Couple more photos

Second field trip of the week, to the same place. This was with systematic botany, so it was mostly an end-of-the-semester review/chance to see live versions of some things I'd only presented photos or herbarium specimens of. But we also found a plant I didn't know and had never seen before (It's southeastern, and seems to have kind of a limited distribution)

Here it is. Marshallia  most likely caespitosa. Also known as Barbara's buttons

And a close up. I guess it's kind of like Bachelor's buttons, it's an Asteraceae. Apparently it is native here though.

We also saw green milkweed (Asclepias viridis) starting to flower

This evening, I finished the first sleeve on Chalcedony (I just had to do 16 rows of a baby cable ribbing). I give an exam tomorrow and have to decide if I have the energy to pick up the second sleeve tonight so I can work on it during the exam.

I really want to go to Denison Saturday, or at least just get out somewhere, but it's also likely to be raining hard. I'll have to think on it. It seems suboptimal to drive when it might not be totally safe, especially for something "unnecessary." I've really changed my calculus and my comfort level for stuff like that since the pandemic - time was when I wouldn't think twice about it, I'd be all "but I WANT to go, I haven't been anywhere outside of town in over a month, and I need a better grocery store" but now I am like BUT YOU COULD **DIE**. I think I've become a lot more cautious (and I was pretty cautious before) and also the world just feels.....a lot more hostile now. I've had people run red lights right in front of me, I've had people run stop signs, almost back into me as they pull out of a parking space. I've been flipped off more for not driving over the speed limit or "just because" and the world does seem less kind and pleasant than it once did.  And I am lonesome, but I hear stories of people trying to break into groups and being rejected (for example: for being a woman entering a space that is largely men but not exclusively so) or frozen out or just "you're not from around here-d" and.....I don't even want to try. I guess now I have the *expectation* of not being welcomed because everyone does seem very closed down, like they kind of fossilized in the groups they were part of at the start of 2020 and don't want any newcomers.

Okay, fine, I will let them have that. I will learn to be radically alone; it's probably my lot in life.

But in return, I need an occasional trip outside of town to see other places and even just buy groceries from a larger supermarket than what we have right here.