How are you spending your last day of summer?
Gabe’s favorite hangout
Zander guarding the garden
And bonus puppies
Respite open thread
Reader Interactions
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.
Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.
The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.
Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.
Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.
They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.
The worst democrat is better than the best republican.
The revolution will be supervised.
Accountability, motherfuckers.
They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.
Celebrate the fucking wins.
Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.
Innocent people do not delay justice.
JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?
“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”
Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)
Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.
She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.
We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.
The willow is too close to the house.
Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!
I really should read my own blog.
The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.
Only Democrats have agency, apparently.
cain
Last day of summer? Already fall is here in the pacific northwest as the rains have come early. We usually have till October, but nope.. it’s been nothing but rain since the beginning of September.
I was hoping to do a camping trip but alas.
EDA – oooh.. first post. Also I think I made the best pizza in years last night! It was.. stupendous!
cain
Cute critters too!! Almost time for BJ Calendar season! John’s favorite time of the year!
ETA: OMG! 2nd post! I’m literally in here by myself, I’m so giddy!! Like the first person to board the plane and getting whole place to myself!! Wheeeeeeeeeee!!!!
cain
I went to the shelter yesterday, and they only had 4 cats and no dogs. Dogs apparently gets adopted super fast. More demand than supply.. we’ll have to get all the ones from the kill shelters around the world. We need an underground railroad for doggos and kitties. There was a mean ol rabbit there too. Stupid bunny. But it is super awesome to see these critters hardly stay in teh shelter before they get adopted. If you got pets send em here, we’ll take em!
ETA: oh wow!!! 3rd post?!!!! This is amazing! Best sunday morning ever!! Wooo!! DOMINATION!
Lalophobia
Hey uh…anyone in the Chicago jackal community looking for a roommate/roomshare/sublet/tenant whatever or know someone who is? I’ve been meeting folks and going to viewing from the list of Craig for over a month now with nothing to show for it. I’ve been sleeping outside and on the lines. This even lead to my licence, SS and debit card being stolen at one point, and I had to run around like a mad person replacing them all and I’m just…really fucking tired.
That wasn’t providing much respite, was it?
namekarB
Bocce Ball with a bunch of FOGs. Ms namekarB and I took a day trip Saturday up to and over Mount Lassen. Pretty nice this time of year and only a few tourists. If you have never done so, do so.
cain
Zander looks very majestic. Truly a garden guardian. Very cool. Yay for puppies!
This rain sucks. But I made colorado green chilli today.. got my hatch chile from Denver last weekend, and now I’m planning on having breakfast with it. That stuff is da bomb. I put that stuff in everything.
cain
@Lalophobia:
Why are you sleeping outside? Can’t you go to a Y[W|M]CA or something? There are also youth hostels where you can stay for cheap. Don’t put your security at risk and sleep outside when you have the means to pay for a place.
zhena gogolia
We’re spending it like Gabe (but with laptops and work added). We were at a big party with celebrities yesterday. Exhausting. Not that they paid any attention to us.
Brachiator
I saw the Downton Abbey movie over the weekend. It was great fun, and the audience clearly had a good time seeing the cast of the tv show up on the big screen.
The gentle plot, such as it is, deals with a visit to Downtown Abbey by King George V and his wife. Although the “upstairs,” the Crawley family are pleased with the honor of it all, the “downstairs,” the serving staff are initially thrilled, but then dismayed by the bureaucracy of royal protocol. Hijinks ensue.
This is not a standalone movie. Like Avengers Endgame, there is the assumption that you know who is who among all the characters. But the acting is uniformly good, and some characters have very emotionally satisfying mini stories. I will note that one plot development would have been far more moving had we seen more of the characters involved in earlier stories during the run of the tv series.
As always, Maggie Smith’s dowager countess is a hoot.
That said, a great deal of the fun is seeing the stately homes on the big screen. Yeah, I can understand those who wait for the video and streaming release, but you will miss some of the visual fun.
The movie kicked butt at the weekend box office, with $31 million, easily beating the new Rambo movie. I enjoyed a couple of box office demographic details.
So, the Downton movie did well without the benefit of well attended evening showings because old people need their sleep. And yes, I went to a late afternoon showing. Fight me.
zhena gogolia
@Brachiator:
Oh, you’re making me want to go see it. I was skeptical — I thought all the plotlines had been so beautifully rounded off in the last season, I was afraid to ruin it.
frosty
What am I doing? Just finished a 9 mile RT bike ride on the NCRR rail trail and now cooling off watching the Ravens with my son.
prostratedragon
The Dr. Dolittle clip that Betty C. linked earlier sent me back to one of my favorite singers, Jon Lucien. This album is a nice summery groove with a bossa nova feel:
cain
@Brachiator:
Did you mention both Downtown Abbey and Avengers: Endgame in the same post? I feel like we’ve crossed the streams or something. (okay now I brought in ghostbusters)
frosty
Also thinking about taking some patio/garden pix. They would be more of a “here’s what I need to do” post.
