wisteria transplant, phase one

in

Finally started the wisteria transplant project or, the “move the wisteria so Tyler doesn’t have to climb on the roof to perform surgery to remove said wisteria from power and cable lines every three weeks because you said the blooms were so pretty but I haven’t seen the blooms in the ten years I’ve lived here because it’s under too much shade don’t electrocute me” project. Plan is to have it climb the pergola (under which we were married eight years ago next week), meet its new clematis friends, and soak in the omnipresent backyard sun. Hopeful for blooms but happy enough to know I’ll no longer have to perform rooftop surgery or risk electrocution and/or causing further power outages.

And now, a look at the assistance offered by by my intrepid assistant:

This is going to be a long summer.

brainexhaust/20220619

(or, a collection of things which might become longer things but for now are clogging up the inbox; starting this as a regular Sunday thing to clear out the week’s unused fragments and shards from my Obsidian inbox.)

  • Became hooked on two particular podcasts about cults and deprogramming from them but stopped listening because, while the material is insanely interesting, the hosts like to hear themselves talk too much and both became unlistenable.

  • Both INVISIBLE CITIES and THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER have, after initial readings (three and eight years ago, respectively) left me impressed but otherwise unmoved, in this re-reading, gone into my favorites list, easily top ten (if there is such a thing... ) - definitely more on the (re)read list coming soon.

  • Little Randy, the-15-year-old chihuahua / giver of chase on the day's run, is going blind and not chasing me any more, though she tried recently. Getting her back in her yard from the road was the closest I've ever gotten to her. Poor little girl. The snowdrift story remains a thing of legend.

  • AMBULANCE is really good.

  • I'm only now getting into LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS and I love it.

  • I also love my Stream Deck. Working on something more, still, about working with it

  • HIIT training is awesome. I can run again without my back screaming at me the whole time.

  • Think that's it. Happy Sunday.

storm cleanup, complete(!)

in

(previously…)

Surprise surprise: a call from my grandfather – part of the surprise being the call, given that he still (as of this writing, sun/20220619) doesn't have power or reliable communications – around lunchtime yesterday, a jubilant (for him) call: around 0900, a group of a dozen people showed up with a commercial grade woodchipper and, in two hours, cleared all of the piles I had made as well as the little bits and twigs and sticks left in my chainsaw wake in the wake of the storm. Apparently they were sponsored by a Christian service group or a Christian service group or something, and didn't request to save his soul in return for saving the rest of the yard and the rest of my back: until further evidence to the contrary emerges, I'll consider this to be one of those "people CAN be kind and good" moments, a rare thing nowadays. If they could bring back his Netflix, though, that might be enough to make a believer out of a 95-year-old atheist.

storm cleanup, phase one-b

in

(previously…)

I’ve been chainsawing storm-fallen trees all afternoon and my brain is as fried as my arms so just know that all of the fallen trees are hacked and piled and my grandfather has a yard to mow while he waits for his power and internet and Netflix to return: victory. Next up: cleaning up all of the twigs and figuring out what to do with all the piles. FARGO reenactment, here I come and I wrote more words than I thought I would write so there. PICTURES OF (storm-felled) TREES DOTH ENSUE.

Unai no tomo

in

Beautiful collection of Japanese toy catalogues from the 1890s through 1920s via the ever-brilliant Public Domain Review:

During Culin’s visits to Japan, Seifu Shimizu — director of a major Tokyo trading company, artist, calligrapher, and leading Meiji Era collector of omocha (toys) — was in the midst of publishing the ten-volume Unai no tomo, comprised of charming woodblock prints of traditional objects of play. The founder of Odomokai (十八番クラブ), a Connoisseur's Club to advance the appreciation of tomo (“playfellows” or “companions”), Shimizu treasured Japanese toys. He created the Takeuma-kai (Hobbyhorse Club) for their study in 1880, and curated the first known exhibition in 1906. After Shimizu’s death in 1913, his friend Nishizawa Tekiho completed the final volumes of the Unai no tomo series. Browsing through these catalogs we meet: jack-in-the-box chickens; whales on wheels and magnetic mice; a clay sumo wrestler grappling an orange carp; and popguns, hobbyhorses, and noisemakers galore.