history: pluperfected?

A week ago I went to a play in which my niece Taz had several parts. Many family gathered for the big event. Of them all, my brother-in-law alone waited to give me company back home (I took 10 minutes to feed Sylvan after the show; it ended at his nursing hour). On our walk home we had a good chance to converse anent Cabbages and Kings. He spoke of something he's reading, and I learned about historical materialism and historical ideology. He mentioned that History, The Subject (presented, as it is, in ideological terms) had not been compelling or coherent to him, and how that might resolve. 
   How resonant with my experience! More, it spoke to an open question in the forefront of my mind. I have been trying (recently and with some concentration) to articulate, approach, and solve how History and I have historically not clicked. Moremore, it presented a door to solution.

Odin's Day

Yesterday was a lovely day. Sylvan's grandparents took him to library lap-sit ‒ as they do every Wednesday, and it's a treat.

   Gramma Jen stayed with us through the early afternoon and took Sylvan on a walk. Ivar and Taz accompanied. I heard tell that Ivar charmed Sylvan out of his grumps with a daffodil. Bjorn and I had an engagement with Grot to look at farm properties. I enjoyed myself.

   Afterward, Bjorn took Taz to SkateLand and Ivar read books to Sylvan (SUPER cute) when he got home from Tae Kwan Do.

good day sunshine! or menus of Slop & Taxes

Wow! What a morning! In the space of an hour: 

Bjorn discovered the IRS messed up our taxes and their mess-up could result in penalties to us! 

   He took it upon himself to call the IRS; this raises his grumpiness to epic levels, +1 level for each IRS phone navigation menu! 

A plush toy was discovered to have a mysterious distribution of baby poop all over its face! (Not best beloved Mr Chicken Ambrosius Bock, thank goodness!) 

   The dog was discovered to have vomited! He began licking it up! Frothy Bile Two Ways is disallowed on his breakfast menu!

Person Breakfast got delayed! ... And yet, I got a good night's rest and I feel WONDERFUL!

severe retirement damage

Most people probably think I'm not properly retired. The Internet Retirement Police represent the Generally Acceptable criteria. 

   My main disqualification? I don't dedicate my time to leisure.

   When (a few years ago) I asked my sister Winn Dixie how much she would need to have saved to be comfortable retiring, she named a prodigious sum ‒ certainly more than is funding my retirement.

Though few peeps would count mine as a retirement worth having, the gooberment has its own rubric, and my Federal overlords cast a conclusion opposite that of the Internet Retirement Police: They won't let me put money in a retirement fund. Nary a single Bram.

a Picasso or a Garfunkel

Every once in a while, I write down what I fancy I'd do if I suddenly got a million dollars (net, i.e., post-tax). I don't set out to do it regularly. As far as I can recall there's always some prompt, some external event, that draws my attention to the topic. Most recently it was the book Julie and Romeo Get Lucky. It is interesting to see how my lists change over the years. 

   Take 10 minutes. Write the first things that come to mind. Here's my latest list, made mid-January 2016.

• invest half [500k]
• fund a vacation to Italy for Rita and her husband Luc (including a souvenir outfit for each (complete with Italian leather shoes)) [490k]
• buy art for my home (I have 4 specific pieces in mind) [430k]
• pay down scholastic debt for Rita and for my brother-in-law Grot [410k]
• book a month-o'-Sundays' worth of hotel getaways for Em, my sister-in-law [400k]
• fund Grot's retirement [300k]
• get regular massages and hair-stylin' (you wouldn't know it but I so do enjoy having my hair did) [290k]
• purchase something for my friend Luminous Fractal

Growing

It is the season of the first crocus. Of the pioneering daffodil. Sylvan's weight is in the 80th %ile and his height is in the 90th %ile.
   BOOM, baby.
   Gramma and Grampa bought us a stroller. We (Sly, Eu, me) strolled yesterday AND today, both times with the monkey's Unky.

This week he peed in the toilet away from home for the first time! Not surprisingly, it was at Gramma's house. :)

Big yesterDay

Yesterday Sylvan sat up by himself and crawled for the first times. DEVELOP ALL THE THINGS!

Today Grampa took Sylvan to the library, where Aunt Em does storytime for babies his age. Speaking of his age (6.5 mo), he's wearing 12 mo clothes.
   He drools much less than he used to. He enjoys smoked salmon, pork chops, and mamamilk.
   He is interested in shadows. He is fascinated by mama's and papa's headlamps. He might want one of his own someday.

media++ list from syllabus for DG course "Going Viral 101"

{Article} "Zika: Of Virus, Vector, Victim, Drought, Deforestation, the World Cup, the Epigenome & Evolution"
   Here was the first I heard of Zika, syncitin, and "aerial rivers"!
   I'd read a lot about how our genome co-evolved with bacteria, but not as much about it co-evolving with viruses.
   Junk DNA not so junky?

{Non-fiction} Acquiring Genomes
   Last read in 2008. Time to revisit it.

{Photograph} Trees; WANTED: dead or alive.
   A bat in its home. Courtesy "Nine Wonderful Ways Wildlife Need Trees" from nwf.org



{Article} "When a Country Without Abortion Tells Women Not to Get Pregnant" 
   The El Salvadoran government wants its(!) women to not get pregnant for a couple years. 40% are already sterile self-made. What's next?

{Novel} When She Woke, pp 1-100
   In dystopian-future Texas, a woman gets an abortion and is caught and convicted of murder.
   She is jailed for 30 days and released after punitive variolation. The virus changes the pigment of her skin.

{Scent} phial of Victoria's Secret perfume "Bombshell"
   See this NPR article for the mosquitoid relevance.
   Not only is this the sole non-media item on this list, it's the only one I haven't knowingly encountered / read / experienced.