A weekly note

Michelle has been watching Olive Kitteridge this week. I haven’t read the book, but I did read another of Elizabeth Stout’s back in 2018.

I reread that year’s books recap post and was reminded of Hernan Díaz’s In the Distance.

I enjoyed the western setting, the larger than life Swedish traveler, Håkan, and how well the utter sadness of being alone in a foreign place was conveyed. The more I think about it, the more I want to read this book again!

That got me to lookup Hernan Díaz and see if he had written anything since. And sure enough, days ago, Trust was released.

Eerie!

I’m now debating which to (re)read: new or old.

✑

Goodby Mr Blue on a chilly evening with the kitchen window open while prepping dinner is okay.

Thursday was the day we seem to have been missing this spring. 50s, rain, heavy at times, closing out with sunshine.

Friday seemed like the first proper rain rain in a while. Loud on the roof, dark cloud cover at noon.

Also on Friday, shortly before 10pm: first thunder of the year. That was followed by some lazy hail.

It’s having trouble deciding how to deliver spring to us.

✑

Green onion. The end of a slice of pizza. Swiss cheese. Cheddar cheese. Salmon and sriracha. Cumin, onion powder, paprika.

✑

Prune juice and banana blend.

All these new foods and a rapidly maturing digestive system. I’ll save you the details, but the blend paid dividends within an hour.

Joy filled the house; you’re welcome.

✑

I haven’t stopped using Twitter entirely, but Elon’s intention to buy it has given me pause. Whether or not things change about the website, it’s been a good chance to step back and reflect on the why of it all.

Deleting the mobile app had an immediate impact. I gained at least 30 minutes a day back and lost nothing.

Changing to dark mode, setting the font size as large as possible, and selecting the garish yellow as my theme color have made the desktop interface unpleasant enough that I don’t stick around too long.

Most of my tweeting activity has been participating in a wonderfully long thread of Cladder.

Most of my noting activity has been on this site.

This reduction in activity has made space for articles like Robin Sloan’s Lost Thread, which I think help highlight how unimportant Twitter actually is and that it’s okay if it all disappears.

We have other ways to communicate with our communities.

✑

A new Sharon von Etton album, which was nice. A new Steve Earle song, always nice.

I have a whole thing to write up about two songs and a handful of musicians. Let’s save it for next week.

✑

We’re 2/3 through The Batman. We’ll see if we finish it tonight before the free 3 days of HBO YouTube TV blessed us with disappears.

It’s been fun. It’s so long.

✑

Happy Mother’s Day! 🌷