Here’s my new trick–I can actually sleep at Avdi’s now.  Tuesday I not only took a long nap there (!?) but then slept through the night (once I finally got to sleep).  Then I go home and sleep some more!  But I make myself get up and keep living.  Coffee is my latest favorite drink.

Avdi and friend  got to go to a Cards baseball game!  They lost to the SD Padres, but the humongous hot dogs (piled with glop, STL-style, naturally) and local craft beers were memorable.  They have a whole ballpark village filled with international foods, drinks, and concessions.  If the Orioles come to town, it will be my turn!

Meanwhile, between sleeps, I got more gardening projects done or started.  I planted more salad and greens, created a little flower and herb garden for S, cleaned up E and Y’s small flower plots, reseeded E’s with shade herbs, planted more cilantro in the herb garden, and harvested okra and tomatoes.  I’m working on clearing an area by the perennial veggies (asparagus, horseradish, prickly pear) to eventually be a permanent strawberry bed.

S’s friend J has been coming by regularly after school, and is becoming part of our revolving extended family.  Even when S is out or ignoring him, he likes to get involved and be helpful.  Our resident chef E showed him how to help make brownies (which were delectable, as always).

Of course I continue to do a lot of housework and little projects behind the scenes.  I’m still not as proficient as Avdi would like at certain tasks, but often E can step in and take over.  I am getting better at mixology!  An essential survival skill.

Yesterday was too hot for me to do much outside, while Avdi, E, and even Y found it a perfect time to work out in the hot garage.  It got me to thinking, as climate change heats up the world and makes weather extremes more common, only the young and stronger humans who have been born into it or learn to adapt will survive.  Those of us who can’t hack it will die out.  Eventually, even the fittest won’t make it, if the wrong politicians (i.e. trump and co.) have their way.

As it is, it would take extreme measures, applied yesterday, to even slow down climate change at this point.  Most of us know this theoretically, but just step outside and look around at the world, and it’s literally at our doorsteps.  In some cases, submerging entire homes and coastlines.  (Remind me again why people still stupidly retire to Florida?  Natural selection?)

Anyway, that’s my unoriginal thought of the day.

It got really hot again, but it can’t fool me, or keep me down.  I’m on to you, MO.

I stayed over Sat. night through Sunday, so Avdi could go out.  Once I finally did get to sleep, I actually mostly stayed asleep, which is unusual.  Probably due to feeling more at home there.  I’m learning how to chill out and be a fixture, at last.  I can even ignore S and his mishegoss, for the most part.  E is very skilled at diffusing potential volatile situations.

In garden news, I sowed a row of “salad”, did more cleanup, and harvested tomatoes.  I’ll just keep working my way down the garden, doing same, until it’s a whole new fall/winter garden.  The actual goal is to use up all the old seeds from yesteryears, and start over fresh.  Kind of like one of my metaphors.

I even overcame some of my mechanical phobia, and did much-overdue fixit stuff in the downstairs bathroom.  Maybe some jerry-rigging was involved.  But once again we have a functional TP holder, towel rack, and wall hooks.  Also, the toilet seat no longer tries to fall off.  Skibidi.  I feel so useful.

In case you think I’m just a boring, uninformed old grandma, I’m back to following the latest political news and commentary, since there now seems to be some hope for us again.  I never get complacent, but it’s energizing to not feel despair every day.  Instead of a deranged psycho fascist, we may have a chance at intelligent, sentient beings serving us actual people, and restoring some justice and human rights.  Harris/Walz!

Now back to boring grandma stuff.

You’ll have to trust me on my Shabbat meal turning out nicely, because I was so out of it, I forgot to take photos!  I made a beautiful fresh fruit salad, herbed roasted potatoes, peppers, and onions that all came from the garden, and steaks (that didn’t).  Of course the challah was the favorite, as usual.  S’s friend J joined us for dinner, and enthusiastically enjoyed it.  It was quite a merry gathering.

I was really dragging today–I blame CLL–but dragged myself to A’s anyway to keep up my momentum.  Sleep when we die.  Today I started direct-sewing some fall greens, starting from the front with blue kale and spinach.  I’ll continue to fill up all the empty spaces with other cool weather crops.

Y made dinner tonight–bruschetta!  (The basil was homegrown.)  It was excellent.

I thought I’d try out a fun new gimmick on my photos.  I apologize if any of the info is wrong; it was mostly just to play around with colorful captions.