Sab
I put pansies in the hanging baskets by the windows to replace the impatiens that was moved to better shade. Moving the potted heather by the front door to a spot in the yard where it might survive the winter. Already got the mums in. This should be it until winter for live stuff.
Baking choc chip cookies when (teetotalling) spouse at sportsbar with buddies.
MelissaM
That’s a pretty crappy cage for a cat. Just sayin’.
mrmoshpotato
I see Gabe’s spending the last day of summer by giving Steve a run for his money.
Raining here in our great City by a Great Lake with storms forecast.
I watched a documentary on Clarence Clemons last night – Who Do I Think I Am? Highly recommended. Interesting look at the Big Man.
mrmoshpotato
@cain:
Do tell.
Brachiator
@zhena gogolia:
Mild spoiler. Very indirect.
You have been warned.
The screenwriters actually find a way to suggest a continuation in a way that does not seem totally strained or ridiculous.
SiubhanDuinne
@Brachiator:
I’m thinking of seeing it tomorrow or Tuesday afternoon. I like weekday matinees — they’re cheaper, and I usually have the place to myself, or close enough.
I’ve loved the DA Movie mini-adverts popping up on YouTube and Facebook. Great fun.
cain
@mrmoshpotato:
I almost always make home made vegetarian pizza – but it took me about 1.5 hours of work for this bad boy. Made the sauce from scratch with a can of crushed tomatoes, a little garlic, olive oil and tomato paste. Reduced to a thick consistency, add salt to taste.
Took about 45 minutes to make the crust – using recipe and then did one bake with just cheese and crust (parmesan preferred with asiago) and then sauce, toppings, and moz cheese and then bake again.
The result is always 100x better than any pizza you can buy. It’s really amazing stuff. I use the lodge non-stick cast iron pizza pan. (I also use it sometimes to make dosa or crepes so plenty of other uses)
There you go! :)
TomatoQueen
Watching sportsball. At present, England v Tonga in rugby. In spite of the cliches, the Tonga players are just that much smaller than the England players, and England is ahead. Tonga did a haka, a nice one.
Brachiator
@cain:
Haunted Downton Abbey. There’s a story idea.
I don’t know when the Downton movie was first pitched, but certain comparisons with the Avengers saga seem appropriate. I read one online review by a person who walked out of the film after half an hour because she didn’t know who any of the characters were supposed to be.
And yet the movie is a big success with audiences who know the series and its canon. And like the best of Endgame, this movie succeeds not because its characters do exactly the same things that they did in the tv series, but that their new actions and responses arise naturally from how their characters have been established. But this kind of thing is risky because it potentially alienates viewers who are not already invested in the series. Fortunately, the Downton writers picked the right characters to focus on, for the most part.
Movie producers may try more of this instead of creating original stories. Most will probably fail because it is tough to get it right. I know the original series fairly well, but still had to stop a couple of times and ask “who is this character? Oh, yeah”
Kelly
I’m watching the drizzle out the window here in the western Cascade foothills. Yesterday was beautifully sunny. I swam all the way across the river and back for what may be the last time this year.
Catherine D.
I just got a bright spot in an otherwise crappy week (my father died Wednesday) when multiple dudes in kilts just jogged past my house. Don’t know why they were there, but I laughed.
cain
@Kelly:
Yes at least we had Friday and Saturday.. but today it is all rain.
zhena gogolia
@Brachiator:
Fellowes is a very clever writer.
mrmoshpotato
@cain: Thanks. I have one of Lodge’s single burner reversible griddles. It’s great for smash burgers and steaks.
zhena gogolia
@Catherine D.:
I’m sorry about your father.
debbie
@Brachiator:
So glad that the reviews have been good. I was a bit worried. NPR had a good interview this morning with Michelle Dockery and Elizabeth McGovern.
JoyceH
@Brachiator:
I’m putting a lot of ghosts at Pemberley.
That’s what I’m doing on the last day of summer – writing book 4 of my Regency Mage series (Mary Bennet and the Shades of Pemberley) and editing book 3 (Mary Bennet and the Beast of Rosings Park).
