Weeknotes: October 7-11, 2024
Monday, October 7
I get a notice from the Ypsilanti Library that my MelCat order is ready for pickup. They've shipped Leif Enger's Peace Like a River up from the Monroe County Library for me. I finish reading Virgil Wander before bed so I can swap them out tomorrow and continue my Enger journey. The weather is turning chilly and I have a head cold — exceptional circumstances for good books. The Tigers rebound from their weekend pummeling to win Game 2 of the ALDS and now the series is coming to Detroit. I stand at the kitchen cupboards listening to the ballgame, feeling ravenous. It's feed a cold, starve a fever, right? I wind down the evening editing a series of short essays I've written about Ann Arbor for the library's bicentennial project.
Weeknotes: September 30 - October 4, 2024
Monday, September 30
On Saturday I sent Islay to spend the night with my parents while I took a day trip to Grand Rapids. When I got home to my empty house, I felt so distraught without her. Today I make sure she gets plenty of attention. Pets take up such emotional volume. I sit on the couch with her binge-watching the Americans while working on a magazine layout project for my design class.
Weeknotes: September 23-27, 2024
Monday, September 23
The second day of autumn. That's the title of a song my brother wrote in the early '90s and I always think of it on the day after the equinox. In the evening, K and I drive up into the northern suburbs to see Vampire Weekend at Meadowbrook Music Hall. I brought a blanket, but we rent lawn chairs and sit in the cool damp evening, drinking gin and tonics and listening to Ezra Koenig's keening voice pierce the hill.
Weeknotes: June 10-14, 2024
Monday, June 10
Morning Glory Report
This year’s varieties:
Heavenly Blue
Celestial Mixed
Flying Saucers
Scarlet O'Hara
Seeds Sown (Indoors): April 10
Seedlings Planted (Outdoors): April 30
Notes:
Flying Saucers are this year's overachiever, the first to reach the fencetop summit. The plant is split between two vertical trainers with one vine about 4" ahead of the other. The Celestials are in hot pursuit with thicker, hairier vines that are maybe 6" from the summit. Heavenly Blues' slender vines are about ⅔ up the twine with Scarlet O'Hara having only just begun her climb.
I say it's not a contest, but I go out and check their progress every morning, a favorite summer ritual that's about to be paired with A.M. raspberry picking. With nowhere to else go, the Saucers are about to become airborn, flaunting their windblown freedom. I spend an hour stringing up aerial trainers from the fencetop to eye hooks on the side of the nearby shed. If they continue to grow well, it will create a woven green trellis above the evolving Fronds Lounge.