The only problem with having switched to Tidal is that it seems to think, when I tell it to loop one single song, that I will at some point (after maybe an hour or so?) wish to stop looping that one single song. No, Tidal. This is never true. Keep going.

Ruining the puppy’s life this morning by not letting her have the toilet brush for a toy. She says she NEEDS it. And still no.

A very happy six months of life to Wayout’s Gone Loud, called Gideon, and sibs. Apocalypse days call for apocalypse dogs, and it’s an honor and brings me such joy to watch this little one learn who she is.

Been in meetings for nigh-on 100% of my working hours this week. Only chance of making it through the afternoon is one (1) very large Thai iced tea and “American Runs on Disco” on endless loop for 100% of lunch. tidal.com/browse/track...

My favorite part of life with cattle things today is that every time I ask a dog, “What are you doing?” the answer is I HELP BETTER in the least helpful but most sincere way possible. Cleaning the yard? Chopping potatoes? Retrieving a ball from inside the temp fencing (again)? Cattle thing can help!

Almost forgot to grab a sticker, but the poll workers had my back.

“Every time we love we’re saying, / Let it ride / and what’s on the table / is the rent money. / And every time we stride again / out into the crisp desert night / our fists shoved deep into empty pockets / we know ourselves for losers.” Jack McCarthy, “The Spaces Between”

Hi neighbors, as of the time that we are posting this, November SNAP benefits will not be dispensed due to the federal government shutdown. Though the state of NH will be funding additional mobile food pantries, and we're seeing many individuals, groups, and businesses step up and announce plans to

Baby’s first beach.

The first time I said, “It’s Dark City meets Disco Elysium meets @askamanager.org meets Pathfinder 2e,” I really thought I was kidding. But I was not.

Keep finding myself spooky-season tempted to take another swing at finishing Darkwood but this is folly: I am constitutionally incapable of gittin’ gud.

T vibes so husky now that I have a houseful of cattle dogs, which is wild given that he’s really quite cattle doggy by comparison when hanging with literally anything else.

When I talk about Gideon’s “you see this shit?” check-in face, is what I mean. Cracks me up every. Single. Time.

Doing a lil’ editing this morning for @1000yearspath.bsky.social and remembered this poem that I sometimes think about when I think about Balsam and his lantern.

Hey everyone! Summer is winding down and so is yard sale season. If you have things to clear out of your space, we want them! These items are our biggest needs right now; clothing is a top priority for our stores in the valley! Check out our website to find your nearest drop box location.

How it started / how it’s going.

“And I feel terrible about the whole argument between / free will and destiny. All that I want is everything I want. / Music and rain and slight variations between the two.” Clay Matthews, “Poem in Which I Sort of Break Down”

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.)