1 July 2020: In this year of our lord...

Friends, today I was rendered speechless.

“Oh!” you might ask, “You saw the news that trump has known for months about bounties placed on American soldiers’ heads by the Russians?”

No, I already knew about that.

“Oh!” you might respond, “You saw that the (completely undercounted) COVID death count in America topped 130K before the estimated July 4 mark?”

Nope, knew that too.

“Ah!” you might then wonder, “You heard that the EU has banned Americans from traveling to any member countries, along with people from Russia and Brazil, because our “leaders” have handled COVID so poorly?”

Actually, I already knew that, too.

“So, what?”

In this year of our lord, 2020, as Cosby and Weinstein are in jail and #MeToo is, mercifully, everywhere, and men are realizing shit, a repairman who was in my home for no more than 2 minutes today to fix a small scratch on our new bed, looked at my fabulous Meow print:

sorry about the angle; the glare is a killer

and said, “I like your boobies picture. It’s funny.”

This man was at least 38. He has never seen me before. He said “boobies.”

Speechless. And hopeful he is not raising sons. Mine were aghast. Even they don’t say boobies, and they are 11 and 13.

SMDH and also:

On a more positive note, my pollinator garden is drawing the masses, and I am thrilled. Just look at this industrious bee enjoying a coneflower.

Jack turns 14 on Saturday, Oliver convinced me to build a small foundry (terrifying but also cool), both are enjoying their respective art camp this week, and I am loving the students with whom I’m working. As we were supposed to move the boys into camp last Friday, we instead had a backyard campfire and channeled Pine Island as best we could.

Lastly, PRIDE month has officially ended, but it is always the time to celebrate each human living a full life as their truest self. Be out, be loud, be proud. This photo says it all.

Now off to enjoy a Politics and Prose webinar with Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, authors of the truly terrific, She Said.

(What she did not say, was “boobies…funny.”)