Running while white

some of my harvest including world's biggest patty pan. Also Swiss chard, eggplants and spaghetti squash

Daniel's hamster Chewybaca, an elderly little guy. We have him for a bit

sunrise over our house

best find garbage picking: two cement urns. I was 10 miles into a 26 mile ride when I saw them on a curb. Do I abort my ride or call Steve to fetch them? No I waited until the end of my ride fretting that they would disappear. But yay! still there. However they were about 50 pounds a piece and I could barely lift them

Naomi lives in a condo we bought about ten years ago. A child, a dog and a cat really wrecked the carpet so we had it removed and replaced with Perrgo floors. Would bitchy downstairs neighbor complain even though there is cement between them? She said the new carpet must be nice as she doesn't hear a thing

our pond with the Freddy the frog floating on a lilypad. Good for insect control

close up of Freddy, named by Maya

Back to thrift stores. Looks better in person. Don't know where to put it however

Maya and her friend catching bubbles

balloon flower

Indian feather

have 4 big white hibiscus I just bought a red one too

early one morning at the lake our community is named after

tiger lilies did fine this year. Asiatic lilies, not so much Still have my daylilies too

Swan family at a park we met up with Josh and his girls

Josh and his girls

I was running early one morning  on a deserted road when a sheriff slowed inched his vehicle towards me. What could he possibly want? Was he going to enforce the mask law? (no people around)No he just wanted to see if I were OK. Apparently I look like I am in distress while running. even though I was on a downhill section of my run. 

Thirteen years ago I broke my arm while running. In the ER, the attending could not believe I would be running for 'no reason' He assumed I was in an abusive relationship though at least I had the foresight to get into running clothes and shoes while being pursued. Finally the orthopedic guy showed up and said he sees me running all the time as he lived and biked on my path.

I was stopped by a sheriff once twenty five years ago while running on the state line of Indiana and Illinois. An Illinois criminal might have passed me fleeing into Indiana. Did I see that? No.

But when I was stopped the other day, I was puzzled but not afraid for my life. I guess that is white privilege. The night before Dontae's and Naomi's wedding, Dontae and his groomsmen were stopped by a cop in the town Shanna lives in, which is mostly white. Noone was speeding or driving erratically but not only was Dontae given an alcohol test, so were the passengers! No one had been drinking but if they had complained about being stopped for no reason other than being black, there would not have been a wedding the next day. Which might have been for the best given how short the marriage was.

Our country goes downhill daily. It is too depressing to listen to the news though I was amused about Trump bragging about passing the Alzheimer's screen. So like most two year olds, he can identify an elephant. I was given a similar test as part of the 'welcome to medicare' exam and was insulted. Can't they tell by speaking to me for a few minutes that I had all my marbles. A friend last year in the ER was given a quick test. Do you know what day it is? 

She said Bastille Day which although true, wasn't a day the staff had heard of. No extra credit like Trump insisted he got for remembering a list of words in the right order.

School will not open for Maya this fall though Ann Arbor is the least infected area that my grandkids live in. Tough when you are a single parent and need to work instead of monitoring on line classes. So we will be called into service more

If only we had good leadership instead of that buffoon, we could be back to normal.

We continue to be rainless  And  bonus, many over 90 days.  I spend a lot of time watering my gardens. I have been biking more as I need it to be below 65 if I run. And I usually start my runs in the dark.

I have seen my Mom's group a few times including the other night when I threw a "hamilton' party  as we have Disney plus. I had a high school stop by who I haven't seen since high school . I was a bit nervous about her as she had posted on Facebook about masks should be a personal choice like seatbelts and motorcycle helmets. Fortunately others pointed out to her that someone not wearing a helmet only hurts themselves, not others whereas her not wearing a mask could possibly spread disease. She does wear a mask to keep others happy even though she did have Covid early on. She hasn't had an antibody test.  She and her cousin showed up with masks. But I did suspect she was a Trump lover. I had started to say something negative about him and her cousin mouthed to me (no mask on by then) that she indeed was but the cousin was definitely not.

But despite our probable political differences, it was a fun afternoon.