Petunia turned 10 last week. Both my kids are in the double digits now, and in most ways the intense years when we had babies and toddlers about the house seem very distant.
This week, Petunia got sick, and those early years seemed much closer. For my newer readers, when she was a baby and a toddler, Petunia often got unexplained fevers. They'd usually last for three days, and she was pathetically miserable for those days, wanting mainly to be cuddled while she watched TV or slept.
She saw a bunch of specialists. We had tests to rule out cancer and cystic fibrosis and rare infections. In the end, the diagnosis was the equivalent of a shrug and "eh, that's just the way she is." And that diagnosis was right. As she got older, it became clear that she just has a stronger reaction to minor infections. I started to notice that often when she'd get one of her 3-day fevers, I'd lose my voice. Neither Pumpkin nor Mr. Snarky would show any sign of illness. My hypothesis is that there is something different about Petunia's immune system - perhaps a stronger innate response (your innate immune response is what causes you to spike a fever when you're fighting off a bug), and that whatever that difference is, she inherited it from me.
Sunday night, Petunia was complaining that her stomach felt weird. We thought maybe she'd done too many cartwheels in the backyard too soon after dinner, and sent her to bed with our fingers crossed. Monday morning, it was clear she was sick, but also clear that although her stomach hurt, it wasn't a stomach bug (phew). She stayed home for the day with my parents, who were in town for her birthday. By Monday evening, I had a better understanding of what she meant when she said her tummy hurt - because mine felt a little weird, too. So I stayed home with Petunia on Tuesday. Sadly, I spent most of the day working and not cuddling her on the sofa like she wanted me to.
Petunia's back to normal now. She woke up Wednesday morning feeling fine. I, on the other hand, am still feeling a bit worn out. Perhaps I should have blown off work and cuddled on the sofa on Tuesday. If I had, I'd have had much rougher days yesterday and today, so I still think I made the right choice overall. But I find myself thinking back to the old days, when I'd sit on the sofa with Petunia's little feet pushed into my side while she watched Cinderella and my laptop balanced on my lap as I tried to work. It is objectively better now - I don't have a gnawing worry about what the fever means, for instance - but those were sweet times in their own way.
Next week, I'll get another chance to reflect on the legacy of those early fevers. Petunia had to have her blood drawn frequently when we were ruling out scary things like cancer, and she developed an unusually strong hatred of needles and shots. We had just about gotten her back to normal child levels of shot hatred when Pumpkin started fainting when she got shots. Pumpkin has never minded shots, but she hates fainting and so has started worrying about shots. She'll still get them, but she complains and insists I bring our own stash of sugar to revive her if she faints, because doctor's offices always offer orange juice and she hates orange juice. The fainting really freaked out Petunia, too, and she's back to panicking at the mention of shots. So the yearly flu shot is a struggle. This year, I heard that FluMist is approved for pediatric use again. My kids could get their shots, but it will be so much easier to get them FluMist. We've got appointments for next week. I, on the other hand, got my flu shot yesterday. I have to say, it is a much nicer experience without two whining children in tow!
Thursday, October 10, 2019
Friday, October 04, 2019
Weekend Reading: The Oops I Don't Have Many Links Edition
Another Friday, another great rollerblade outing... this really is a wonderful time of year here.
Petunia's birthday was this week, so I've been busy with celebrations and visiting family. I went to my Feedly board where I save interesting links to share and found nothing! That is probably a reflection of less time reading articles in general, but I've also spent a lot of my article reading time catching up on the impeachment news, and I don't think I need to share that kind of article. If I find a particularly interesting or insightful analysis, I'll share it but I'm sure you are all capable of keeping up on the news on your own!
But I did write up the Cape Breton leg of our vacation, so that's something.
And luckily, I did have a few links saved in my Twitter favorites:
This article about how reflective pavements may cool cities but make pedestrians feel hotter is interesting.
Could we move to a four day work week?
And I had to drive to work, so I have some recommended listening: I thought Ezra Klein's conversation with Danielle Allen about democracy was really interesting and useful.
Here's your weekly bunny:
Happy weekend everyone!
Petunia's birthday was this week, so I've been busy with celebrations and visiting family. I went to my Feedly board where I save interesting links to share and found nothing! That is probably a reflection of less time reading articles in general, but I've also spent a lot of my article reading time catching up on the impeachment news, and I don't think I need to share that kind of article. If I find a particularly interesting or insightful analysis, I'll share it but I'm sure you are all capable of keeping up on the news on your own!
But I did write up the Cape Breton leg of our vacation, so that's something.
And luckily, I did have a few links saved in my Twitter favorites:
This article about how reflective pavements may cool cities but make pedestrians feel hotter is interesting.
Could we move to a four day work week?
