I wish I could tell you something interesting. (You probably do too.) I guess this article about The Great Anthropause might suffice? I found it very interesting. You can hear all sorts of things when the world is quiet, which is why I like getting up early to sit with my coffee and listen to almost nothing. One of the reasons I like cooler weather (besides the fact that life, in general, is more bearable) is that the darkness of night leaks into the daytime hours, and you get a little bit more of that hush.
Otherwise, things are not that interesting. My dad came up to see us this weekend after partially running his finger through a circular saw and receiving 11 stitches. This is one of those situations that is made all the more exciting because he is on blood thinners due to his heart issues! He didn’t let it interrupt his day, though, although he was not permitted (by my mom, and also me) to carry the furniture he brought over to us.
My dad is a woodworker and an upholsterer, and he still works. I suppose you could say he is “semi-retired” but he mostly goes to his shop and works every day, though he is a bit more choosy now about what he does. He also does some volunteer projects and it was during one of these that he ground up his finger. It’s a situation where I’m very amped that at 79 he still wants to do this stuff, but also, STOP DOING SOME OF THIS STUFF.
This weekend my parents are driving many hours south for a last-minute beach vacation. BELIEVE ME I HAVE SOME RESERVATIONS. They are going with another couple and they will be spending most of the time in their condo or sitting on the beach rather than doing touristy things in crowded places, but I still think it is an unnecessary risk. Also, I worry about the driving.
Growing up I spent many hours in the back of our various mid-priced American-made cars, on the way to the beach in North Carolina or my grandmother’s house in Kentucky. During these trips I had the entire back seat to myself, and I made it luxurious with a pillow from home, a small blanket, and as many books and games as I was allowed to take. Our Coleman Lil Oscar cooler rode in the footwell opposite mine, and we’d pull over to a roadside rest stop to eat our packed lunch at a picnic table. One of my very strongest sense memories from childhood is the taste of grapefruit juice sipped from a tiny aluminum can – part of the on-the-road breakfast my dad preferred.
I am glad that my mom and dad still take the senior citizen version of this trip, but I also wonder at what point they stop doing it. Again, I am glad they still want to, but these are also the people who text me screenshots of at least two phishing emails a week to ask me whether or not they should respond. It’s not that I think they are gullible exactly, but I also feel like the world has become more dangerous and less kind, and that does keep me up at night.
Also, I wouldn’t think this way if my parents – my mother in particular – didn’t constantly display the lack of judgment you might expect from a dim college student. On a cruise stop in some touristy Alaska town, my mother saw a man standing in an alleyway with a sign that said TOURS and she paid him cash to take her, my dad, and my aunt and uncle driving through the wilderness in an unmarked Jeep. My mom once gave a ride to some Amish people she met at a highway rest stop, and like…don’t fucking do that please!!!!! I can’t begin to tell you the number of ways she would have murdered me for doing such a thing myself, yet here she is, driving some allegedly Amish family to a farm miles removed from any potentially useful cellular tower, let alone that shows up on a map.
Also let’s not forget that my dad is definitely going to swim in a shark-infested ocean with a recent cut on his finger. UGH GO TO YOUR ROOM AND STAY THERE.