I want to get both of them published this year, so I need to stick to it.
cain
@Catherine D.:
I”m so sorry for your loss!! :( Your description of “crappy” seems generous at best. Hang in there and glad you can still laugh.
satby
@Catherine D.: Condolences on the loss of your father, Catherine. May his memory one day bring a smile to your face before it brings a tear to your eye.
Brachiator
BTW. I also enjoyed the Friday Fresh Air Interview with Maggie Smith, who plays the imperious dowager granny on Downton Abbey. She was asked about her role as one of the wizardy professors in the Harry Potter films, and she responded by not talking much about herself, but in praising fellow actors Daniel Ratcliffe and especially the late Alan Rickman. Very touching.
AliceBlue
Tomorrow may be the official start of fall, but after a few days with highs in the mid-80s, the temps are going back into the mid-90s all next week. Ugh.
Ruckus
@Catherine D.:
Dad’s dying is never a good day. Sorry about yours.
Mine went after a week in hospice and 20 yrs of Alzheimers. It a way it was a relief that he no longer had to suffer. Still, it was dad. My nephew bought a bottle of Irish whiskey and 8 of us sat around and had a shot. Then my friend and I stayed up until the bottle was gone. I didn’t feel better, I felt nothing. Which helped. Still miss him after 18 yrs but it is easier, you get somewhat used to it.
MagdaInBlack
Roasting cherry tomatoes to stir in to broken linguine.
Also, I was seduced by a Walnut Bavarian Creme Coffee Cake that my grocery store gets from some nside bakery, so yum ?
Brachiator
@Catherine D.:
My condolences. Good to hear that the kicking kilts brought a little cheer.
John Revolta
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
karensky
Like your dogs and cats a lot. Thanks for posting them. I went to see Ad Astra with a friend today. She feel asleep twice but I was just riveted. Had burgers from Shake Shack for lunch. Mmm. Walking over this eve to have dinner with my daughter and son in law who are both gourmet cooks. I am a lucky old broad.
Gin & Tonic
Last day of summer meant going for (probably) my last ocean swim of the year. Very weird day otherwise with the marine-layer fog coming and going. One minute blue sky and sunshine, literally 10 minutes later less the 1/4 mile visibility.
Gvg
Last day of summer? Jeeze, I have a month or two left. We need rain. I had 6 yards of mulch delivered today and I think I got a sunburn trying to get it picked up and spread. The weeds kept coming back where I had already weeded, so I decided I had to spend the money. Stupid big dump truck couldn’t maneuver so he dropped the load in the street by the curb. I am trying to get the pile at least narrower, for neighbors to pass it. Having a popsicle inside under the fan to cool off. Soon back out there. At least it is cooler than August.
cain
@JoyceH:
Good luck! Cool to see some fantasy writers here. I used to be part of the “scene” when I was younger. Used to go to all the SF conventions, regularly… met with authors even hanged out with them. Good times. I haven’t been to an SF convention since I was in college. Good times.
Sab
@Gvg: Sympathy here. I had 4 yards of topsoil delivered last month onto the driveway, then discovered that both wheelbarrows had flat tires. Took me a week to get it moved to where it belonged.
J R in WV
@Catherine D.:
So sorry for your loss. Even when they have been moving towards their end in hospice, like my dad was, it’s a solid blow. Grief and relief that their misery is over. At least that’s how it was for me. Dad had been dwindling for several years.
Do take care of yourself — and keep in touch with us if it helps in any way.
Ben Cisco
@Catherine D.: I am very sorry for your loss; I wish you comfort and healing. In time, you will have both.
Ohio Mom
@Lalophobia: Holey Moley! You are in a fix. I do not know anything about specific social services in Chicago but I do know from being an autism mom that one must be a very squeaky wheel to get the help one needs and is entitled to.
Someone up thread mentioned the YWCA. That could be a starting point. Tell them you are homeless and need a roof over your head.
You may end up being referred from one social service agency to another. Follow through! Eventually you will find the help you need.
I am not telling you anything you do not already know: living on the streets is dangerous and it will debilitate you in short order. The longer you are homeless, the harder it will be to get stabilized. You physical and mental health will deteriorate.
Do not be shy about asking for help. It is your due. That is why we all pay taxes, to make sure you get what you need.
I have this discussion repeatedly with other middle-class autism moms who do not want to sign their kids up for Medicaid and Social Security. I don’t know if it is denial (my kid isn’t that disabled) or snobbery (apply for welfare! You’re insulting me!), or a bit of both, but it is stupid and self-defeating.
