the next day

In the course of the night, we were visited by a skunk again (the smell!), by a racoon (came to the porch looking for cat food), and by a possum (that one marched straight into the cage). Lots of activity for just a few dark hours! The good news? The chickens remain safe and accounted for. The very rickety coop that Ed beefed up with a layer of additional wire has held up well. The roof has been clawed by determined predators, deep holes appear to the side overnight, and yet -- the chickens march out the next morning seemingly oblivious to the smells, the ditches, the bits of tattered roofing. Amazing.

It's still warm today but we're promised rain later, in the day so early in the morning, I survey the beds and decide they could use a raking.

Ed chips all my cuttings (with the oldest hand mower you've ever seen, picked up from a ditch I believe), I spread the mulch back on the flower beds...

And only then do we go inside for breakfast.

The talk is of tariffs. The race is on for his company to introduce a machine design he has been working on. The hope is that it will save them. (They're raising the prices of course, to reflect the new -- call them what they are -- taxes.) Tense uncertainty is the name of the game right now.

My survey of the news brings up dismal stuff: 45% of Americans approve of the leaderships in place right now. I so want to ask them -- what change are you hoping for and what indication do you have that you will see your desired prosperity? And perhaps more importantly, are you aware of the suffering caused by these slash, burn and destroy tactics? And you're okay with it?

I switch to reading about A.I. There is an article in the NYTimes -- a discussion with Ezra Klein -- titled "The Government Knows AGI is Coming" and I do recommend it, but I wont provide a link because it is VERY long and I know most of you wont read it. I'll save my gifted pieces for stuff that I think will be more "of general interest." But here's the thing: I am sure that Artificial Intelligence will be at the center of our life within 2 - 3 years. (It already is there at the peripheries.) I don't think it's a good idea to shrug off the geeky details now, because we are too close to the time when we will need to understand the complexities in order to participate intelligently in the discussion. We have seen what happens when huge swaths of the population are left out of meaningful discussions (because they rely on soundbites delivered by their favorite news delivery). You don't want to stay uninformed now. You really don't.

After spending too much time buried in news, I go back outside -- to rake, to cut, to clear. Yes, I'm a little stiff, a little breathless, a little tired. But I have a garden waiting to emerge. I do not want to get off to a slow start. 

 

And in the afternoon I pick up two bouncy kids.  

Lots of play and reading to catch up on!

 

 

 

Evening: wet, but this is a good thing. Spring rain is an absolutely necessity for a healthy garden. Oh, did you notice my reference to "spring?" We'll be bouncing around between warm and cold in the next few weeks. Understandable. Regardless -- we are not in the thick of winter anymore. And isn't that just grand!

with love...