Sitting out on the porch during the first rainstorm we’ve had after a nearly a month of 95-100 degree highs this spring. It feels good. It feels necessary for some reason. It’s been a rough month. They all seem rough these days, don’t they?
Nicole made me some genmaicha to bring out here. I’m a very fortunate gents.
Today I Learned: Marie-Therese, the daughter of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, was the (disputed) Queen-Consort of France for 20 minutes in August of 1830. We were watching Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette and I did a little googling to see what became of the kids. Marie-Therese, the eldest child, lived quite an interesting life that was probably a good deal more eventful than her mother’s. Apparently, and it is not impossible that I’m not fully following the bouncing ball here, royalists would periodically try to restore the monarchy and prop up some fellow claiming to be Marie-Therese’s brother (both of her brothers died young) and she would inevitably be involved in some fashion.
Anyway, the thought of someone holding an office for 20 minutes or so is the sort of thing that interests me and I thought y’all might find it interesting as well.
I did get a little joy today from an unexpected source. I saw that Sunderland A.F.C. were promoted from League One in England (which is, inexplicably, the third highest level of English football) and I thought of an old friend who has remained a loyal Black Cats supportor. I shot off an email and he responded almost immediately, which delighted me no end. Weird little connections like that are disproportionately delightful, aren’t they?
We visited my mother for her birthday last weekend. I’m not gong to lie: She looks Old. That’s to be expected as, in point of fact, she is old, but it’s still….I’m proud of her. She’s still learnng things, still changing her mind, and still muddling through trying to do right under the assumption that, if people just do the right thing, then things will work out.
She adores Nicole, which speaks well of the both of them.
You can’t tell by reading, but I just stopped typing for ten minutes thinking about mom. She’s a good egg. A lot of what I like about myself came directly from her.
We are, all things considered, relatively well off. I’m employed, insured, and we can make ends meet even if there isn’t quite so much slack in the rope as there was a few years ago. I can only imagine how bad some people are feeling the rising price of everything right now.
Just like with the people who get the disease, COVID is going to have serious long-term affects on the nation and, specifically, the economy. I don’t have any idea how to fix any of this; when so many of the links in the chain break at the same time, even trained experts struggle to come up with solutions. I can say that diminished buying power plus food supply chain shortages are a recipe for Very Bad Things (side note: Perhaps the biggest problem the Louis XVI faced was inflation brought on by deregulation and poor harvests. Weird how relevant that feels now).
All this and the fact that the pandemic hasn’t been resolved in any meaningful way (unless you find “just declaring it’s over because you’re tired of it” meaningful) makes me very nervous. This doesn’t end well.
I have quite a bit more on my mind, but the rain is nice and I’m no longer in the mood to grip. Tomorrow is the last day of the Premier League season, so I’m getting up early(ish) one last time and really ought to be hitting the hay. Goodnight all, and I hope things are good in your neck of the woods tonight.
-RK
