It does suck. The university I worked at during 2021-2023 did a fantastic job: caring for students, pivoting on a dime to all online classes immediately when COVID hit, contact tracing, providing for students while they were quarantined when sick, keeping confidentiality, and not mandating, rather educating and letting students make wise decisions for themselves. That said, it was a really tough, lonely, difficult time, a hard time for students to make and keep friends....so many things couldn't be done at all until weather allowed for a pivot to outside, relatively protected activities. The first graduation during COVID was entirely online, and even though admin did a really great job making it different and finding ways online to celebrate the grads, it still wasn't the same. I agree with a previous poster, it will be a seminal event in this generation's young adulthood, much like war is for anyone encountering that in their young adult years.

@Faith-manor Thanks.

San Diego has a couple of live cams running on YouTube. It looks like moderate rain and slightly windy. San Diego bay is protected, so I didn't expect much, but it's barely rippling, and birds are easily able to fly. I think the damage will be elsewhere, as rain streams off the mountains into long-dry arroyos. If anyone built in a sheltered canyon, for example, I'm thinking they could experience flash-flooding. There's another guy in a low area (Niland, CA) filming flash-flooding crossing a two-lane highway in CA. (Channel is StormRunner Media) He's driving through the low areas, like you're NOT supposed to do. (Maybe they watched is start...and knew the highway wasn't washed out. (In our area, you don't drive through, because you never know what's gone (washed away), underneath the water.) They said the water is all draining toward the Salton Sea, so they expect severe flooding in that area.

Oh, my goodness. We are your tribe. I'm sorry the person doesn't understand. It's taken me awhile to learn the value of faking interest and joy putting myself in another person's shoes and delighting in what brings them joy even though I'd rather watch paint dry. Could it be that this is such a new experience to them, that they haven't learned that lesson yet? Anyway, I'm excited for you and hope you have a delightful time as you enjoy the learning and the joy of exciting new experiences.

I can imagine; I was surprised to see 100% cotton on the label because the hand was very silky.

Thanks, all! For anyone looking for an opportunity to purchase, Joann's has it on sale at the moment 25% off; I don't know if that would stack with a 20% off the entire order coupon or not, but if so, that would be a substantial discount. (Again, I don't know if it would work.) There were a couple of their prints that had pretty (to my eye) colors, but because they had a base color that was pretty intense. I (just me!) didn't really care for the light colored fabrics with tiny floral outlines and odd colors. I looked on their website last night, and there were many more modern, even geometric prints available. The difference between the selection in the store and the website was striking. Thanks, all, for the input. I think some of these would be pretty in a pair of palazzo pants, a loose summer tunic top with pin-tucking or some other detail, or a dress.

I'm concerned about the heaviest rains causing landslides in the San Gabriel mountains. I've experienced something similar, in similar terrain, and it's horrific.

Everything the Mad Hatter Chef in my family makes is great, but sadly, he is the only one with that trait.

FWIW: I've read that waterproof fabrics and many of the fibers that provide stretch in leggings contain PFAs (PFOA's?) -- the "Teflon family" of forever chemicals. I hope you can find something that will meet your criteria, wherever you "land".

Aww, I love board relationships! I have someone I really want to meet, in person, who lives half a continent from me. 😞 I hope the move goes well!

I freeze gallons of summer fruits and berries, probably in the neighborhood of 8-10 gallons of ready-to-use fruit for smoothies and fruit ice cream, and occasional baking during the winter. If I couldn't freeze them, I'd can, at least peaches. I have a very healthy smoothie, more mornings than not, throughout the year, when I'm taking care of myself. I get periods of busyness, too, when I'm not very good about choosing healthy foods, though, if truth be told. ;-/

I was in a fabric store today and saw this rack of fabrics, all small prints, in very thin cotton tightly-woven fabric. The bolt said "lawn" on it, along with a sticker that identified the fabric content as 100% cotton. I've heard of cotton lawn, but a an old-fashioned term. I have all the questions: - does it wrinkle with such a tight weave? - would it wilt like linen does when it becomes damp? - why such old-fashioned, tiny, oddly-colored prints (lots of tiny florals and heritage animal outlines on a few bolts)? - why so crazy-expensive $35/yard? (The fabric is super lightweight, thin, and very tightly-woven, so it's not because of raw materials; probably more the making of it.) What am I missing, because I'm certain I'm not "getting it." I think part of what intrigues me about these is that I have three of my mother's short-sleeve button-front cotton print shirts, pretty standard-issue poplin. They are the bomb when one is working outdoors. Super breathable; much more comfortable than a tee-shirt which doesn't breathe and sticks to you. (It's a bit more like dressing like one would in southeast Asia to stay sort of cool.)

doing my typical Saturday check-in...just to say hi. I'm glad you are being well-cared for. @Melissa in Australia I'm praying that you are feeling better, and that any glitches or disappointments are temporary and quickly resolved. I'm so grateful you're getting better care.

All the best to you both, @Elizabeth86!

