Category: July 2022

Laura, Alex, and their dog, Zane, spent the weekend at Folsom Lake recently. That is just northeast of Sacramento, in an area that John and I considered moving to, before deciding on Tucson instead. The advantage of Sacramento is it’s located between the kids, although it’s closer to Santa Clara than Boise. It’s also close to the mountains. Unfortunately, it’s expensive. It was also full of wildfire smoke when we went to look at houses one summer.

The 4th of July weather turned out perfect for Laura and Alex. They rented a great place, with a balcony overlooking the lake.

Apparently Zane had a stressful first night, after a stressful car ride. But what dog can resist the beach?

So much fun!

Apparently they also checked out a clothing-optional beach.

Somewhere out there!

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I’ve been a fan of Khan Academy for awhile. They offer free online classes about many different topics; math, physics, biology, programming, etc., for kids and adults. I like their straightforward style.

Recently I decided to take a grammar course. No, not just because I’m weird. I wanted to improve my writing. In particular I get confused about punctuation, but I decided to start at the beginning of the grammar course as a refresher.

I thought you might enjoy this segment on the singular they.

Fun fact – the singular “they” has been used for hundreds of years. It was only very recently that we started being taught otherwise.

In my observation, (and your case may vary, depending on the school district), but in general it seems like the Boomers were taught to use “he” as the generic for when gender is unknown – exacerbating patriarchal bias. To combat the bias, Gen Xers were taught to say “he or she” every time – awkward! and the Millennials were taught to randomly sometimes use “he” and other times use “she” – confusing!

So why did your high school teacher try so hard to stamp out the singular they? Watch the video to find out!

Apparently awhile ago a group of grammarians decided we’d sound more sophisticated if we incorporated more Latin grammar into our language. Yes, English has some Latin roots, but English is most decidedly not Latin. I discovered that when I attempted to take Latin in high school! Plus, maybe my memory is failing me, but in order to sound like Latin, wouldn’t we need to move our verbs to the end of our sentences? That would ridiculous be.

PS. I love an educational video that includes the phrase “pompous class markers”, lol!

Also, by the way, “you” is plural, so “you all” is redundant. But once language starts heading in a direction, there’s not much you or I can do about it.

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In June the weather mostly just threatened. It was hot and sometimes muggy and occasionally the sky would turn from a cloudless blue to strange and ominous colors. These photos are from our yard in Tucson, on June 10. I don’t think it actually rained that day, but the weather was hinting at what would be coming.

June started out hot and desert-dry but it has become muggy-buggy. It feels tropical now, like south Texas or Florida.

These photos are of our neighborhood at sunset on July 1, a couple of hours after a downpour.

I was super happy with this next photo. I usually don’t snap pictures of strangers because it seems rude. But it’s just the back of her and I couldn’t resist – it was too beautiful.

A couple of more blocks down the road we came upon a motorist stuck in the sand.

Our local roads are designed to flood where they cross the arroyos. During a rain event the water doesn’t run very long. You’re not supposed to cross when they’re flooding, but of course people do. You can see how much it had flooded from where the mud ended up.

John and I didn’t go out for our walk until the rain stopped, which was probably an hour or two after the water was at its highest. They really are flash floods – starting suddenly and receding soon afterwards.

John ran out there to help the guy. I stood on a small footbridge to watch. I love how the stuck motorist just stands there doing nothing while John starts digging his car out for him, lol.

Then another car appears and successfully fords the water.

After the second guy cleared the water, he left his car in middle of the opposite lane while he headed back to help too.

After a little bit, a couple more vehicles arrive. Now the second guy’s car is in the way of the others wanting to get by. The new motorists wait quietly, patiently. When the guy finally realizes the issue, he runs to move his car out of the way. John, oblivious to the passing traffic, continues work with the stuck motorist. Here comes a UPS truck! I assumed the UPS driver would have no issues in that big truck, but he almost bogged down in the sand at the end.

They successfully get the stuck guy out and he’s on his way.

Meanwhile, another mini drama was playing out near where I was standing and watching traffic. A young boy had found a vinyl record in the debris washing down the arroyo. Obviously the record would be scratched and useless after its ride in the arroyo, but the youngest generation seems to be in awe of vinyl records. (Dad – don’t give away your record collection! You’d be surprised what it’s worth.)

The boy was very excited with his find and wanted to jump off the foot bridge into the water to wash off his new record. But I intervened, like the busy-body old lady that I am. The current can be strong and there’s all sorts of sharp, dangerous and disgusting things in the arroyos when they are flooding. It smelled of rot and sewage. The boy reluctantly agreed to wait and wash his new record after he got home.

Next, John and I walked down to a much larger arroyo a bit further from our house. There, the water had already receded, leaving surprisingly large piles of debris in its wake, like shopping carts and old couches and mattresses. The city does undertake some arroyo clearing in preparation for monsoon season, but it’s never enough.

By the time we got to the big arroyo, it was too dark to take good pictures. Plus, who wants pictures of mud-caked junk strewn across a damp arroyo? Instead, I will leave you with this neighborhood sunset picture.

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