Both ways is the only way I want it

O April, cruelest month, with nary a word a-written! My "notes" show much grousing this month about this and that, like so:

Say what you will about astrological nonsense, but Mercury is in retrograde and so far

• Broken refrigerator (repair ETA 4/10)
• Broken willow tree 
• Second ice storm in two weeks

In related spam

Now that's all in the past, and while there are no doubt plenty of bad news that I am about to hear, May is imminent and road trips have been taken and family members visited and a whole new distracting and miraculous season is unfurling.

It's squirty ice cream season!!

Also in my "notes" this month:

Me (watching an NCAA sportsball game): "What's Iowa's mascot?"

Mark: "I don't know — a stick of butter?"

Oh to see the squirrels 

sliding down the wet bird feeder poles

In the April rain

"All roads lead toward the same blocked intersection." — Mountain Goats

"Stars without light hold the others up." — Fanny Howe

"I almost forgot my amuse bouche!" — my Mom, eating a mini Reeses peanut butter cup

I was a child of the shining meadow

Trying to write here, dear (and few) readers! I'm still attempting to surgically detach myself from very many of the Online Places, and this is one good way. April seems like an ideal month for such things. I'm also writing on paper, some. 

I filled my bird feeders and the Little Brown Ones are gobbling it all, once again battling each other for the cheap finch food in the red feeder that distracts me while I try to work. They can be pretty brutal with their little beaks, and always I wish I could communicate there's more than enough to go around, small friends. 

We're watching so many TV shows, keep intending to sit down to a whole movie but then getting pulled into series that keep us busy, plus the sportsball of course.* Here's a really good thing we're watching and loving: SEVERANCE. Here's a really bad thing we're watching and loving: Inventing Anna. 

I'm also reading. I liked Jonathan Franzen's Crossroads a lot more than I expected to, and about halfway through, I'm warming up to Klara and the Sun. I really loved Very Cold People by Sarah Manguso. I am also reading all the things about the Larry Ray trial.**

We have continued to have social interactions with a small number of actual humans, which is lovely. This week's plans involve more humans, on at least three days! And I can hardly believe it, but Adam returns to Portland one week from today!

*ROCK CHALK, though I may have just jinxed it for tonight, and they'll be rushing Franklin Street instead of Mass. 

**CW: bizarre and terrible cult details

Hole in One

Today* in Wikipedia finds: "The modern game (of golf) originated in Scotland, where the first written record of golf is James II's banning of the game in 1457 as an unwelcome distraction to learning archery. James IV lifted the ban in 1502 when he became a golfer himself."

And Etymology.com adds this historic quote, re: golf: "That in na place of the realme thair be vsit fut-ballis, golf, or vther sic unprofitabill sportis."

I COULD NOT AGREE MORE.







*Yesterday I learned that during World War I some Europeans drank a coffee substitute made from roasted and ground garbanzo beans.