So sorry to have missed the photos. Congrats to the newlywed couple and to @Amethyst!

Everyone upthread has expressed so beautifully what we are all feeling. @Melissa in Australia you and your family continue to be in our prayers for your restored good health and for that dream you had to come true. But for the moment, know that you are in the center of a ring of (mostly) sisters around the world, all of whom care about you and wish you the best, each in our own way.

I've had a couple of similar situations where I didn't know what to say in the moment, thought about it, brought it up later one-on-one with the person, and it went reasonably well. IOW, they may or may not change their underlying attitude, but they now knew that such comments were being tracked and were not going to be tolerated without pushback.

Does 20 or 30% vinegar knock it back? A friend has bindweed in the back yard of the leased home she is in (it belongs to a friend of hers, so she's putting more effort into caring for the property than one normally would for a rental), and she finally trenched and installed deep metal edging in the yard. The bindweed doesn't send runners below the edging and she's able to spray it with vinegar right at the border of the edging, and that keeps it from spreading further into the yard.

oh, my. I feel your pain. I had patheti-coli last fall.

If it's anything like poison ivy or crepe myrtle, or hackberry seedlings, it will. I have an acquaintance who has lived in a house for 40 years, cut down a crepe myrtle in the first year she lived there, and that thing is still sending up sprouts that have to be chopped down. I have one that is still sprouting after 14 years, after we dug deeply and pulled the entire stump, then followed that with a serious tilling, meticulously picking out all the roots. (We must have left one by accident; it's under five courses of retaining wall blocks. If I didn't want a beautiful sage in it's place, I'd salt the soil in that spot. What is one to do?!?

People in Colorado where I'm visiting are enduring 90 degree highs, and I'm trying not to laugh--the chit chat at the grocery store and in the line for this or that is all about how beastly hot it is. I thought it would be rude to mention I'm enjoying the cooler weather since I'm from Hotter-than-hell. Someone in my household sent me the temp off my front porch this evening--109.8. My friend in Phoenix reports weeks of 115. For 10 years, I've grown tomatoes in a row of self-watering tubs (like large, homemade earthboxes). This is my first year to have them in raised beds, and I don't think I'll be able to have the tomato plants carry-over into a fall season without the self-watering tubs. Sigh. I topped the tomatoes plants (the best new leaves) and I am rooting the cuttings; I'll plant those when the blast furnace subsides. My corn is up, and if the squirrels would quite moving the sprouted potatoes, they might grow! 😄

OK, split hairs about the way I worded the sentence: school districts and their policies are very, very different from one place to another in the US. What we are experiencing, or our teachers, or our neighbors are, can be very, very different. (See math discussion above.) Similarly, I have a valid point: given the ubiquitous nature of social media and new media, and even TV, I don't think we need to worry about kids not having exposure to a spectrum of human relationships. Similarly, they can see current-day struggles with racism worked out in the news, daily. That's all I'm saying; in general, kids are not living under rocks.

It's been quite hot here, but exactly normal for us at this time of year. (In fact, we're a smidge on the cooler side than normal.) I nearly gave myself heat exhaustion yesterday working in the shade, tilling a small bed of sticky clay by hand. This is the kind of stuff that becomes rock hard when exposed, but it was well, well hydrated, and I was mixing the top four inches of half-decomposed stuff I've been throwing on there into it. You can tell we've been amending the bed for awhile, because it's not nearly as bad as what is in other untouched areas. (I will regret moving, when we do, because my other beds are getting really nice after working on them for years. And surprisingly, there were big fat earthworms and tiny wiggly ones all through the clay!) Yesterday I started all manner of seeds, and a first, a fast-maturing corn seed. I started a bazillion fall garden seedlings to transplant, because the rolly-polly bugs are all about eating tender sprouts. I put neem oil on all my tomatoes because the tiny brown caterpillars are out in force, and unchecked, they will strip a plant just like the hornworms do. Finally, my okra may be getting close to blossoming. They are very late this year. The last news is that the squirrels have been digging up everything in sight. (Hand tilling helped rid that one bed of their final un-dug acorns.) I got an ultrasonic pest repeller, because I want to plant potatoes in the same bed. Hopefully I can break their habit and grow things there. This morning I went to look, and a fire ant trail was going crazy right over one potato, but when I dug it up, they weren't anywhere near the potato. I sprinkled diatomaceous earth all over the bed for good measure, hoping to kill all the crunchy bugs, like some very small, long, black, shiny-shelled bugs that look like a cross between ants, centipedes (many segments), and scorpions--they have some kind of claw/pincher thing on the rear of the bug. Weird. I'm pretty sure those guys could decimate any plant they liked the taste of, given their armor. So, it's been a busy, fun weekend.

@Faith-manor I really need to start a gardening notebook/calendar/journal. You referenced a having a book; do you use something made specifically for gardeners?

Clearly our lived experiences in school districts across the US are very, very different from one another. However, if a child watches any TV or engages on social media, they will not lack exposure to positively-portrayed gay relationships nor to racism being addressed and condemned.