Day Ninety-Five, Ninety-Six: I'm Rude, The Bronze Age, and The Creek

Day Ninety-Five (Thursday) was better than ninety-four, as I had gotten the meltdown out of my system and I cut myself some slack. We went to the pool in the morning to change things up, and it was fun until William decided he wanted us to go back home and go get his stuffed animal dinosaur Dino-y. When we said no he melted down and said we were the worst parents ever. "You're so rude!" he always yells at me when he's especially mad. What he doesn't know is that yes, I am a Senior Rude Girl from Hell and his calling me rude is simply affirmation of this vaunted status. (If you're not familiar with the Rude Girls, I will talk about that another day - it's worthy of it's own blog post). 

It was a hot day and we sort of dragged our way through it, but it wasn't terrible. The trick, when it's over 90 degrees and humid as all get out, is to just go with the flow and not try to push too hard or you'll end up a puddle on the floor. I spent a good amount of time just sitting in the rocking chair on the porch, rocking and staring at the trees. It was meditative and I felt connected with generations of people on porches in rocking chairs from the past. I just wished I had some purple hull peas to shell while I rocked.  

After the kids went to sleep, Jeremy and I watched a lecture online on the collapse of the Bronze Age, and it was fascinating. The lecturer pointed out several parallels to our current time (not our current current time, since it was filmed last year or the year before), but even before the pandemic there were plenty of similarities between our time and around the 1200s BC. A changing climate, interconnected societies reliant on trade, large disparities between the rich and poor... etc. etc. The thing the lecturer highlighted, though, was that we modern humans have a lot more understanding of why a lot of these things happen, i.e., weather, earthquakes, plagues. And so maybe we can use our superior knowledge to find a way to ensure our society doesn't collapse. Right now I'm not optimistic, but it's possible. 

Day Ninety-Six (Friday): 

In the morning we were hoping for a new shed delivery, but then we found out it won't be here until next Wednesday (which will be Day One-Hundred-One!). Jeremy finished up cleaning stumps and logs out of the way of where it will be delivered. I spent the early part of the morning planting the native plants I picked up from Janet last weekend. They're all planted in a sort of "naturalized" fashion around a wood rail fence and around my stone sitting spot. I still have to find a place to plant three sweet joe pye weeds, which can get seven feet tall! They need shade, which is good because we have that in abundance. The soil is very dry and digging holes for all these plants was tough. It hasn't rained in a long time. I hope we're not entering into summer drought times. We've had some brutal droughts here in the past where it didn't rain for over 100 days. 

It is Juneteenth today, a holiday celebrating the end of slavery. I, white yankee that I am, never celebrated it before, and I didn't feel like I could celebrate it today, though I wanted to acknowledge it and learn more about it. I told the kids about it at breakfast. I explained about the end of slavery, and about how African Americans still today aren't treated fairly. I said it was our job as white people to make sure we stand up for anyone we see who is being treated unfairly, especially if they are African American or other people of color. Taiya, in an early morning grumpy mood, said, "I don't want a job! I'm just a kid!" And so I rephrased it and said, "It's our duty to stand up for people, just like it's our duty to be kind." "I don't want a duty!" she spat back. And so I said, "Well it's yours whether you want it or not," and then decided to move on from what was clearly going to be an unproductive conversation. I'll try again another time. 

In the evening, after a dinner of grilled pork chops, rice, and salad, I asked if anyone wanted to go for a walk and William excitedly agreed. We took Daisy, William's most special stuffed animal friend Mouse, and my walking stick and went down to the creek for some exploring. We left his shoes and my phone on the bank and waded through the no-deeper-than-knee-deep water (Mouse safely in my pocket), exploring all the contours of the creek. It was a beautiful evening, William chattering away, me just soaking in the peace of it all. We found a little pool with tiny baby crawdads hiding under the rocks, we saw little fish darting about, we heard beautiful birdsong. The willows along the bank are fluffed with down. Several varieties of dragonflies darted about. We spent a good hour just meandering and I felt so refreshed and calm as we headed back to the house. I am so grateful to live on this creek. 

My creek exploring buddy.

Daisy demonstrating just how hot it is here in the afternoons.