Not really. There’s plenty else going on, too, but 3 hours of dance a week sure does feel like a lot (in a good way). Please enjoy my outfit from ballet last night; my sister got me this sweatshirt for Christmas one year and the cute li’l skort I got for ballet just about matches! I didn’t last long, of course, I very quickly had to take it off and just dance in my leotard because I get hot so easily.

Things have overall been busy but good; work is a bit nuts, I’m taking ASL classes on Monday and then dance Tuesday/Wednesday, the animals are as usual a handful but fun. I got a Litter Robot 4 thinking it would be a good move, but while Romeo uses it sometimes, Tabatha apparently thinks it’s haunted and gave herself UTI symptoms (actually FLUTD/FIC) so I had to take her to Tufts one night. 🤦🏻‍♂️ gotta love it.

Yes, I work in tech. Why do you ask?

I know I can’t just title every one of these “what do you mean, it’s (month)”, but it does feel like July flew by. Mostly for good reasons, though!

• I started dance classes (tap & jazz) on July 8, and it’s been amazing to have that as an outlet again. I highly recommend On the Barre in Norton if you’re local- they’re great at running a class for multiple levels, giving modifications for different stretches or choreography depending on ability, etc. Everyone there has been really kind and I am going to continue to dance there in the fall. I actually tried a ballet class this week and based on how my ankles felt (read: weak and bad!!!), I am going to do that all year as well.

• As I mentioned last time, my thigh tattoo is finished! Here’s Chernabog in all his glory.

  

• I did finally get out canoeing a couple weeks ago, which was lovely. At the end there was a great-horned owl just hanging out in a tree not far from the dock. So neat. Still need to do more of that, but have been doing quite a bit of walking around the property and just sitting and watching the birds since there have been so many low humidity days, and spending time outside always feels great.

• Grammy turned 88 last month, and while we were at the nursing home where she is still in rehab for a little mini birthday get-together in one of the small dining rooms they have, I found out that a friend works there. He actually mentioned that how he got started there was that he and our other friend had looked at upwards of 20 different options for her mother and ended up choosing where Grammy is now, so…I am cautiously optimistic that maybe we can convince dad and Grammy that this is a good fit for a permanent placement. It just feels so much safer than her being home alone.

  • Sike. Since I started writing this, she fell again and was hospitalized for most of this week. She’s back at the nursing home as of yesterday. I’m really not sure what you do when a person doesn’t seem to be able to accept that they just cannot walk on their own anymore and even living somewhere with supervision isn’t keeping them safe :(

• After 9 years, I am no longer a member of the board of the Norton Singers. There’s too much going on between the above familial duties and the other nonprofits I volunteer with, so I made the decision to step back. There have been a lot of new folks joining in the last number of months and I think there’s plenty of energy there to keep the group moving forward.

• I had my yearly physical, is that exciting? My bloodwork is all happy and fine except for my liver so I’m getting back in with my gastroenterologist to check and make sure my disease-formerly-known-as-NAFLD isn’t getting worse.

• I’m trying to do more stuff that’s not online, which has included crocheting (sort of…I am basically just adding onto a tube that a friend started for me as every time I think about starting one of the kits I have I get intimidated) and continuing to work on Spanish and refresh my French (Duolingo can go to hell with all the AI crap, but it does keep me consistent). I really want to learn ASL (I know the alphabet, but not much else); does anyone local know of in person classes I could go to?

• Finally, please enjoy these photos of my cats. I hope they bring folks smiles; it seems like every time I unblock Facebook to check business hours of the local ice cream place or whatever, I see that another beloved pet has been lost or is terminally ill. I’m so sorry for everyone who’s been through that lately.

On the one hand, that’s nice, because we always take this week off since Sam’s birthday is on the 5th. On the other, where is this year going exactly?

June was a busy month, which I started up in Maine babysitting my incredible niece (who is somehow turning FOUR in a couple of months!). She really gave me a run for my money, but we had a great time…even if my sister forgot to tell me about things like “you can say no to playing the ‘Trapped’ game, where she pretends she’s stuck in a cave and you have to rescue her” or “when she says to read her bedtime story “weird” she means switch out the words so she can correct you”. I did learn that I don’t love FireBuds (too much “my friends told me not to do the stupid thing, but I did it anyway, but awww they’re forgiving me”), but I do love SuperKitties. Oh, and I got covered in stickers. 3 and a half is a fun age :)

The second week of the month, I had an offsite in Boston. My new employee came up from Maryland even though it was only her second week, it was awesome to spend time with her (and the existing team) and to get the in-depth training on our newer product that I’d really been wanting.