And I had to drive to work, so I have some recommended listening: I thought Ezra Klein's conversation with Danielle Allen about democracy was really interesting and useful.
Here's your weekly bunny:
— うさぎ島の写真bot (@rabbit_isle_bot) October 4, 2019
Happy weekend everyone!
Friday, September 27, 2019
Weekend Reading: The Only a Few Links about Impeachment Edition
It was another wonderful rollerblading outing today. If it weren't for the fact that my allergies get off the charts terrible in September, I'd say that September is my favorite month in San Diego. Stupid allergies.
Anyway, let's have some links! I'm going to assume that you have all the impeachment-related reading you want and not share a bunch of that sort of link. However, I thought this profile of Nancy Pelosi and her impeachment thought process was really good.
I also agree with Josh Marshall's assessment that Trump's entire team is up to the eyeballs in this scandal. Sadly, I suspect a lot of them will weasel out of any consequences. We'll see.
In other politics news, this David Roberts piece about the clash between what must happen on climate and what can happen in our current political moment is really sobering, but I also like his point about how they way things are is quite brittle, and we might see things fracture unexpectedly.
A couple of weeks ago, I shared a couple of articles and said they explain a lot about why I'm back to full time employee status. Here's another along those same lines, about how Amazon is up-prioritizing ads. I've seen this behind the scenes, too - other ways of promoting my books are slowly going away, and I feel like I'm being funneled to use Amazon ads. I am increasingly of the opinion that the only people who reliably make money in the platform economy are the platform owners. There are some scammy bad actors who have figured out how to game algorithms, and they make money for awhile, until the platform owners catch on and change the rules. And there are a few honest folk who get lucky and hit on something the algorithms like and so do well. Mostly, though, the money flows to the platform owners.
If you want a little bit of insight into the frustrations of the drug discovery and development industry, Derek Lowe has an excellent post about a drug candidate that just failed.
Some recommended listening: I listened to both Ezra Klein's interview with Daniel Markovits about the problems with meritocracy and Matt Yglesias' interview with Binyamin Applebaum about the limitations of economics as the primary driver for policy. Those two interviews really got me thinking! I think some of my thoughts about them might show up in this month's Management Monthly. I'm not holding out on you - the thoughts aren't fully coherent yet! We'll see if I can get them to cohere this weekend in time to go in the newsletter.
I love this:
Here's your weekly bunny:
Happy weekend, everyone!
Anyway, let's have some links! I'm going to assume that you have all the impeachment-related reading you want and not share a bunch of that sort of link. However, I thought this profile of Nancy Pelosi and her impeachment thought process was really good.
I also agree with Josh Marshall's assessment that Trump's entire team is up to the eyeballs in this scandal. Sadly, I suspect a lot of them will weasel out of any consequences. We'll see.
In other politics news, this David Roberts piece about the clash between what must happen on climate and what can happen in our current political moment is really sobering, but I also like his point about how they way things are is quite brittle, and we might see things fracture unexpectedly.
A couple of weeks ago, I shared a couple of articles and said they explain a lot about why I'm back to full time employee status. Here's another along those same lines, about how Amazon is up-prioritizing ads. I've seen this behind the scenes, too - other ways of promoting my books are slowly going away, and I feel like I'm being funneled to use Amazon ads. I am increasingly of the opinion that the only people who reliably make money in the platform economy are the platform owners. There are some scammy bad actors who have figured out how to game algorithms, and they make money for awhile, until the platform owners catch on and change the rules. And there are a few honest folk who get lucky and hit on something the algorithms like and so do well. Mostly, though, the money flows to the platform owners.
If you want a little bit of insight into the frustrations of the drug discovery and development industry, Derek Lowe has an excellent post about a drug candidate that just failed.
Some recommended listening: I listened to both Ezra Klein's interview with Daniel Markovits about the problems with meritocracy and Matt Yglesias' interview with Binyamin Applebaum about the limitations of economics as the primary driver for policy. Those two interviews really got me thinking! I think some of my thoughts about them might show up in this month's Management Monthly. I'm not holding out on you - the thoughts aren't fully coherent yet! We'll see if I can get them to cohere this weekend in time to go in the newsletter.
I love this:
— Nathan W. Pyle (@nathanwpyle) September 25, 2019
Here's your weekly bunny:
📅 26th September 2019 pic.twitter.com/9h46x2ltl8— Rabbit of the Day 🐰 (@RabbitoftheDay) September 26, 2019
Happy weekend, everyone!
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
And Here We Go
So, we're going to get an impeachment inquiry with the full weight of the Democratic House leadership behind it. Good. We all owe a debt of gratitude to the whistleblower who set this chain of events in motion, but also to all of the people who worked hard to make sure we had a Democratic House right now, the activists who pushed for this outcome, and the House members in vulnerable seats who spoke up to help clear the way, among them seven freshmen members with national security and defense backgrounds whose op-ed seemed to be the final crack in the anti-impeachment wall.
