Thursday Work

SQUASHED: This morning it was warm and beautiful and we finally got around to planting some summer squash. (I think it's actually zucchini.) I dug up the dirt patch and Annabelle planted. Meanwhile, poor CJ was hauling blackberry branches down to compost.

Speaking of gardening, we read an interesting story from Time magazine about antique apples, for lack of a better label. The story was about a group of retirees who scour remote locations around the Pacific Northwest, in search of long-forgotten pioneer orchards. Together, they formed a nonprofit, Lost Apple Project

So far, thanks to their efforts, 10 apple varieties that were believed to be extinct were recently discovered, which was their biggest single-season. It sounds like a really fun treasure hunt hobby to me!

CLASSY: Yesterday, Annabelle finished a 5-part writing class offered through Clarion West. 

I'll have her tell you a little bit about it. ...

The First Time with Elizabeth Hand was a 5-part writing class dedicated to a specific writing exercise that involved taking an account of a first experience you’ve had and rewriting it into a piece of fiction or short story. Each student in the class individually worked on adapting our own stories, which lead to some interestingly varied results due to our different experiences and styles of writing. Some chose to turn their account into a fantasy-oriented story, while others went for a completely sci-fi approach. 

My own experience was of a particularly difficult hike my family and I took years ago that we refer to as the “short scramble,” and I adapted it into a vaguely post-apocalyptic desert setting. It was difficult for me to rewrite my story from a fictional perspective, because I am not very used to writing ‘myself’ and most of my ideas for fictional stories do not have a sort of set basis or conclusion like this assignment. It was also difficult because I had such a short time period to come up with the new setting and characters before sharing it with others, so I cannot say I was entirely happy with the finished result. Nonetheless, I think it was a good writing exercise and allowed me to explore a different writing style than what I normally would’ve tried.

The classes were a gift from Clarion West, prompted by so many students being stuck at home during the pandemic. What a treat and thrill and opportunity for Annabelle to have a notable, award-winning author like Elizabeth Hand as a mentor for a week. 

CJ is in his first week of his third quarter of college. He's taking 15 credits this quarter. His classes are History III, Japanese 3, and History of Rock. 

We have been mildly worried about Japanese, because CJ took Japanese 1 and 2 at South Seattle, but he's taking Japanese 3 at Central Seattle. There was no way of knowing if his Japanese classes at South would prepare him for the class at Central.

But so far, so good. In non-pandemic times, the class would meet every weekday. In the Coronavirus era, it's all online. The professor seems very organized and has every single day of the quarter already calendared. 

One big bonus of the Japanese class being online is that Annabelle can sit in on the sessions. During Japanese 1 and 2, she did all of the homework alongside CJ had, but never had benefit of access to the lectures that he went to in person twice a week. 

SOUND ADVICE: I'm not mass producing them at the moment, but I do continue to make masks here and there. Here's today's small batch.

I think masks are going to be a part of our lives for months to come. To that topic, I think this is the best article I've read so far that talks about how to keep yourself safer during these COVID-19 times. It's thoughtful, thorough, and science-based.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/saving-your-health-one-mask-time-peter-tippett-md-phd/?fbclid=IwAR1OFCa8y5hdncdkq5fffRub3KZpJxgzM_A_1F8saHgPBh3ohwQ0uDVOyNU

TESTY: Though CJ is a full time college student right now, he's also Since technically a high school junior. And if you're a high school junior and it's springtime, and you're college bound after your senior year of high school, you should probably be looking at taking a college entrance exam or exams, specifically the SAT and/or the ACT. Thing is, both of those tests have been postponed so far this spring because of the pandemic.

I read a story in the New York Times today that the tests might be a take-at-home affair this year. I also read that a lot of colleges are waiving those tests as an entrance requirement due to the pandemic and wonky test schedule. 

So, I guess we'll just keep an eye on it. Maybe CJ will be able to take it late summer or in September.