Almost the "weekend"

* Yeah, I am taking tomorrow off. Last night there were more fireworks. (But again, they quit around midnight, so I am hopeful that maybe people in my neighborhood are gonna be more respectful of those who are noise-sensitive or don't want to put in an all-nighter listening to bangs and cracks).

Tentative plans: work on the quilt in the frame and also cut more pieces for the Vignere Cipher quilt.

I also bought a new "modern quilting" book at the JoAnn's when I was there last. (Yes, I have a lot of these, but I like looking at them and dreaming/planning about future tops). I forget the name of the book - it's at home - but it had several patterns in it I'd like to make, including a v. simple one similar to the Bento Box quilt that just uses two fabrics and a background, and I have a big piece of Tula Pink unicorn fabric that might just work for it, with some pretty coordinating fabric to go with it. (And white for the background, but I have tons of white, and it's also easily obtained).

* Went back to reading "The Three Musketeers" after a few-days break and I have to confess: the court intrigue stuff, at least the "is the queen cheating on the king" stuff kind of bores and frustrates me. Maybe it's because I honestly haven't felt many strong attractions in my life (yes, I can develop crushes easily, especially if someone pays me positive attention, but the crush kind of dies on the vine if I find out he has a girlfriend or is married or otherwise coupled, and anyway, a "crush" is different, it's silly schoolgirl stuff), but I look at people in a stable and seemingly-happy relationship who cheat and go "You have a good thing and you are risking throwing it all away because....?"

I get that the 1600s were very different times and apparently marrying for love was uncommon, so you found love where you could, but....crikey. I think if I had been around in the 1600s I v. likely would have headed for the first convent I could find.

(Or, from some stuff I've read: it seems that the working/peasant class people - which is what I would likely have been, given some of my antecedents (farmers and whatever a forestier was in France) - were more likely to marry for something more like partnership/love than the upper classes, where it was all about consolidating money and power.)

* Started reading that new Environmental Policy and Law book (Salzman and Thompson, Environmental Law and Policy, 5th ed.). So far it's pretty good and they devote most of one chapter the the history of the conservation/environmental movement in the US, and also the changes in Anglo/Euro-Americans' view of the "wilderness" over time, and I'm thinking maybe it would be worthwhile including a short lecture on that at the v. beginning of the course - the two times I've taught it I've run a little short on material so I think I can freely add more in.

And I admit, inasmuch as I have an "agenda" in teaching? It's to expose students here to stuff they might not know about. So I *am* gonna talk a little about the Transcendentalists* and the Hudson River School of painting and the like, even though you might argue they're tangential to the topic at hand.

And no, I don't know enough about how Native people perceived their land - I suspect it depended a lot on the particular tribe, and their lifestyle (hunting vs. foraging vs. farming) and the point in time (I suspect the early 1700s would be v. different from the late 1800s, at least here). BUT I do know someone who works for the Choctaw Nation in their environmental division, and I think I'm going to ask him if he knows anyone who might be interested in coming and speaking to the class...surely there are some historians who work there who could talk about "the relationship to the land," at least among the tribes who experienced the "removal" (strong euphemism alert) to this part of the country... I don't have any guest speakers and I really feel I should but asking around the few attorneys I know, no one could suggest anyone in environmental law who would be interested in coming, and....most semi-local governmental officials are....not exactly big on environmental stuff, so...

I could also ask the guy here who runs the Native American symposium every year, he might be interested in speaking (I think he is in history) or he might know someone. 

(*Yes, even though Thoreau annoys me because he seems mostly to have been a poseur; I tend to have stronger positive feelings about Muir who actually went out and camped in "real" wilderness. Even if I am SO not a camper myself, and prefer to experience "wilderness" in the form of either reading about it, or day-hikes that end with me going back to a nice lodge with running water...)

(Also, I don't know if any of the early conservation folks have been deemed "problematic" because of other attitudes or positions. I kinda suspect Muir might be in some circles. But I'm not sure that erasing a major figure of the movement is preferable to presenting them and allowing some of the warts - if warts there be - to show. And ugh, it tires me to have to contemplate these things, or to contemplate "whose ideas have been co-opted")

I'm also definitely going to do more on Hetch Hetchy, as an example of an early situation where there were fairly major tradeoffs - preserve the environment vs. growth/restoration of a city (it came about partly after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake).

one of the nice things about not teaching summers is having the time to update stuff. Teaching this class would be a lot harder without having this time open to read and consider and re-teach myself stuff.

