Three days heavy in events and occasions, including my beginning to work through the amazing pile of stuff I’ve accumulated here in Palo Alto, which has to be whittled down to what I can fit into my apartment in an assisted living facility; that’s a long way away, but the task is daunting and will take months (as it did when I moved out of the house in Columbus), and you will be hearing every so often about my puzzlements.
But now Saturday (yesterday), Sunday (today), and Monday (tomorrow). Pride Month continues throughout and that’s a Big Thing in my world. It’s been a long, hard ride, and now we’re facing another round of backlash and reversals, so this is a time for conspicuously joining together, all of us — and, at the same time, being as fabulous as we can.
Saturday June 14th. Flag Day every year, but this year it was also the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army. And then two events set off by our Overlord Grabpussy, who aspires to be the One King To Rule Them All: millions on the streets, all across the country (with supportive demonstrations around the world), marching to declare NO KINGS in a circus of inventive protest signs; while Grabpussy gave himself a military parade for his 79th birthday, the taco birthday (and there’s nothing quite so festive as tanks rolling on the streets of our nation’s capital).
Sunday June 15th. Well, first of all, it’s Father’s Day. Which I detest as a commercial holiday, while I honor my own father (see my “wonderful dad” postings) and try not to think too much about what it would be like to have me as a father.
And then, as so often happens, it’s also Stanford’s Commencement Day (for which my department has a lovely ceremony that tends to make everyone’s eyes well with joy; I’ve been physically unable to manage it for some years now, but it’s in my heart) and also the San Francisco Free Folk Festival (for which I used to help run a Sacred Harp singing session). This year, instead of all that, my daughter and grand-child came to pick out all the books and artworks they wanted for themselves, a surprisingly delightful occasion (which didn’t make much of a dent in the hoard of my possessions) that included the chance for Elizabeth and me to introduce Opal to the delight of the Bull Cook books (see my 5/5/12 posting “Old recipes IV: George Leonard Herter”), so that we fell into taking turns reading favorite sections from the first volume and laughing hysterically.
An excellent use of the day.
Monday June 16th. The date is always Bloomsday ( the day in 1904 on which the events of James Joyce’s Ulysses take place) and two occasions of personal meaning for me: the day in 1962 on which Ann Walcutt Daingerfield and I were married in Princeton NJ; and the day in 1968 on which my man Jacques’s son (my stepson-equivalent) Kit Transue was born. So an auspicious occasion.
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