Best thing since sticky notes, tbh.

A very happy Stanislav Petrov saves the world day to us all.

“There is more and more I tell no one, / strangers nor loves. / This slips into the heart / without hurry, as if it had never been. / And yet, among the trees, something has changed. / Something looks back from the trees, / and knows me for who I am.”

“I want someone / to have a crush on me / for a change” R. Eirik Ott, “Crushworthy” (The puppy is steadfast in her quest to convince Titus that she is Very Grown Up and Extremely Cool. Gettin’ there!) #apocalypsedogs #dogwalking #morningwalk #touchgrass #dogs #poetry #theyregooddogsbrent

“That’s me, looking for a chance to call / home and say, I have not abandoned you, / Hope.” . -Bruce Bond, “Circle” #morningwalk #touchgrass #dogwalking #otherpeoplespoetry #morelight

Truly a wild time to work in HIV/STI/viral hepatitis. Me: (all year) Sure do miss my job security. Sure would like that back. Me: (this week pending ACIP) …no, wait, not like that.

“All of us are made of flesh and blood and there’s a built-in fragility to the human body, but that’s no more true this week than it was two weeks ago. When I look at the trans people in my life, I see the toughest motherfuckers I’ve ever met.” margaretkilljoy.substack.com/p/i-cant-tel...

“Ten-year-olds / should stick with burning houses, car wrecks, / ships going down—earthbound, tangible / disasters, arenas / where they can be heroes. You can run / back into a burning house, sinking ships / have lifeboats, the truck will come / with their ladders, if you jump / you will be saved.”

“Penultimate” is a very good word and I am not remotely impartial re: whether this is a very good podcast but I really do think so.

“The first day it feels like fall / I want to tell my secrets / recklessly until there is nothing / you don’t know that would make / your heart change years from now.” . -Stacie Cassarino, “Midwest Eclogue”

“Say, It doesn’t matter. Say, That would be / enough. Say you’d still want this: us alive, / right here, feeling lucky.” - Ada Limón, “The Conditional” #morningwalk #dogwalking #otherpeoplespoetry #touchgrass #dogs

Praise the poem / I was trying to finish / when you showed up / at my door. . Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz, “Isn’t Every Love Poem an Unfinished Love Poem?”

RFK Must Go

No, *you’re* sitting on a rock singing “The Trapeze Swinger” to your puppy at 6:30.

Tried to draft an emotional support puppy for this week’s @1000yearspath.bsky.social session, but turns out she rolls great on initiative and really wants to eat my mic.

Frederick Albert Cook, who claimed he discovered the North Pole, and fellow American explorer Robert E. Peary, who is credited with actually achieving this feat in 1909.

“How am I supposed to nap under these conditions*?” . *Wearing a harness

“I loved / what was not slave or instinct, that when you turn to me it is a choice / […] / more light, more light, / your hand against my shoulder, the image / of the one who taught me disobedience / is the first right of being alive.” -Paisley Redkal, “Why Some Girls Love Horses” #justpuppythings

We’ve all been there.

We'll have more to say about the latest terrible executive order on our next This Month the Apocalypse episode, but underlying it, even beneath the eugenics, bigotry, and racism, is the belief that people who need help are a "burden" on society. Helping each other is literally what society is for.

“But hearts don’t break, / y’all, / they bruise and get better. / We were never tragedies. / We were emergencies. / You call 9 – 1 – 1. / Tell them I’m having a fantastic time.” -Buddy Wakefield, “We are emergencies” #dogs #morningwalk #poetry

Pleased to announce for your consideration, etc. (Insert 243 characters of excited screaming here!)

