Zinnias and Demolition Update

It's 6 a.m. and I've just spent half an hour scrubbing the bathroom. The tub needed cleaning and I figured as long as I was taking a shower, and shaving my head, I should just go ahead and do it. After all, I was already wet and I could rinse myself and the tub off at the same time. Efficient, but tiring, and the day has barely begun!

(I hadn't even had coffee, but I've remedied that situation now.)

Going back to work in the fall always feels a bit chaotic even on the home front. It takes a while to settle into a routine and figure out how to get household tasks done while working all day. I am absolutely NOT looking for sympathy here, because I realize everyone struggles with this and most people don't get a summer off. I'm just saying the adjustment period can be a bit crazy.

As you can see, things are still happening in the garden, even though it really does feel like fall out there. The zinnias are blooming (top) and some of our roses are going gangbusters with a second flush of flowers -- this red one at the back of the garden always performs well, and our yellow rose looks vigorous too. Our salmon rose also bloomed again, and it's my favorite so I was happy for that -- I cut the flower and brought it inside and it's perfuming the whole living room.

I've started listening to an interesting podcast on my walk to and from work. It's called "Alligator Candy," and it's about the 1973 disappearance of a boy named Jonathan Kushner in Tampa, my hometown. In fact, his parents worked at the University of South Florida, as did my parents, albeit in a different department. (I'm sure they didn't know each other.) Jonathan was abducted while riding his bike to a local convenience store, but despite that, I don't remember my parents being too nervous about us going out on our bikes or riding around the neighborhood. We were "free-range kids" just as Jonathan and his brothers were -- and as many kids were in the '70s. In fact I don't remember hearing about this case at all when I was growing up. I would have been almost seven years old when the crime occurred, and I guess I was just blissfully ignorant. At any rate, it promises to be an interesting podcast.

Dave and I also started "Mrs. America" last night, a TV series starring Cate Blanchett as Phyllis Schlafly. I'm excited to watch it, in my never-ending quest to understand the mysterious (to me) conservative mindset.

Remember how I mentioned the demolition of a former government office building on our high street? Well, this was the state of things several days ago. The building is pretty much entirely rubble. Funny thing about this video -- see how it's tilted? I had to stand on my tiptoes and blindly hold my phone up over a plywood barrier to film it. I did it three times, and every single video was tilted like that. Apparently I am incapable of holding the phone straight under those circumstances.