We have so much further to go, and so much more work to do. Whatever happens with the impeachment inquiry, we need to keep working towards winning the 2020 Presidential election. And even before that, there are the 2019 elections, which include some important state contests, the outcome of which will determine how Congressional districts are drawn after next year's census.
There is a rot in our system. In a healthy system, a person as unfit to be president as Donald Trump would not have won the office, and having done so, would have faced much harsher Congressional oversight from the start. In a healthy system, policies favored by large majorities of the American people - background checks on all gun sales, promoting clean energy, expanding access to public health insurance, for instance - would be able to at least come to a vote in the Senate. In a healthy system, people wouldn't die because they cannot afford their insulin and no one would have to declare bankruptcy due to medical bills. In a healthy system, my kids wouldn't have to do lock down drills. In a healthy system, we would be treating climate change as the emergency it is.
I believe this presidency is a symptom of the rot, and an accelerant of it, but not the ultimate cause. To be honest, I don't know what the ultimate cause is and suspect it may not be knowable in our time. We are too caught up in the system to see it clearly and any diagnoses we make will be filtered through our partisan lenses. But I do know that politicians from one party are standing in the way of the policies Americans want, and they are standing in the way of the progress on climate that the world needs. I don't need to know why that is the case to work to get those politicians out of power.
I am glad the impeachment inquiry will happen. It is a necessary step to check the ambitions of a president who refuses to be bound by the law. But I am going to try to follow it lightly and keep my focus on the work I think needs to be done to put our country, and our planet, on a better path for my children's generation.
In other words, I'll be writing postcards, finding campaigns and organizations who need my money, and keeping my eye out for other things I can do to try to fix this mess that we find ourselves in. I owe it to my kids.
We have so much further to go, and so much more work to do. Whatever happens with the impeachment inquiry, we need to keep working towards winning the 2020 Presidential election. And even before that, there are the 2019 elections, which include some important state contests, the outcome of which will determine how Congressional districts are drawn after next year's census.
There is a rot in our system. In a healthy system, a person as unfit to be president as Donald Trump would not have won the office, and having done so, would have faced much harsher Congressional oversight from the start. In a healthy system, policies favored by large majorities of the American people - background checks on all gun sales, promoting clean energy, expanding access to public health insurance, for instance - would be able to at least come to a vote in the Senate. In a healthy system, people wouldn't die because they cannot afford their insulin and no one would have to declare bankruptcy due to medical bills. In a healthy system, my kids wouldn't have to do lock down drills. In a healthy system, we would be treating climate change as the emergency it is.
I believe this presidency is a symptom of the rot, and an accelerant of it, but not the ultimate cause. To be honest, I don't know what the ultimate cause is and suspect it may not be knowable in our time. We are too caught up in the system to see it clearly and any diagnoses we make will be filtered through our partisan lenses. But I do know that politicians from one party are standing in the way of the policies Americans want, and they are standing in the way of the progress on climate that the world needs. I don't need to know why that is the case to work to get those politicians out of power.
I am glad the impeachment inquiry will happen. It is a necessary step to check the ambitions of a president who refuses to be bound by the law. But I am going to try to follow it lightly and keep my focus on the work I think needs to be done to put our country, and our planet, on a better path for my children's generation.
In other words, I'll be writing postcards, finding campaigns and organizations who need my money, and keeping my eye out for other things I can do to try to fix this mess that we find ourselves in. I owe it to my kids.
Friday, September 20, 2019
Weekend Reading: Well, We're Definitely In a Crisis Now Edition
First, the good news. I had a terrific rollerblading outing today. It is a beautiful day, and there weren't a lot of people by the bay, and it was just wonderful.
Now, the other news. Holy cow, guys, this whistleblower story is something, eh? I am assuming you have read the story, but if you haven't, this is a decent summary of where we are. Or at least where we were this morning. Here's a short summary of what we learned today.
Back when the Mueller investigation was just getting started, I followed Susan Hennessey on Twitter, because she has the background to really understand the law and the context, and she was level-headed and not prone to exaggerating the conclusions that could be drawn from the available evidence.
Even when the whistleblower story first broke, she was cautious and warning people not to get out ahead of what we know.
Here's what she's saying today:
I have previously only called my representative and Speaker Pelosi to tell them I want a thorough investigation that is allowed to go where the facts lead, up to and including impeachment. This weekend, I will be contacting them to say we must have an impeachment inquiry now, and we must pursue it as aggressively as possible.
My rep has already come out in favor of impeachment, but I'm going to contact him, anyway. I don't know if an impeachment inquiry is good politics or not. At this point, I think we cannot care about that. It is clear that one side has no intention of allowing a free and fair election, and so we cannot worry about the next election and must just worry about protecting our system and our Constitution.
