Rachel Manija Brown's Blog, page 75
April 5, 2021
More signs of spring
The other night while returning to the cabin I had to stop my car and remove a large toad from the road. While walking up to the door, another large toad hopped out of my path.
As a grand finale, I spotted the cats sniffing at a wee spring froggie that had somehow gotten inside the cabin. (They do that. How is a great mystery.) It was sprawled out and appeared dead, but when I picked it up and dripped some water on it, it revived and returned to a normal froggie position. I put it outside, and half an hour later, it was gone. I suspect it is only the first of many frog visitors.
comments
As a grand finale, I spotted the cats sniffing at a wee spring froggie that had somehow gotten inside the cabin. (They do that. How is a great mystery.) It was sprawled out and appeared dead, but when I picked it up and dripped some water on it, it revived and returned to a normal froggie position. I put it outside, and half an hour later, it was gone. I suspect it is only the first of many frog visitors.
comments
April 4, 2021
Mariposa Update
Mariposa went from winter to blooming, blazing spring in less than a week, so I am scrambling to start my garden.
I got two 4x4 raised beds and bought a truckful of dirt from Bootjack Rental to fill them. At the dirt place, I was served by a maskless white dude with a large Confederate flag tattoo on his arm, which he easily could have covered with a long-sleeved shirt but hadn't. Great experience for any Black people who show up to buy stuff or apply for a job at that place! Needless to say, I will be boycotting Bootjack from now on.
Any suggestions for what or how many plants I should plant in the beds are welcome. They are for vegetables, and I will start from seedlings from the local nursery (hopefully not staffed by flagrant racists) when possible since I missed all of March. I hate zucchini, summer squash, eggplant, and cilantro. I love leafy greens, peas, and bell peppers.
Chicks will arrive the week of April 12! I am waiting to buy chick food and grit at Mariposa Feed Store (hopefully not staffed by flagrant racists) till later, as I will be more protected from covid with every day that goes by.
comments
I got two 4x4 raised beds and bought a truckful of dirt from Bootjack Rental to fill them. At the dirt place, I was served by a maskless white dude with a large Confederate flag tattoo on his arm, which he easily could have covered with a long-sleeved shirt but hadn't. Great experience for any Black people who show up to buy stuff or apply for a job at that place! Needless to say, I will be boycotting Bootjack from now on.
Any suggestions for what or how many plants I should plant in the beds are welcome. They are for vegetables, and I will start from seedlings from the local nursery (hopefully not staffed by flagrant racists) when possible since I missed all of March. I hate zucchini, summer squash, eggplant, and cilantro. I love leafy greens, peas, and bell peppers.
Chicks will arrive the week of April 12! I am waiting to buy chick food and grit at Mariposa Feed Store (hopefully not staffed by flagrant racists) till later, as I will be more protected from covid with every day that goes by.
comments
March 28, 2021
Chag sameach!
Happy Passover to those celebrating!
I have an hour and fifteen minutes to get together the seder plate and cook dinner (just for myself) help meeee.
Dinner: confit duck leg, mashed potatoes, kale and blueberry salad.
Seder plate: Bone removed from duck leg, horseradish sauce, parsley, egg laid by Hattie the Olive Egger so it's green, apple/walnut/red wine charoset that I'm going to make RIGHT NOW. Plus half a bottle of red Zinfandel and three tortillas. What can I say, I haven't been inside a grocery store in four months.
It will be on Zoom, which hopefully will go better than last Zoom Passover.
Next year when we've all been vaccinated.
comments
I have an hour and fifteen minutes to get together the seder plate and cook dinner (just for myself) help meeee.
Dinner: confit duck leg, mashed potatoes, kale and blueberry salad.
Seder plate: Bone removed from duck leg, horseradish sauce, parsley, egg laid by Hattie the Olive Egger so it's green, apple/walnut/red wine charoset that I'm going to make RIGHT NOW. Plus half a bottle of red Zinfandel and three tortillas. What can I say, I haven't been inside a grocery store in four months.
It will be on Zoom, which hopefully will go better than last Zoom Passover.
