Finally Friday

OH LOOK, MORE FLOWERS: Well, I guess we have the pandemic to 'thank' that this space that used to track all of our out and about activities has now basically become a gardening blog. 

I guess there are worse things.

Check out the rose atop the post. We spied it in a neighbor's yard during our noontime loop of the 'hood. Annabelle noticed it looked like it had two centers. 

And check out these purple ceanothus in another neighbor's front yard. Also known as California lilacs, the bees seemed to love them.  

SAY HIS NAME: George Floyd. 

By now, you almost certainly have heard of him. 

George Floyd.

The man who was pinned down and had his life choked out of him, a knee on his neck.

George Floyd.

The man who cried out for his deceased mother as he repeatedly told the man, a police officer, who was killing him, "I can't breathe." 

George Floyd.

The man whose slow, tortuous death was filmed while onlookers implored the officers to help, rather than harm the victim.

For over a week now, we have been watching wall to wall news coverage of Floyd's killing and the resultant protests. Last Saturday, as we drove through Seattle, the acrid smell of tear gas made our eyes water and our throats burn. The tear gas was used against people peacefully protesting Floyd's killing. 

America - we have a lot to learn.

Given that, on Thursday afternoon, I signed CJ and Annabelle up for a session hosted by Seattle University's School of Law. Professor Bryan Adamson moderated an online teach-in with criminal law experts Professor Deborah Ahrens (Seattle University School of Law) and Professor Ayesha Bell Hardaway (Case Western Reserve University) about the factual and legal aspects of George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police, and the resulting demonstrations.

Here's how CJ describes the online event.

Thursday’s livestream from Seattle U about how the law applies to George Floyd’s killing was somewhat informative, but in my opinion seemed rather lackluster in engaging content. While the professors certainly had some interesting things to say about the original event, it felt to me like most of the 1 hour 45 minutes we spent there was just them feeding definitions of the different types of murder charges to us. I remember thinking to myself as the program ended “I could have looked this up on Wikipedia in 5 minutes.” While I appreciate the fact that these educators are dedicated to spreading the word on what they can expect to see in the following weeks on the legal side of things, I don’t think it constituted almost 2 hours of talking (half of which was spent over the scheduled time.) 

Since late May, effectively every major city in the U.S. has been in turmoil. Protests appeared in all fifty states as a response to the killing of George Floyd, a defenseless black man from Minneapolis, Minnesota. On May 25, 2020, Floyd was killed by Derek Michael Chauvin, a police officer from the Minneapolis Police Department. Chauvin had a history of violent behavior while on the police force, and forcibly kneeled on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes, asphyxiating Floyd to death in the process. Eventually, all four officers involved in Floyd's death were charged with felonies, but not before the protests (and later riots) broke out.

Annabelle had this summary ... 

Thursday afternoon, Seattle University (Seattle U)'s School of Law hosted a livestream on YouTube. The livestream lasted an hour and a half, and featured Seattle U School of Law faculty and lawyers in a Zoom conference call. Unsurprisingly, the topic of the discussion was the legal procedures surrounding the killing of George Floyd. Near the start of the livestream, a silence of eight minutes and forty-six seconds (the amount of time that Chauvin kneeled on Floyd's neck) was observed. Following this silence, the most significant section of the livestream was a lawyer listing and detailing the charges brought against Chauvin and the three other officers. The single most significant of these charges was most likely Chauvin's second-degree murder charge. It's worth noting that Minnesota is unusual in its degree system for murders. What would be called a second-degree murder in several other states is considered a third-degree murder in Minnesota.

This afternoon, on our way home from the store, we were caught up in a small, but impactful Black Lives Matter demonstration. It was at a random intersection in West Seattle, on Roxbury. There were groups of 4-8 people at each of the corners of the intersection. They had homemade signs, Sharpie scrawled on cardboard, all the same message, Black Lives Matter. I only saw one person of color among the sign holders. The rest appeared white, and they were animated as all get out - as were the people in cars at the intersection. Dozens of cars were honking in support, and car passengers rolled their windows down and raised their fists in solidarity. It restored my faith in humanity. 

Tanks for the Memories

HOME IMPROVEMENT: Since we have been spending So Much Time at home and will continue to do so over the next who-knows-how-many months, Christian and I have been talking about a long hot summer in our stuffy house, and how nice air conditioning would be. 

As much as we do love this place, one of the things we really don't like about it was the fact it had a buried heating oil tank in our second 'garage' space. We decided to do something about it now, and scheduled a contractor to come dig it out and haul it away.

A guy with decades of experience, he was fast and efficient. He deftly operated the tractor like it was a an extension of his arms. 

As a bonus of having the tank removal done, we took this opportunity to have the contractor remove a couple of enormous boulders that were living in the back of the garage space. He effortlessly moved them out, and then after extracting the tank, he pushed the big boulders into the hole. 

