My Friends

 It is spring, horrible, annoying, windy, pollen-ridden spring.  The plantains are blooming.  I know they're blooming as my nose is running.  Meh.

It is also flea and mosquito season, also not my favorite time.  After reading that Benedryl crosses the blood:brain barrier, my most useful resource is no longer going to be my usual one.  What will replace that wonder drug?  Probably a lot of mumbling, "Don't scratch.  Don't scratch!"  Losing something that really works on my allergic reactions is one thing, but Benedryl also helped me get some sleep.  Insomniac.  The only plus side to insomnia is getting to listen to the owls and the migrating geese.  

And, the last of the triple whammy: it's weeding season.  The grasses have gone insane, showing up in places they haven't been before and bringing their friends.  This year's expensive home improvement is supposed to be paving the walkways.  We found a contractor.  That is amazing.  Very few people want to do that sort of physical work any more.  I sure don't.  We put in sandstone pavers back in the nineties, when we were in our thirties.  Sixties-era backs are not feeling up to that.  If we can't afford to do everything I would like to set into pavers, then maybe we can manage the south side.  

We just discovered For All Mankind on Apple.  Wow.  Great storytelling, good actors, and terrifying attention to detail.  This is an alternate history telling of the space race, with the Soviets getting to the moon first.  We're halfway through the first season, and when I'm not having PTSD from all the sexism, I'm riveted.  This is just what I needed.

Still slowly re-reading the Chronicles of St Mary's.  I wish the Kindle editions would reliably link the next in the series.  I think I'm on the next to the last (minus the short stories and the Time Police), but kinda not sure, either.