But yeah - teaching "tangential" stuff. I also lean hard on introductory material about "how the Federal Government (is supposed to) works" because I remember reading that news story about how some certain percentage of Americans couldn't successfully identify the three branches of government, or knew what checks and balances were, and I kind of got a sense of "not on my watch" about that. (I also go a lot into the workings of the court system, appeals and that sort of thing). I've had to teach myself some stuff about how the courts work...

* Driving home from...I don't remember where it was (field site? Pruett's?) the other day, I drove through downtown and noticed that one of the shops (which was a small "antique mall" when I first moved here, and then about 10 years ago when that closed, it's cycled through a number of unsuccessful businesses) has opened up again as a toy shop

Yes, a literal toy shop, like children's toys. Don't be thinking anything unwholesome here.

I am going to HAVE to get down there soon. I am holding out hopes it will be a "kinda fancy" one and (a) I could get future gifts for Niece there and (b) it might have some fun stuff even for me (simple craft kits for when I want to make something to relax but am too tired even for knitting, little figures or soft toys). I saw what looked like a Cinderella coach for dolls in the window, so....maybe?

(I admit in my mind I'm still mourning that "The Land of Make-Believe" closed back in  my old hometown, even though I probably would never go back there at this point. I miss "real" toy stores, as opposed to a couple aisles at the Wal-mart or Target that carry mostly the big national-brand things)

I admit I wish our economy here was a little better in the sense that small businesses (of greater diversity - we really do literally have medical MJ shops all over the place*) could open up and thrive. I wish we had a small bookstore, and more in the way of craft stores - I like the local quilt shop but there are only so many times you can go there. And I'd like a shop selling more small-quantities of nice food: there's a kitchen shop that does, but it's mostly spice rubs and fancy coffee and pre-packaged dry soups, so mostly stuff I don't really use, but I would love to have access to a real cheese shop or something like that. And maybe a music shop that sold sheet music. (As it is, the stuff I get now, either my teacher picks up for me on trips to a big store in Dallas, or I order it online)

(*I don't expect most of these to still be in business within 18 months. When you open a shop right across the street from another shop selling the same sort of thing....well, that seems a poor business model. Then again: many cities seem to have CVS and Walgreens' practically across from each other...)

* I also commented on Twitter: "They paved Geauga Lake, and put up a business park." Well, maybe not QUITE though I did see a story from that part of the world (Geauga Lake was the big nearby amusement park when I was a kid; it was adjacent to Sea World Aurora) about new construction on the site of the former park, and I guess some of it was going to be zoned for business.

But yeah. It does seem a lot of the things I knew as a kid in Northeast Ohio are gone (They even tore down the Richfield Coliseum, but at least they replaced it with a prairie) and I suspect I'd not recognize the place if I went back. (I've taken to scanning the online version of what used to be the Hudson Hub occasionally....apparently there is still a town Ice Cream Social, but apparently it costs money now; when I was a kid, as I remember, the city supplied the ice cream and people made and donated cakes. (Which now, whoa. I can't imagine trusting random strangers in your town...also all the allergy concerns). And the little downtown that I remember as being small locally-owned businesses has gotten a bunch of upscaley chains, and....I don't know. I admit I like the small businesses that reflect the taste of their owner/buyer, rather than some head-office decision of what they think the patrons "might" like. (And God help us if they decide to use an AI, like the Amazon "you might like" recommendations, or the ads that Google Ads serves up)

(Sigh. I guess maybe in some ways I AM kind of a hipster, given that I tend to like what I perceive as "authenticity" and locality and things that are special and different from what you can get at your average chain. And yes, I get complaining about all of that is "privileged," but having grown up not-as-privileged....well, like I said last week, I'm an adult now, and I can decide "You know, if I have to spend a couple hundred dollars of my own money for a nicer style of glasses frames, it's worth it to me" or "I never have to choose to wear off-brand jeans again if I don't want to.." Well, I work hard, and it's nice to be able to make those choices.)