Antisocial Media

Today has been chores and music. Usually one of our family weekend days is about recovering from the past week and getting our shit together for the coming week, and the other ends up being an outing or activity. Not sure how adventurous we'll be tomorrow with the two new kitties to consider, but at any rate, three good things on this housework day: 1. Kids rediscovering the classics. Isaac has been listening to Strong Bad Sings recently (it's amazing how much of "the system is down" he has memorized), and it inspired Lucas to make this masterpiece: A drawing of Trogdor the Burninator,  by Lucas, age 9.  Burning huts, fields, and peasants are featured prominently. 2. Caturday. A young orange tabby cat, Leo, poses regally in a slanty sunbeam by the kitchen stove. 3. Pancakes. Me making pancakes for the kids has become a cornerstone of the weekend. I cut the dry ingredients liberally with almond flour, so each kid only gets one plate-sized pancake, and I get to tell mys

 It doesn't get any better. (Taj Mahal's album, Oooh So Good 'N Blues) (Side One: Buck Dancer's Choice; Little Red Hen; Mama Don't You Know; Frankie and Albert. Side Two: Railroad Bill; Dust My Broom; Built for Comfort; Teacup's Jazzy Blues Tune)

Returning to Antisocial Media feels a little daunting so I'm going to borrow a format from Greg Pak's blog (https://gregpak.net/): post about three good things each day. Simple but load-bearing, and hopefully a good way to rebuild the habit of putting my words on my own site rather than Facebook or Bluesky. And I know from experience that I can let big schemes and dreams become barriers to actually doing the thing (whatever "the thing" might be), so starting small and flexible gives me a better shot at sustainability. So! Three Good Things: 1. Cats.  Sarah and I were cat-owners before kids, in that the cats were very much kid-precursors. Their names were Charlie and Lizzie, and we adopted them from a fancy dog-collar store on Piedmont Ave in Oakland, where the clerk ran an amateur rescue operation out of the display window. These two tiny little fluffy tennis-ball kittens adopted us, and we had them for five or six years. Charlie was a decent-sized gray doofus that pe