarity to the kids on this special occasion.  I believe that goal was accomplished above and beyond appearances.  We had a very enjoyable visit far into the evening.

It made me feel sad in a way, that we couldn’t somehow magically revert to being a family again, even with all our human issues.  But life must move on, just in a new iteration.  I’ll take what I can get.

Here are some flowers, in sun and by moon, at our place and theirs.

And of course some partying, and first roller skate steps.

I will say up front, at least in Ohio they entered my party affiliation correctly, no problems.  Here, we had already heard reports of polling places loading the wrong party ballot (Repub, of course) and voters having to set them straight.  The concern is that less alert voters might get duped.  So we were a bit nervous going in.

And sure enough, I clearly stated my affiliation, and it turns out they entered the opposite.  So I get to the machine and it has the wrong ballot.  They were nice enough, though clueless, trying to sort it out with the help of their dummies’ manual, and eventually got it right.  I must have been one of their few, so they just auto-uncorrected in their minds!  Hopefully my vote went through properly.  I just hope less alert voters don’t get duped.  It is a concern.

Ironically, E managed to just slide through without any problems, which is not her standard experience.  She had to stand around waiting while they got mine right.  There were only a few machines, fewer voters, and no voter privacy, but that seems to be the culture down here.  Anyway, that was our first vote in TN.  Hopefully the state primary in August will go more smoothly.