The constant news on quakes and such of the spring/summer has been quaking lately, even though there was that related time when mom thought it was cool to dance on the tabletop, spilling the water that was eventually melding into wine, since the food was slow in coming …
— And to segue yes, tariffs have now hit with their impact, officially, on grocery prices, we are told. As the postponements are now past, athough tracking it gets to be tricky. And with these, we are assured by all but Trump — such as these are co-current with the student loan forgiveness now no longer being fully foregiven — prices on things from (thongs) to produce to protein will soon if not as we speak go up. Two examples follow.
At the local County Market grocery store, and boy have they amped up their great service as everyone is competing to dine for a smaller dime that is now a nickel, even though they spend like it is a full buck, though all taking no quarter, we see and have seen this: That long aisle for mineral and drinking water, and we won’t even mentioned distilled, has had multiple shelves for top-demand product virtually empty at times, while other brands have half-pallets waiting to be stocked sitting beneath. I don’t know if this has to do with tariff to-do or supply chain shortages or whatnot, but I had not seen this there before, and now have twice in a week or two. (I will admit this passage is a take-a-passby and see what you can see in various stores, not a scientific study, since as I’ve said, things change so quickly these days, so be skeptical if you wish.) More-over, County Market offered all-natural bone-in center-cut family-pack pork chops for $2.69 a pound early last month, where now at a local meat shop (butchery?) and I know this may be to compare apples to oranges and make note of a different type of chop other than pork, to transpose numbers a bit, it’s $6.29 per pound per loin. Has tariff fever hit? —
OK, Lake Michigan was not nearly displaced — that would take my aging uncle diving in even back in just-post-college days — but if you were in touristing over in Bangkok it might have sent waves over the wall railing-edge of a hotel rooftop pool. That’s when mom first started baking a cake for a whole host of spring holidays, before she was feted on Mother’s Day, with quagmires of chocolate all-around. OK, I made the part up about my mom dancing on tablecloths, but not my uncle in the pool, which coulda, shoulda been verified by my old friend, who had lived in Bangkok, born and raised there, and said that there are some places you can safely go, but she should know about dancing there due to our discussion of the song referencing “Another night in Bangkok,” and what it will do to even strong men, because of other places such as seedy hotels …
— Eggxactly. Omelettes are back in for Mother’s May, and previously Easter too, since County Market issued a freebie for a dozen large eggs, good through June 30, and Kwik Trip another such but less timely egg freebie, despite the high costs associated with Bird Flu, unless it is now quelled. And the County Market flyer also hawked an associated free pound of bananas, despite tariff price concerns, although a pound does not typically cost them that much anyway, so chopped fruit for brunches on both holidays? But they need to check their mailing list. It was sent specifically to me — I guess they thought mom needs some love after me teasing her about dancing on the tabletop — saying welcome to the neighborhood, and we wish you all the best in your new home. Uhm, I have lived here for two years and two rounds of the holidays, and it’s an apartment!
As long as we are referencing the highest Catholic Holy Day, we have to mention the next following-event, post-conclave sign above Agave Kitchen, saying simply Habemus Papam, in other words and there often are many when associated with Catholicism, we have a (new) pope!
Simply put, the announcement is usually made by a senior cardinal deacon, along with the now famous white smoke. Does owner Paul have such a rank, and was there such a wisp above the third story of his building? (I must admit when I first saw the proclamation written on the wall, I thought it could be a bad death metal CD title, or possible a (new) musician character in the band Ghost.) —
And the friend should know about dancing as she could do not only the splits but a move where her one knee was fully bent down and the other stuck out over the floor about six-inches high all-around. Even at 63, I can still — almost — do the splits and used to even dunk a basketball, barely pushing it over the front of the rim. Both a very young server friend and not quite as young nephew took great dispute to that, as I further digress.
Anyway, it was back in late spring when the wake moved the earth throughout the bad parts of town, and shook hotels around the pristine part of the city, and now I will fully call it an earthquake, making pools many floors high tilt and spill their water in small sets of big splatters. No word on flowery drinks or tableside umbrellas; or the slums not far away. Water is hard to come by there. No pools. Barely a dripping faucet. A big building will behave that way too, if it’s tilted partly toward its side. Even when shown a bit later on TV news, crashing down toward the camera-man. Or mom taking a (rare) selfie.
Do they have earthquakes in Greenland? Or Iceland. Or Panama, you know where the big canal is, with China owning the port areas on both sides. We could get involved in even more rainy landslides and floods. Back INTO the sea. More likely icebergs. Like the H2O flows of killer hurricanes, but involving water as well as air. So get back in the studio with an easel, weather artist Karine. There is more signature art work to do, like was brushed in a church basement room and sold to aid the people who had lost roofs and more in and about their former houses. “When the levee breaks,” Led Zep sings, ” I’m gonna die today …” Dragged into the rising waters, like those flowing back into the seas.
Then hours later shown on the TV News. Quakes all the time, and they mostly in my quick take are along the south rim or near it of some continents. (Tornados it seems almost always accompany too, virtually daily.) That would include Florida and across to Texas, and up the Mississippi and Appalachians, with my niece formerly living near the base of that large water mass in big ol’ Texas. Is now, Madison with its mass (of people this time) any better?
The university there houses, or has housed many members of the family. Snow aplenty but no major storms in their neighborhoods, yet. There was that one deadly shooting not far away.
So try out the School Of Rock. The story (lyrics?) goes something like this: Video showing a bus, on cable TV every two hours in rotation. Drumming with your sticks on the back of the seat. Waiting … Or more telling, singing your heart out of an empty window. Then the band teacher came back on board next to the driver with news; he could have two decades ago been Jack Black, and I explained the trademark AC/DC song to mom. First there was second place. Slight polite applause. Then the biggie announcement. They won with that Voice.
But wait. No record deal. Many universities like others including Harvard are being challenged over what they teach, with a removal of their funding from the feds. So we have more legal challenges, hearings, injunctions, indictments, deportations, extensions, expulsions, suspensions if you are more lucky … The courts are so tied up with so many evildoers they are hiring as many bailiffs as judges. So many more very tall and bald guys are needed. Small guys need not apply. Not so much funky judges who do card tricks. This is not Night Court.
But back to mom and weather, to close. Her bad hip and lower back had been classified as a compression (depression) of her spine, in the areas of L4, L5 and I think L6. Here I’d thought those were hurricane strengths! Or is that tornado?