You are not succeeding on your own if you are asking for help here. Go get the help you need and keep us posted. We care.
Ohio Mom
@Catherine D.: The day after my mom died, there was a rain storm the likes of which I’d hadn’t seen before or since. The rain was sideways and it was pouring so hard, you couldn’t see across the street. Very unusual for Queens, New York City. A few huge oak trees in the neighborhood were knocked over.
I already felt as if the world had been turned upside down; it was preposterous to me that everyday life was proceeding for everyone else, as of nothing had happened — and to everyone outside of my family, nothing had happened.
But for those few minutes of that storm, everything for everyone did stop, the world was radically different. It was comforting.
Sounds like the universe sent you a lovely gift in that little parade. Condolences and may your memories of your dad be a comfort, always.
TomatoQueen
@Lalophobia: Getting safely situated before the cold is tricky & you don’t provide enough detail about your situation to advise: homeless/working? homeless/student? homeless/jobless? At least in larger municipalities, social service agencies tend to be clustered close together (I’ve known egregious exceptions) so you shouldn’t have to hazard Craig exclusively. Fakebook Marketplace is yet another source that may help in a similar fashion.
J R in WV
@Ohio Mom:
What are those kids going to do for support after their parents become disabled by age/die?? I see parents at Kroger’s with grown up kids who appear to be barely able to communicate, obviously disabled… I hope those kids have young relatives who will help look after them.
Once I heard virulent cursing going on in the next aisle. When I eventually met that shopping party, the cursing guy was in a wheelchair, probably had Touretet’s Syndrome and other disabilities, and his (probably) brother was shopping for both of them and navigating that chair, his disabled bro and all the groceries up one aisle and down the next.
Regarding last day of Summer, I went out into the heat of what should be midsummer and watered ferns, moss, plants, ground cover, etc, etc. Was like a blast furnace having water sprayed on it. Hundreds of gallons of precious well water on moss covered rocks.
I have probably 25 yards of wood chips down in the lower bottom, which I’ll allow to moulder together until next spring, when we’ll mulch cardboard and newsprint under chips, hoping to kill off invasive weeds.
The pond is doing well, the water I ran into it has enough leaves to be turning dark, like tea, Oak leaf tea. We’re planning to get some water plants for it, hoping they will last over the winter. Winter wasn’t much last year…
TomatoQueen
@Ohio Mom: Much wisdom here, especially the debunking of the middle class myths, which I attribute to the last 40 years of R-originated ratfucking. Only this morning on Fbk I explained to someone who is all grown up and everything and well over the age of 30 that AFDC was utterly destroyed in the 90s and the replacement, TANF, is a piss-poor substitute. The chagrined “oops” that came back made me shake my head. No it’s not a tremor or stress-related Parkinson’s coming on, it’s the gah-damned Rs. I seethe sometimes.
Ohio Mom
@J R in WV: Ohio Son, now 22, takes two classes a semester at the community college, has a part-part time job, and a Wednesday morning recreation program, among other odds and ends, and he’s still trailing me at the super market (well, I make him help).
It’s hard filling the days when you don’t drive, don’t have any friends, and your only hobby is the computer. They don’t call autism a *pervasive* developmental disability for nothing. It permeates everything.
We all worry about what happens when we’re too old and frail/dead. Every state handles Medicaid for disabled people differently but they all don’t fund their Medicaid Waivers enough.
Waivers are what pays for supports like group homes, home health care workers, day and recreation programs, job coaching transportation, and health care — but not rent, gotta use your SSI for that.
There’s always a waiting list for the Medicaid Waivers because see above, not enough money is allocated.
Then the states turn around and say, “No biggie, look at all these great families providing natural supports.” That’s what that young man pushing his brother in his chair while managing the shopping was doing, providing natural supports.
Ohio Mom
@TomatoQueen: Yup. I explain the ins and outs of disability funding over and over to friends and family who keep asking, “Can’t he (Ohio Son) live in a group home?” People can be very resistant to hearing what they don’t want to know.
m.j.
I went to see Lewis Black tonight. I wouldn’t mind doing that again.
I also learned about the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, N.Y. and it sounds like a place I would love to visit if I ever get the time and money.
AnotherBruce
@cain: better the rains than the fires.
AnotherBruce
@Kelly: Which river?
Steeplejack
@Catherine D.:
Condolences on your loss. ? Congrats on the kilts? ?
Steeplejack
@prostratedragon:
Thanks for this! Has that nice early ’70s soul/jazz groove that I really like. Never heard it before. Appalling how much I missed. And I thought I had my antennae out!