Iran, a tenant, gadgets, trip prep

Real-life surrealism continues: as of yesterday the US is at war with Iran, and nobody really seems to know why, because the commander of the US armed forces isn't bothering to say why. Nobody's talking about this IRL because there's nothing to say. It feels random, or maybe like a distraction from domestic issues (Minneapolis, Epstein), or maybe like a random power grab in response to a SCOTUS ruling that our great orange leader didn't like. Any of these, all of these, and we'll never really know, so what's even to say? Related to this stuff, I have been doing some reading: From Dictatorship to Democracy which is very vague and hard to act on, and the graphic version of On Tyranny by Snyder which is excellent, much more actionable, and aimed at stopping the slide from democracy toward dictatorship.

But zoom in, in, in, to one tiny life in the northeast:

• I have a tenant in my new condo at last! His lease started today but he moves in on Saturday. The hot water was out today, but this turned out to be a quick fix (reboot the tankless hot water heater, clean its filter). It's going to be quite nice to start getting that monthly income.


• I had much less squirrel-time this week than usual, so I used the extra time to do a bunch of sewing. I finished the squirrel's applique T-shirt, which came out really cool despite imperfections -- upon receipt he preened adorably and kept petting the velvet bits. And I successfully put a zipper into a sweatshirt for Perse, which was pretty easy. Next up is a beetle T-shirt for the bug! None of this is generosity, so much as foisting my practice efforts off on other people.


• The trip to Montana is shaping up, which is good since we leave in -- ulp - a week. I don't wish to think about this.


• I am, unusually, shopping for gadgets. It happens occasionally. The bug and I are splitting the cost of a new VR headset; that's already on the way. In March I'm planning to order a new sewing machine because my old one is in bad shape and can't be repaired anymore; I'm starting to lean toward the Janome Sewist 740DC, which seems to have nice features and be available below retail on ebay. I'm also looking at DDR gaming pads, which are easier to choose but feel painfully costly in comparison to what they actually do.


• Circus continues. Tiny Person turned me on to studying the deep, deep core muscles including the multifidus, which actually seems to make my low back do the right thing for handstands when I engage it (!). I went down some YT rabbit holes, and learned that the diaphragm is actually TWO muscles and they aren't symmetrical. And my backbend keeps getting slowly, steadily better. Acro ironically isn't so great -- we lost our hand-to-hand again and need to get it back -- but that's the way of things.


• Crossword puzzle creation continues. Working to re-submit a rejected puzzle with my collaborator Z, and also work on a new one that will include my first-ever rebuses.


• Now that the month is over -- I did drift away from the daily Flash Fiction February prompts. Something else that I guess I wasn't that serious about. If I had been serious I would probably have put daily time on my calendar. I enjoyed writing the seven stories I wrote, though.

Overall, life is good. I have time to stop and research random things like whether anyone has tried to break down extroversion into more granular facets of personality (yes, they have). Time to go to brunch at motyl's without feeling like I have to skimp on something else. Last night I fell asleep early on the couch and it felt good to just let that happen, too.