“Do the Norfolk fens instead. Better / yet, East Anglia in its future state, quite utterly / submerged like a sodden Constable. Come on, / get your coat, I’ll show you. You won’t need your shoes.” . Emily Hasler, “Cartography for Beginners”

A BlueSky hello from WayOut’s Gone Loud, called Gideon, ten weeks old as of yesterday. This brings the household to approximately 2.25 CDEs, which seems like the right number for this apocalypse. *Cattle dog equivalents

“I am not ready to die yet: magnolia tree / going wild outside my kitchen window / & the dog needs a house, &, by the way, / I just met you, my sisters & I / have things to do” . -Aracelis Girmay, “I Am Not Ready To Die Yet”

“I, too, like pumpkin Oreo ice cream.”

Lawn mowing supervisor was chilling under the far side of the deck in her cool spot. I stopped mowing, walked 20’ to my Spindrift, took a drink, and looked down.

“I want the virtue / of the evening rain, but not its gossip. / I want the moon’s intuition, but not its questions. / I want the malice of nothing on earth. I want to enter / every room in a strange electrified city / and find you there.” Terrence Hayes, “Wind in a Box”

Portland service temporarily replaced by shuttle buses between Denver and Des Moines.

Things I recommend this morning: semi-impulse-adopting a merry gremlin of a senior dog. There are a million reasons that I perhaps should not have done. But the household needed a little more joy in These Trying Times and three months later, that’s still more than reason enough.

There are no distractions. It's all bad. Systematically stripping trans people of their rights, guys in balaclavas shoving any brown person with a tattoo into a ummarked vans, ending healthcare for millions. It's all in service of fascism and technofeudalism. It's all one thing. That's the point.

I just described Titus to a friend as, “He is the sort of dog who would get elected dog mayor if dogs could vote,” and this may be the truest thing I have ever said.

Should I look? (I will not.)

Time truly is the weirdest soup.

𝐛𝐥𝐮𝐜𝐢𝐟𝐞𝐫 /ˈ𝘣𝘭𝘶ː-𝘴ɪ-𝘧ɚ/ 𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘯 1. 32-foot horse that knows what you did 2. federally tolerated omen 3. the last thing you see before your luggage vanishes 𝐔𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐞: “i made eye contact with blucifer and now i see time differently”

Anyone who tries to tell you that HIV surveillance and prevention belongs anywhere but CDC is selling something, and it’s probably a Tesla.

Get you someone(s) (if you want) who looks at you like Titus looks at the whipped cream canister.

“[False narratives about immigrants are] actually what are undermining safety in our communities. If you wanted to make us safe, pass gun reforms. Stop cutting Medicaid. Stop cutting cancer research. Stop cutting funds for veterans. That is what will make our city safe.”

Titus is taking notes.

Literally just logged off my work computer, turned around, and reached down to pet him. Former COVID response intern still supporting public health as best he knows how.

I promise you that doing something about it, however small, will make you feel better than posting about it.

I’m just saying that if it takes you more than 90 seconds to give your staff permission to ignore some rando’s request that they write a five-paragraph format “what I did on my summer vacation” essay on 4 hour deadline, you are unqualified to supervise anybody. Like that’s a performance issue.

“The sun rolled along the horizon. The light never left them. / The air from their warm mouths became diamonds. / And they longed for everything they did not have. / And they came home and longed again.” -Elizabeth Bradfield, “Why They Went”

Things I recommend this morning: owning a collapsible aluminum avalanche shovel. Keep it in your car to dig out and help get others unstuck! Cut through the end-of-drive terrible plow break like butter! Build a snow shelter or something if you want! It is one of my favorite things.

“Doing your job is cool and all but have you considered that I would like to go for a walk?”

My brain gave me this image and I felt the need to share #transpride #transgender #trans #lgbtpride #digitalart #digitalartist #procreateart #trogdor #homestarrunner

“today i walked home / & caught the light through / the fence & it was so golden / i wanted to cry & i lifted / my right hand to say thank / you god for the sun thank / you god for a chain link fence / & all the shoes that fit into / the chain link fence” Eve L. Ewing, “testify”

What I want you to notice is not just the protest itself but how few people it took to accomplish this. A bullhorn. 7-8 people. Do you have 7 friends who agree with you? You could do this.