Next year when we've all been vaccinated.
comments
March 26, 2021
Yesterday's Horses, by Jean Slaughter Doty
After a storm and landslide opens up a previously hidden valley containing a herd of prehistoric wild horses, a girl rescues an orphan foal who turns out to be key to enabling her veterinarian mother making a vaccine for a horse pandemic.
This was one of those books that I read, then forgot the title and author, then searched for vainly for ages before finally getting rescued by Jane Badger, the woman who's currently reprinting a bunch of classic horse books as ebooks.
Yesterday's Horses has a lot going on for a short book, but it's seen from the point of view of one girl on one farm, so it doesn't feel overstuffed. This likewise enables the pandemic to not come across as crushingly grim - horses die, even horses she knows, but we don't actually see any of that happen, and the focus is first on her raising the adorable prehistoric foal, then on her attempt to save her own horse when he gets sick. (Spoiler, he makes it).
It's more of a "I raised a wild animal, then gave it a bittersweet release back into the wild" book than a "rocks fall, all the horses die" book. Though I do have to note that rocks falling is the reason the foal was orphaned in the first place.
[image error]
comments
This was one of those books that I read, then forgot the title and author, then searched for vainly for ages before finally getting rescued by Jane Badger, the woman who's currently reprinting a bunch of classic horse books as ebooks.
Yesterday's Horses has a lot going on for a short book, but it's seen from the point of view of one girl on one farm, so it doesn't feel overstuffed. This likewise enables the pandemic to not come across as crushingly grim - horses die, even horses she knows, but we don't actually see any of that happen, and the focus is first on her raising the adorable prehistoric foal, then on her attempt to save her own horse when he gets sick. (Spoiler, he makes it).
It's more of a "I raised a wild animal, then gave it a bittersweet release back into the wild" book than a "rocks fall, all the horses die" book. Though I do have to note that rocks falling is the reason the foal was orphaned in the first place.
[image error]
comments
March 25, 2021
Chicks Ahoy!
After a slew of frustrating setbacks too tl;dr to recount, I have a date with some chicks.
Despite repeated tries, getting chicks locally didn't work out, so I've ordered chicks from My Pet Chicken, which supplied Kebi's delightful chicks that are now pretty, happy layers. Their minimum order is eight, but I got a local family friend who agreed to take two once they're coop-ready.
I'm getting one Austra White, two Blue Cuckoo Marans, one Snowy Easter Egger, and four from the mystery assortment of blue and green layers. A LOT of people are buying chicks right now, so the selection was limited. I'm thrilled to get an Austra White - Kebi's Dotty is my favorite in her flock - so I'm definitely keeping that one and one of the Marans. I will give away the other Maran and one of the other blue/green layers. When I collect my eggs, I'll get one white egg, one brown egg, and four in various shades of blue and green.
I'm so excited. This will enable me to live more off the land - the chickens will provide fertilizer for my garden, and I can feed vegetable scraps to the chickens - and I will train them to come when they're called and perch on my shoulders, completing my transformation into a cottagecore Disney princess.
comments
Despite repeated tries, getting chicks locally didn't work out, so I've ordered chicks from My Pet Chicken, which supplied Kebi's delightful chicks that are now pretty, happy layers. Their minimum order is eight, but I got a local family friend who agreed to take two once they're coop-ready.
I'm getting one Austra White, two Blue Cuckoo Marans, one Snowy Easter Egger, and four from the mystery assortment of blue and green layers. A LOT of people are buying chicks right now, so the selection was limited. I'm thrilled to get an Austra White - Kebi's Dotty is my favorite in her flock - so I'm definitely keeping that one and one of the Marans. I will give away the other Maran and one of the other blue/green layers. When I collect my eggs, I'll get one white egg, one brown egg, and four in various shades of blue and green.
