June 22

June 22. Happy Birthday, nephew Theo. In one year you will have been a prime half your life. It will happen again in three years, but after this the primes get more spread out. Why, I won’t be prime for 4 more years yet , and then I won’t be prime again until 4 years after that. In the next 8 years of my life, imagine what will happen. On the optimistic side: Sustainable economics? Peace in the middle east? Fungus Revolution? Grandpa Dan will likely be knocking on the door of 70. Great Granny, 90. On the other hand, what new pestilence and diseases will we face? What will climate change bring about? Which animal and plant species will be gone forever? Which genocide of your young lifetime will go down as the worst?

Back on the upside, it’s summer now, and our hemisphere is bathed in sunlight. My garden at the school—that is to say, our gardening club’s garden—includes corn and sunflowers, beans, a few whispers of life left in a bunch of strawberry starts, parsley, beets, radishes, pumpkins, cucumbers, zucchinis, cantaloupes, basil, tomatoes, parsley, carrots, and dill. I’m trying to sprout some potatoes to put in there, and we have some other plants waiting for some corn and sunflower shade.

The Reader, what a great book. Thanks for the window into Germany, Judge Schlink, and into the human experience.

Becoming Texan

Becoming Texan is easy. All you do is move to the state, and it's required by law to become Texan within 30 days. Becoming Texan means getting a Texas driver's license. Actually, who knows what the real law is? And what about people who don't need a driver's license? And maybe it's 90 days. The thing is, my information is from the dmv and not the lawbooks. Of course there is an ambiguity, as "Texan" could mean someone originally from Texas, like I am an Idahoan, or, on the other hand, someone who resides in Texas.

Aside from that law or faux-law, once you get here, there aren't that many laws. You can shoot people, or drive on the median if you want. And they voted recently to discount all the violations caught by traffic cameras in Harris County, because traffic cameras aren't cops, and we don't need laws to make good choices at intersections. But after living near the beltway for the duration of one year and ten days, I have seen with my eyes, while I am driving, more accidents happen here than I have in the rest of my life put together.

I would like to add some photos, but this blog isn't big enough for Texas-sized photos.

Yee haw.