Yesterday as I was about to cross evil Watson, I witnessed a huge traffic accident right in front of me, and called it in.  It was like in a movie–a car darted out of 7-eleven and smashed into an suv, which flipped over multiple times and landed right-side-up in the middle of the road.  Vehicles were skewed all over the place, blocking the road, or trying to find a way out.

Somehow the elderly couple in the suv survived with minor injuries, and chose not to go to the hospital.  I don’t think the other guy died, but it was a head-on collision, so it couldn’t have ended well.  I stayed with the couple as the emergency teams checked them over.  I think I was almost as in shock as they were.

So much can happen in a split second to change your life, or end it.  I have so much respect for EMTs who respond to emergencies with professionalism and efficiency.

That pretty much set the tone of my day!  Avdi said, “Touch grass”, so I dug up the rest of the potatoes, and watered the garden.  Then I decorated for K’s birthday, and did other housey things.  Avdi took K out for sushi, while I made dinner for the rest of us.  Y and I played in the kitchen.  Later we had cheesecake.  J drove me home and I collapsed.

When I finally got myself to Avdi’s today it was quiet, with all four kids at school.  I think I was having one of my CLL “off” days, where I’m fatigued and lightheaded.  Fortunately, it was gorgeous out, so I got some gardening in.  I cleared the whole potato area, then started digging.  Lots of white and red potatoes!  I left most of it for later, as Y had expressed interest in helping dig.

The kids came home in varying degrees of non-amusement, but mostly their first day went well.  We all hung out talking about it and distracting Avdi, who was trying to work.  Y had fun digging potatoes using the spading fork with bare feet.  E jumped in the pool and then of course started baking some more.

Lately I’ve been feeling much more at home and relaxed over there, probably since the kids and I have gotten to know and trust each other more.  I like listening to them and learning the lingo.

Yesterday was S’s first day at school (the “special” school), and he seems to have survived.  The other kids start their respective schools today.  We’ll see how that goes.

I got more garden cleanup done to where you can actually see the garden for the weeds.  I’ve been laying down cardboard as I go, to keep the weeds down.  I even began the digging of the potatoes, but didn’t get far.  I’m finally starting to get peppers and tomatoes.  E has been harvesting okra and processing it for pickling, and the odd tiny watermelon here and there.

My latest plan is to direct-seed some cool-weather crops for fall as I clean up and harvest the summer veggies.  Keep it productive as long as possible, then eventually add compost and leaf mulch to be tilled in later.  I’ve stopped following gardening manuals for the most part, and just do what seems logical and intuitive.  Something’s bound to work!

Also, in case you haven’t noticed, I’ve dialed down my purist natives-only “religion”, in light of reality.  I still love that I keep discovering more natives in the landscape by not weeding them out, but I’m much more inclusive, as long as no harm is done.

The last few days went by in a whirlwind of resuming erev Shabbat baking and preps, a revolving door of kids’ open houses and orientations, last minute hanging out with their friends, preps for the back-to-school edition of B&B, featuring lots of delicacies by E, and a successful B&B lasting all afternoon and evening.

I spent the night and did much of the setup for the B&B, then exhaustedly adjourned to the pool, where Y and I spent hours playing, until we were joined by other kids and parents.  In fact, Y and I have been spending a lot of time together lately, which is a good thing.

Later, very stoned (don’t ask), I got to enjoy “socializing”, an uncommon concept for me.  Interestingly, two separate circles of conversation, the teens and the adults, merged into one as the former realized the latter were discussing mutual subjects of interest.  I thought that spoke well of the unique quality of gatherings we have at Avdi’s.  Everyone feels at home.  It really has become an extended family of choice for all stages and spectrums.

Somewhere in there I got some more garden cleanup done, but mostly I spent time with kids, sometimes just diffusing volatile situations.  S has developed a few more interesting symptoms (of stress or a disorder?), but I found removing him and me to a quieter situation to just chill and do gaming seems to avert some of it.

In between rains, I managed to get more garden cleanup done, but the real action was happening indoors.

E had been on one of their baking whirlwinds, turning out dozens of delectable sweet confections.  They tasted as good as they looked.  I did some housework, made a pasta dinner with Y’s help, but mostly ended up just spending time with Y, playing and hanging out.  Some of the time I was mediating between Y and S, who tries to crash the party whenever it’s not all centered around him.

The living room became Y’s big fort, and some hide-and-seek took place.  Eventually Y and I ended up lying around on my bed talking and doing smartphone stuff, while Avdi was out at yet another school orientation.  Since they’ve been back, Y seems to be spending more time with me, which is a good new development.  I’m also learning more of the latest slang.  Rizz.  Sigma.  Skibidi toilet.  It’s literally a different language.