I don't care if the Senate won't convict. Make them go on record with a vote saying that they don't think this is wrong. If their constituents won't judge them harshly for their venality, history will.
I'll also be writing postcards this weekend, because as much as I'm disappointed in the Democratic leadership in DC right now, I'm 100 times more disappointed in the behavior of Republicans. Postcards4VA and Postcards to Voters both have active campaigns right now if you want to join me.
OK. So.
In other news, I feel bad that I didn't go out and join the climate strike. I'm short on days off at work, which is a bad excuse but there it is.
I do have a climate change related recommended listen, though: The Weeds podcast live in Seattle was about climate change, and it was a really good discussion. Listen to the end, because the final couple of questions provoke really interesting answers.
Also, this essay about living with climate change without becoming a nihilist is good. It made me think about one point Matt Yglesias makes in that Weeds podcast, that one interesting thing about trying to reduce your own carbon footprint is that it shows you where the barriers are, and where you might be able to help remove barriers with a little bit of local activism.
This is a good article about where all the plastic goes. I always pick up trash when I'm walking on the beach, and this article makes me glad I do that.
OK, we need some happy things.
OMG, this is awesome:
Someone tried to get Nicole Cliffe to answer a help letter that was pulled from the plot of Little Women, and the internet had fun coming up with other classics that could be advice columns. I liked this one a lot!
And here's your weekly bunny:
Now, the other news. Holy cow, guys, this whistleblower story is something, eh? I am assuming you have read the story, but if you haven't, this is a decent summary of where we are. Or at least where we were this morning. Here's a short summary of what we learned today.
Back when the Mueller investigation was just getting started, I followed Susan Hennessey on Twitter, because she has the background to really understand the law and the context, and she was level-headed and not prone to exaggerating the conclusions that could be drawn from the available evidence.
Even when the whistleblower story first broke, she was cautious and warning people not to get out ahead of what we know.
Here's what she's saying today:
This. Either they impeach him for this or the constitutional remedy no longer exists. I recognize that sounds hyperbolic but it isn't. It's just the reality we are in. https://t.co/Vq0Xon1l5C— Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) September 20, 2019
I have previously only called my representative and Speaker Pelosi to tell them I want a thorough investigation that is allowed to go where the facts lead, up to and including impeachment. This weekend, I will be contacting them to say we must have an impeachment inquiry now, and we must pursue it as aggressively as possible.
My rep has already come out in favor of impeachment, but I'm going to contact him, anyway. I don't know if an impeachment inquiry is good politics or not. At this point, I think we cannot care about that. It is clear that one side has no intention of allowing a free and fair election, and so we cannot worry about the next election and must just worry about protecting our system and our Constitution.
I don't care if the Senate won't convict. Make them go on record with a vote saying that they don't think this is wrong. If their constituents won't judge them harshly for their venality, history will.
I'll also be writing postcards this weekend, because as much as I'm disappointed in the Democratic leadership in DC right now, I'm 100 times more disappointed in the behavior of Republicans. Postcards4VA and Postcards to Voters both have active campaigns right now if you want to join me.
OK. So.
In other news, I feel bad that I didn't go out and join the climate strike. I'm short on days off at work, which is a bad excuse but there it is.
I do have a climate change related recommended listen, though: The Weeds podcast live in Seattle was about climate change, and it was a really good discussion. Listen to the end, because the final couple of questions provoke really interesting answers.
Also, this essay about living with climate change without becoming a nihilist is good. It made me think about one point Matt Yglesias makes in that Weeds podcast, that one interesting thing about trying to reduce your own carbon footprint is that it shows you where the barriers are, and where you might be able to help remove barriers with a little bit of local activism.
This is a good article about where all the plastic goes. I always pick up trash when I'm walking on the beach, and this article makes me glad I do that.
OK, we need some happy things.
OMG, this is awesome:
New favourite example of structural ambiguity https://t.co/8IAYu7ff7m— Gretchen McCulloch (@GretchenAMcC) September 19, 2019
Someone tried to get Nicole Cliffe to answer a help letter that was pulled from the plot of Little Women, and the internet had fun coming up with other classics that could be advice columns. I liked this one a lot!
In other recommended listening, I found Krista Tippet's interview with Erik Vance about the placebo effect really interesting.Dear Nicole:— Tragic Sandwich (@TragicSandwich) September 16, 2019
My neighbors have taken in a . . . I suppose you could call her a ward. Who knows what her background is, and she's very rude--she actually fat-shamed me when I casually mentioned her freckles! My neighbor defended her, but I think I'm owed an apology. Thoughts?
And here's your weekly bunny:
— うさぎ島の写真bot (@rabbit_isle_bot) September 19, 2019Happy weekend, everyone!
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