Half of today’s revolution team: meet 9!

Hi everybody, this is Lily.

Lily joins the revolution!

And I’m 9.

 

Today we’re staging a revolution. We’re taking over the blog!

 

Yeah, because the blog entry Susan wrote for today is revolting!!

 

Good one, 9!

 

Thanks, Lily. She was doing her downer thing again. Kind of old news, don’t you think? I mean, dealing with the emotional side-effects of a pandemic is one thing- –

 

And she had that scare with one of the cats. But don’t worry, everybody, he’s okay! Now we’re going to tell you about the good things that happened this week. Silly as it sounds, the Bowl Game thing she invented has really salvaged this week.

 

Here we go!

 

Saturday, June 13: Wear Summer Jammies

 

This might not sound like a big deal, but she bought said jammies last year and- -get this- -hasn’t worn them yet!

 

We have no idea why. She’s kind of weird that way.

 

Yes. Like when she gets a package in the mail she sometimes doesn’t open it for days.

 

And not just since the pandemic, either. It’s a for real thing.

 

The Jammies are cute! Dark blue with light blue trim, kind of retro gym suit-looking with a short sleeved top and short bottoms.

 

Weirdly, it was kind of cold to wear these on Saturday, but, you know, Bowl Game.

 

If humanly possible, you have to do the task on the day it’s drawn.

 

Sunday, June 14: Make Dark Chocolate Sorbet

 

A couple of weeks ago she was looking in a storage cabinet in the basement and found this small-batch ice cream maker she’d bought for Bruce- -everyone knows he’s her late husband, right?- -about six years ago.

 

He really liked it at first, but about three months later he found out that his blood sugar was dangerously high, so the ice cream maker kind of got retired.

 

It’s an easy recipe, just a simple syrup with a bunch of cocoa powder and a little bit of vanilla extract added in.

 

But she couldn’t do it until Monday because the cylinder thingy had to go in the freezer for 16 to 24 hours.

 

As soon as humanly possible she got down to it. A few minutes to make the syrup, a few hours to chill it, a few minutes watching it spin in the ice cream maker until it thickened.

 

She had some that night. I thought it was perfect but she thought it was too sweet.

 

I did, too, 9. The next time she had some she topped it with fresh cherries. The time after that it was fresh strawberries, straight out of the garden- -perfect!

 

Some people think so, anyway.

 

Monday, June 15: Play and sing a song

 

Jenny Dreamed of Trains by Vince Gill, with halting guitar accompaniment. Halting guitar accompaniment is not an official “thing,” she just hasn’t played for a while.

 

Tuesday, June 16: Flowers

 

Nothing’s really blooming in the garden yet, so she punted and got some flowers at the grocery store. She knows she’s not great at arrangements, but. . .

 

With Bowl Game, perfection is not the point. Doing is the point. It’s all about getting outside of yourself to do some not-too-hard but out-of-the-way task within a one-day period.

 

If humanly possible.

Not all participants in revolutions are born florists. . .

 Wednesday, June 17: Luxuriant soak

 

It was really just a regular bubble bath, but marketing is everything.

 

Besides, it helped her sleep, because she was still worried about the cat. His vet appointment was the next day. Turns out he’s not only okay, he’s doing really well according to his blood panel.

 

Ewww, don’t talk about blood!

 

Sorry, 9. The vet thinks it was just something he, Friday, ate. Thursday’s task was Walk in the Park.

Friday in the foreground, Piebald back. Cats of the revolution who are in no way sick!

Remember how she couldn’t see any of the beauty last week when she walked in Pioneer Park? Night and day difference with yesterday. And today:

 

Friday, June 19: Write a poem

 

She always kind of winces when she draws this one from the Bowl because she doesn’t think of herself as a poet. It’s something she makes herself do to flex that particular creative muscle.

 

To show how much better she’s doing than she was earlier this week, check this out. On Wednesday, 3:56 AM, she wrote this:

 

The biological machine that is me

is wearing down.

Exhausted, but overwound.

 

Compared to this morning:

 

Out of the darkness comes joy.

            Out of the light, more light.

The Earth, half-obscured in shadow,

            knows it will shine again, content

in its turn from hopeful spring

            to the radiant promise of summer.

 

Nothing brilliant and she knows it, but this stuff entertains her in some weird way.

 

9, I am so glad we got her through another week.

 

With a little help from the Bowl Game.

 

Which we highly recommend. And, by the way, Vive la Revolution!

 

Ditto.

Pin It on Pinterest

Shares