The week got a bit overshadowed by some shit that went down on Friday. I am going to vaguebook the hell out of it – I don’t really want to talk about it, I mean, I do, but also it’s just, well. It’s shaken me up a bit. Hopefully it will all turn out to be nothing – everything is uncertain right now – but I won’t know much for sure for probably, oh, six weeks. Possibly longer. I will say that the scariest four words in the English language actually turn out to be We’ve found a mass unless – and it’s a big unless – you are in the immediate process of running away from vampires, in which case, this is awesome news.

I am running extremely hard away from vampires right now.

In other news, as you can see from the photos, it is spring edging into summer and an old woman’s thoughts turn to birds. I live the cliche: yes, I like knitting and gardening and birds and the BBC. To be honest I do not knit much these days – I’ve been trying to finish a Norwegian resistance hat for months and months now and I’m not getting far. Probably because it is all ribbing and I not only hate ribbing, I suck at it. Not, alas, that you can tell that it is supposed to be ribbing, sigh. And the BBC? Have I talked about my weird project to watch all of the 1970s/80s/90s All Creatures Great and Small yet? I have given it up because by the time I got into the last season but one, I started to intensely dislike everyone. It was great for a while, even though the world has changed and 45 minutes of drunk jokes are no longer hilarious. Sexism is no longer hilarious either and I think that is what pushed me over the edge at the end. I have switched over to Poirot, because also British. I am trying to figure out how to get Shardlake, because I’m completely hooked on the books, but.

But, I am supposed to be able to get free Hulu through my TMobile plan. Cool. Turns out I was paying for Hulu already – of course I was. I think maybe I’m paying for all the TV channels in the world, despite the fact that I watch maybe, on a particularly dismal week, like 12 hours of TV absolute max and that includes hanging out with Four while she zones out to the latest 3D “animated” “fairies” “mermaids” “unicorns” “ponies” “dragons” interchangeable show – We rescue and we ride! (that will get stuck in your head, sorry, but it’s actually only a moderately terrible show.) Anyway, to get the free version I had to end the paid version which meant I had to find the passwords and, well, you know how this goes. 45 minutes later, after QR codes and texted codes and changed passwords and spinning in eternal circles, I admitted defeat and gave up. Today when I was at the grocery store, the cashier asked for my license to scan it so I could buy wine. Look, I am a grandmother and I look the part, Kroger, WTF? Just let it be. I said, why can’t they just save it attached to my Kroger card? Why can’t, I said, technology work to make our lives easier for once? And the cashier smiled wearily and we both sighed. People are getting fed up, with the tech bullshit and the inflation and the general sense that we are all doomed, DOOMED. And it’s about fucking time.

Photos of the week! On Sunday I met a friend for coffee at Coffee Girl and the reflections were amazing. Also we survived walking along Pier 39 but I am telling you, that walk is getting scarier every day and, I don’t know, but I think it should be closed to cars before somebody dies. On Monday I went to work; this fern is on my way. Tuesday I stopped to take my first 2026 pictures of the white pelicans! There will be many more! Wednesday, I walked the dog on the sawmill trail – in the background is one of two wrecked yachts that have been out there for months now. I guess they will just sink, eventually, and be small hazards to navigation or something cool for future marine archaeologists to discover. Thursday’s dog walk featured this heron – I keep seeing a heron at this exact place; I think it might be the same one – and Friday, I took the day off work since I knew I had lengthy mammogram thing in the afternoon. Friday morning it was cold and foggy and raining slightly and there were still other people on the beach at 8:30 am, argh. I need to move my introverted hermit ass and dog reactive dog to Alaska or something. On Friday evening I sat out by myself on my daughter’s porch for a bit, knocked back two canned cocktails in quick succession and had a nice chat with a deer. On Saturday which was yesterday I did not leave the house except for a little bit to drop off Four at her mom’s. There is pretty much always a deer in her backyard and that was the deer of that day. And that is that, another week of this cursed damn year in the can.