I'm so excited. This will enable me to live more off the land - the chickens will provide fertilizer for my garden, and I can feed vegetable scraps to the chickens - and I will train them to come when they're called and perch on my shoulders, completing my transformation into a cottagecore Disney princess.
comments
March 24, 2021
Upon surprising three deer
I can never see deer running without imagining an accompanying "Boing boing boing."
comments
comments
Choke Hold, by Christa Faust
In this sequel to Money Shot, Angel Dare is working at a cheap diner under an assumed name after her stint in Witness Protection failed to protect her. She's out of the porn business, but not exactly out of the sex business: she describes how she got a place to stay by flirting with a man in a restaurant until he bought her a steak and took her home, where, she writes, I paid for my steak.
After a spectacularly ill-fated chance meeting with an old flame from her former life, Angel finds herself saddled with a very young man she feels responsible for, his washed-up MMA trainer, and a tide of violence that gets bigger and bigger until it swallows up everything in its path.
Very page-turny, very dark but not in the same way as Money Shot (less betrayal and everyone being horrible, more sudden shocking violence), set largely in the MMA world which was interesting but not quite as much for me as the porn world. But Angel still has a sex worker's mindset even when she's not specifically doing sex work, so that world is never really gone.
I briefly puzzled over why it took me so long to get to this book considering how much I liked Money Shot, and then checked the date of my review of the latter: November 2019. Right. 2020 is why.
[image error]
comments
After a spectacularly ill-fated chance meeting with an old flame from her former life, Angel finds herself saddled with a very young man she feels responsible for, his washed-up MMA trainer, and a tide of violence that gets bigger and bigger until it swallows up everything in its path.
Very page-turny, very dark but not in the same way as Money Shot (less betrayal and everyone being horrible, more sudden shocking violence), set largely in the MMA world which was interesting but not quite as much for me as the porn world. But Angel still has a sex worker's mindset even when she's not specifically doing sex work, so that world is never really gone.
I briefly puzzled over why it took me so long to get to this book considering how much I liked Money Shot, and then checked the date of my review of the latter: November 2019. Right. 2020 is why.
[image error]
comments
March 21, 2021
Math help?
Hypothetically speaking, if the chance of a vaccinated person being able to contract a certain disease is 6 out of 100, and the odds of a vaccinated person being able to transmit a certain disease is also 6 out of 100, then what is the chance of one random vaccinated person giving that certain disease to one other random vaccinated person?
This is a math problem I need help with, not a factual statement about a disease. I'm trying to express a concept with actual numbers rather than just "very unlikely."
comments
This is a math problem I need help with, not a factual statement about a disease. I'm trying to express a concept with actual numbers rather than just "very unlikely."
comments
A Medical Mystery
Shows how spacey I am that I forgot to mention by far the most interesting part of my vaccine reaction. I'm having all-over body aches, but they're most severe and pronounced at the sites of previous injuries - including the foot I broke two years ago, which hasn't hurt at all for at least a year! It's at the exact site of the breaks, too. It currently feels like it did when I'd only had the cast off for a month or two.
What is the likely mechanism for this odd effect? I've only ever heard of old injuries being reactivated in scurvy, which I'm pretty sure I don't have.
comments
What is the likely mechanism for this odd effect? I've only ever heard of old injuries being reactivated in scurvy, which I'm pretty sure I don't have.
comments
Day after vaccine report
This is just for science and curiosity; I would be totally OK with WAY worse side effects.
The day after my first dose of Moderna, my arm hurt so much that I couldn't move my shoulder (luckily I was OK just moving my hand, so I could still type), and by late afternoon I felt generally like I had the flu.
The day after that (today), my arm still hurts but I have much more range of motion, the flu-like symptoms are gone, and I just feel a bit tired and like I'm recovering from some incredibly intense whole-body workout.
I feel good about my probable level of protection.
comments
The day after my first dose of Moderna, my arm hurt so much that I couldn't move my shoulder (luckily I was OK just moving my hand, so I could still type), and by late afternoon I felt generally like I had the flu.
The day after that (today), my arm still hurts but I have much more range of motion, the flu-like symptoms are gone, and I just feel a bit tired and like I'm recovering from some incredibly intense whole-body workout.
I feel good about my probable level of protection.
comments