Unfortunately, on Tuesday morning that week, my dad texted that Grammy had fallen (again). This time she’d hurt herself pretty seriously and was taken to Brockton Hospital via ambulance, where they found a teardrop fracture in her neck that required a C6/C7 fusion. She spent a few days there before they decided that with her risk level she should be in Boston to have it done, so she was transferred up to Tufts and had the surgery on Friday. It went well, Dad and I visited that night (which resulted in a hilarious game of “how do we get into this damn building/up to her room” because it was right on the edge of visiting hours, but I mean, they told us to come!) she spent a few days there, then was transferred to Life Care Center right down the street from my dad.

May is the time of town meeting. It’s a relatively archaic form of direct democracy that’s common in New England, which I grew up with in West Bridgewater. Despite being a town of almost 20,000, Norton still holds them. A few years ago some folks attempted to get a charter change through to move us to a town council, since turnout to town meeting is routinely <1% of registered voters, but that failed at the ballot (with 1775 votes against the change, which is a number I never have and never will see show up to town meeting…but I digress).

Town meeting’s big item is always the budget, though truth be told nobody ever asks questions about it as most who care get their input in with the various boards in the preceding months, and then there are always a few articles that get interesting. The surprise one this time around was reorganizing our zoning bylaws. That passed a normal vote and a standing vote, then went to a secret ballot, which added half an hour or so to the proceedings, where it eventually failed. It was the usual “they’re trying to sneak things by us!”, because a few small changes had been made; none that the main objector voiced concerned me, but he convinced enough people, clearly. I wasn’t intending to speak on that one, but did, as I figure it’s important to stand up when people suggest that elected volunteers are conspiring against the public.

An article trying to run sewer down to an extremely contaminated superfund site so it could be cleaned up and developed did not pass, which didn’t surprise me because there are a few very vocal residents who opposed it. The town will therefore lose a $3.5m MassWorks grant that we were granted in 2023. Imagine living on a street with a highly contaminated abandoned factory, complaining about the budget all the time and how we MUSTN’T raise taxes to do anything about it, then letting three and a half million dollars go down the drain. Couldn’t be me.

But now we come to the Good News portion of this letter: WE PASSED REZONING TO COMPLY WITH THE MBTA COMMUNITIES ACT! This was a long fight, with many community events (that few attended), and the usual scaremongering “do we want to become Brockton” anti-multifamily nonsense, but it won. I should note that it did so because it only needed a simple majority (it almost had 2/3, but not quite), where the other articles I’ve mentioned here also had a majority but required 2/3. This was sort of a best-case scenario: 2 areas rezoned in different parts of town (to split any potential impact to the schools across the 2 elementary schools) that are already multifamily, so they would be redeveloped if anything. And now, we’re still eligible for state grants, and won’t get sued by the AG! An incredible win, honestly, and a reminder that when folks turn up, we can make real change.

Well, it’s been a while since I asked you all for your info so I could stay in touch, and in typical Me fashion, I have completely failed to follow up until now. The Reader’s Digest version is that life got busy; work’s been bonkers as I’m still working on hiring, my last remaining grandparent has been in iffy health, I‘m on 15 bajillion boards/councils/whatever, and the last, oh, I don’t know, 100-ish days have been stressful for all the reasons that I’m sure you can imagine.

Things are overall okay, though. I mean, it’s easier to feel that way when the weather’s nice and all the migratory birds are back. Most evenings, if I don’t have any commitments, I’ve just been going and sitting in our woods or on the dock, taking in the sunshine and the birdsong and the sound of fucking leafblowers or whatever but you know, everything can’t be perfect all the time, okay. If you’re interested in what’s out there, you can check out my eBird profile and checklists, and if you’re local, you’re welcome to reach out if you want to stop by sometime to do some birding. We’re still being Covid cautious, especially because of Grammy’s health, but nicer weather means it’s easier to socialize outside and be less worried about that.

Pets-wise, Pepper has continued to recover from her ITP; a few months ago she had some tummyaches from one of her meds, but pausing it for 24 hours helped. It’s the last one that she’s on and if her platelets stay good for the next couple of months, we might be able to take her off of it and see how she does. We’re down to two inside birds, as Polly finally went back to his owner, and the chickens have been good minus one having a mild prolapse last month. But this time we caught it early enough and after a few days indoors on a calcium supplement, knocking on all available wood, she has been fine. The cats are also good, minus Romeo horking up a hairball that was literally the size of a hot dog despite my having thought I’d done a great job of deshedding him. I swear with his undercoat he’s gotta be part husky.

Personally speaking, I started work on my second tattoo in early February, and got more done about a week ago; it’ll be finished up in July. It is a thigh piece and WOW does it hurt, which I did not expect since my forearm didn’t at all. I also gave the keynote at Wheaton’s second annual Networks for Change mini-conference, which felt completely surreal to be asked to do. It went well, though, and I’m really glad that I did it. It’s sort of become my personal mission to get Wheaton and Norton to be friendlier with each other and this very much felt in service of that goal.