 With all the excitement, an audience gathered in the driveway. #PandemicEntertainment

Before too long, the old oil tank was unearthed. 

 It was taken out none too soon. 

Pocked and pitted, we're glad it's gone. 

MEANWHILE, IN THE GARDEN: We took a noontime tour of the yard to check in on things. We harvested a little bowl of bright red strawberries. 

 We spied a ladybug climbing on the clover. 

And, of course, there were a bunch of bees in there, too. We could see the pollen this guy is packing away on its back legs.  

Online

THE NEW NORMAL: At one point this morning, Christian was in the basement, working from home. I was in my bedroom, in training/working from home, CJ was attending a college class (Japanese 3) online, in his bedroom, and Annabelle was online taking a writing class through Outschool. #PandemicTimes

Needless to say, a little too much screen time here. That's why during any and every break, I'm screaming like a banshee, GET OFF YOUR COMPUTERS and we try to get outside, even if just for a couple of minutes. 

In addition to a noontime loop of the neighborhood, we do things like water the veggie starts and plants. That's how I discovered our very first tiny green tomato today! And we also beat down blackberry bushes (they are having a *banner* year for whatever reason). Check out the root ball CJ managed to wrest out of the ground to the west of our foundation today. Way to go, CJ!

I appreciated how they thought to put the glove for scale in the photo!

We checked in on our feathered friend. She's still there, giving me the side eye. 

I lingered over the ice for awhile. Bumblebees love these neon pink flowers. 

Blackberries aren't the only thing coming on strong. Check out the baby grapes. We have thousands covering the dilapidated tool shed.

And how about this report from the field!? It's some of our starts living their best lives on the Kitsap Peninsula! Our thanks to field reporter Ruth for the on location shot. :)

FRESHMAN:  CJ is closing in on the end to his first entire year of college. Here's a recent Japanese video he had to submit (this time without that ridiculous purple hat over his face).

SpaceX Success!

        My photo of NASA TV image
HISTORY!: First thing Saturday morning, I turned on NASA TV to find out if the scheduled SpaceX Demo-2 manned flight mission was on track for a midday liftoff.  We were happy to find out that the weather was looking good and that all systems were go. At noon, we gathered 'round the TV in earnest, awaiting the 12:22 launch. We held our breath as the clock ticked down to T-0, and hooted and hollered when the Falcon rocket with the Dragon capsule atop it lifted off from launchpad 39-A at Cape Canaveral.

It's customary for crews to take a "zero-g indicator" aboard their ships. Imagine our surprise when, a few minutes into the flight, a sequined dinosaur floated into the frame. 

           My photo of NASA TV image
From a Space.com article, we learn the back story about how the flashy Apatosaurus wound up in low Earth orbit. 

"We both have two boys who are super interested in dinosaurs," said (NASA astronaut Bob) Behnken. "We collected up all the dinosaurs between our two houses and 'Tremor,' the Apatosaurus, got the vote from the boys to make the trip into space today with us."

         NASA photo

Naturally, we simply *had* to have one of those things. Turns out we weren't the only ones thinking that same thing. Made by Ty (the same company that makes Beanie Babies), "Tremor" the disco dinosaur was a white hot commodity on Saturday, selling out everywhere.

But not before I sourced one at a Joann fabric store (yes, really!) in Federal Way, WA, about 25 minutes south of us. I even had a 50 percent off coupon, so we got the high demand keepsake for just $8. When I had a break from work today, Annabelle and I jammed down there and picked it up. It's so darn cute!

Sunday morning, I rousted CJ and Annabelle out of bed at about 7:15 a.m. in order to watch the Dragon capsule dock with the International Space Station.

Fortunately, everything went without a hitch.

    Photo: NASA 

The NASA photo above shows the SpaceX Crew Dragon heading toward the JAXA's (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) robotic arm, which is attached to Japan's Kibo laboratory module. The Dragon crew carefully navigated toward the space station, and the capsule was captured.

A couple of hours later the two 'new' guys joined the rest of the crew on the ISS.

            Photo: NASA TV

So what's next for the Dragon capsule and SpaceX's historic mission? In just over 100 days, the spacecraft will return to Earth, and splash down in the ocean. It's actually the part of the mission that SpaceX founder Elon Musk is most nervous about. This Business Insider article can tell you more about that: 

https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-spacex-nasa-astronaut-mission-biggest-concern-reentry-danger-2020-5

RED HOT: Our yard continues to delight with new focal points popping up all of the time. Over the weekend, these 'red hot pokers' started putting on a show. I love them. They remind me of rocket fire.

According to GardeningKnowHow.com, the red hot poker plant (Kniphofia uvaria) is "an upright evergreen perennial with a clumping habit. Over 70 known species exist of this South African native plant."

SIT IN: The little birdie atop our ping pong table hasn't moved in about a week, it seems like. We make eye contact every once in awhile, but we are keeping our distance as much as possible. I hope her chicks hatch soon.