2023 Life Logs, Day 203: Day at Home Alone
Date: Saturday, July 22, 2023
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 79, Low 65 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
I hardly knew what to do with myself today. Ollie left early to go home to play with his friend Seton which left me alone for the day. While the boys played, Heather and Jed and Seton’s dad drove to Mass Maritime for the ASLP graduation. Jonah and Seton’s sister Meagan were two of the graduates. They were home by noon and back to summer life in Falmouth.
I took the newly charged battery for the lawn mower and went out to the cottage to continue the grass cutting job Ollie started yesterday. The battery gave out before I was quite finished, so I will finish it up tomorrow. Because the grass is holding so much moisture, mowing was just a longer process than usual. Normally we can finish three quarters of Shirley’s yard before we have to charge. And then we can finish up with plenty of battery power left to do the yard at the cottage. But not this time. After mowing, I headed to Woods Hole to get a birthday present for Lily as she turns 17 tomorrow. Her dad, Andrew, is coming from New York to spend the day and evening with her and then we will all go out to dinner to celebrate.
The remainder of my day was very quiet. I spent way too much time getting angry and disgusted over something I read in the NYT Morning Newsletter. It was just one sentence from the newly adopted Florida Black history curriculum. It says “slaves developed skills” that could be used for “personal benefit.” It made it sound like slavery was a good thing. What kind of people write such nonsense? Any human with any amount of compassion for mankind knows slavery was not good in any way for slaves. They were stolen from their homeland, shipped across the ocean in conditions that were totally inhumane, then beaten, whipped, or hung, and if they did survive, they were once again separated from any family they made in this country. If I lived in Florida, I truly think I would have to leave that state. And if that was not an option, I would have to spend my days protesting. But I finally moved on and busied myself with things I really needed to do. Still this curriculum issue continues to haunt me. I took the time to buy my tickets to fly to Charlotte in late August and I rented a car. I caught up on email and also checked my finances. I have not even looked at my bank account since I moved here. Thankfully, Bill Pay is doing its job and I still have money even though some bills were automatically paid that I should have cancelled. Hopefully, I’ll get that money back at some point.
Tonight, Ollie is going to return to sleep over. It is already 8:30, so we’ll only have time to barely begin a new Star Wars movie. But begin we will.
