Aurora Borealis!
Photo: Eaton Hamilton, 2024 Aurora Borealis from Vancouver Island
I went out last night around ten and then eleven and the skies were ordinary, and I was like, say what? Sky, come on! Would we even have TVs if this happened every night? Just lovely. I watched from my perfect yard swing, sawing back and forth on its squeaky hinge, beside my talking dog.
Have you tried to teach a dog to talk via the button systems they have now? Mine is delighted with this new facility, and won’t leave them alone. She loves being able to say what’s on her mind! It’s less thrilling for me, and we have convos like this one:
Treats!
You’ve already had enough treats. No more treats. Treats all gone.
Treats!
Treats!
Treats!
Sorry, but no more treats!
Mad. I am mad at you.
It’s such an impossible and terrifying time in our world. We’ve had our first seasonal fire evacuations out west, after a winter of zombie fires (fires underground), in not-quite-mid-May, and I’ve just read about people asking farms in the US south to please send them H5N1-infected milk so they can build their immunity (not possible, folks), and about travelling dust storms kicked up by wind whipping over vast feces-ridden cattle feed lots. We already know H5N1, found in cow milk and milk on shelves, very likely airborne, can definitely travel via feces–from cattle or any of the other dozens of species of mammals already infected, to cats. At the very least, watch your pets closely for symptoms, and keep your cats indoors and away from birds and bird waste.
Covid, too, is on the rise because it never was seasonal. Wear your respirators. They work
I wish you all the best in getting through the upcoming week. If you’re like me, part of it will be spent glued to Trump’s criminal trial, and part of it in staggering horror about what’s happening in Palestine.