Saturday, April 03, 2021

Weekend Reading: The Two Weeks in One Edition

I didn't intend to skip last week's post, I just didn't get around to writing it. I have been feeling pretty burned out, so I decided to take this week off. My kids were out of school for Spring Break and I decided to join them. Mr. Snarky also took a few days off, and we drove up to Idyllwild for a short getaway. It was a nice change of scene and we all wished we'd booked our rental cabin for a little longer. (I wrote a post about the trip over at Adjusted Latitutdes.)

We drove to Idyllwild on Sunday, and my Saturday filled up with getting ready for the trip. I'll include the few links I'd saved last week in this week's post.

My week off has been reasonably successful. I don't think I can aim for fully rejuvenated right now - I was just aiming for "able to continue on without disintegrating" and I think I got that. We'll see how I feel next week, when I'm back at work!

Anyway, here are the links I have for the past two weeks:

Poet Maggie Smith wrote a beautiful piece about how this spring feels as a parent. We have had the easiest possible pandemic parenting, I think. My kids' school is still fully remote (they head back for in person school 4 days a week starting on April 12), but they are old enough to mostly handle their Zoom classes on their own. We've had to interrupt our work days for some elementary math tutoring but not much else. Still, it has been an exhausting year as a parent for some obvious reasons and some reasons I'm still struggling to fully understand. I am sure this is part of why I've been feeling so burned out.

This Washington Post story about an assistant principal in Indio (a town near Palm Springs) searching for the kids missing from his school is heart-breaking.

And here is a post from a parent whose pandemic parenting has been on a much harder level than mine, with a reminder that grown ups getting their vaccines helps make in person school possible for all kids.

This article by volunteers who have been helping New Yorkers navigate the system for signing up for vaccinations is really worth your time and will help explain why uptake is slower than we'd like in some communities. I have been glad to see San Diego county opening some walk-in vaccination clinics focused on improving equity in vaccine access.

In happier vaccine news, I am so excited by the news that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is going to apply for an EUA for kids 12-15 years old. Petunia won't be 12 until October, but still... the end is in sight. 

You should read R. O. Kwon's letter to Asian-American women.

Here's David Roberts on all the good environment/climate-related stuff in Biden's infrastructure bill. (I can't tell if that is a subscribers only post or not... so sorry if you click through and can't read it!)

Speaking of climate.... California should cover its canals with solar panels. (So should Arizona and other hot, sunny states... the study was just done in California.)

Speaking of California.... I think this is an interesting idea for how to deal with our problem of homes threatened by rising seas.

This is an interesting article about some new research into when the Black Plague first infected a lot of people (spoiler: probably earlier than we thought).

If you've ever wondered how Febreeze works, this article is for you. It also mentions some other options for removing odors from the air.

In recommended listening:

Krista Tippett's interview with Christine Runyan on the impact of the pandemic and the need for distancing on our nervous systems.

Chris Hayes and Alec MacGillis discuss MacGillis' book about the impact of Amazon on our economy and our cities.

Some things that made me smile:

This picture from my new favorite timeline-cleansing account:

The pictures of Uluru in the rain are pretty cool.

As is this seal skin spacesuit made by Inuit artists.

I wanted to watch the TV adaptation of the wonderful China Miéville  book The City and The City but I do not want another subscription service, so we decided to tolerate ads. Which is how I learned about Brave Robot animal-free dairy ice cream and I am definitely going to find some and try it just because I am curious.

(Also, the TV show was good! Here is the trailer.)

Here is your rabbit for the week:

Have a good weekend, everyone!

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