Solar eclipse: my traveling astronomer

Zoë went with Olivia and Suzette, Olivia's mom, to Reno Sunday to see the full ring effect (Sacramento is too far south). We created a cool 6' long by 1' square viewing device to supplement her telescope and dark glasses, and she spent the day up in the Sierras.

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Between yesterday morning and this afternoon the chain link fence on our side yard has been replaced with a beautiful redwood 6' privacy fence. The space between the two trees is in shade all day, with a wonderful breeze coming up from the bottom of the hill. The last time we used it for anything was maybe 13 years ago, when Zoë's sandbox lived there...hidden behind a big deck,  a jungle of container plants and low-growing redwood branches.

I've spent a lot of time going through the pantry and kitchen cabinets, simplifying and organizing. Zoë and I do not need 30 mason jars, or decorative orderve toothpicks, or a candle snuffer, or four different kinds of leather treatment creams-- or a lot of the other effluvia we've just gotten used to being crammed into the forgotten recesses of a drawer or deep shelf.

While I'm organizing the kitchen, this office looks like an Office Depot supply truck crashed through the window and exploded, spraying cameras, computer equipment, cables and papers everywhere. In some ways, life here at the house is pretty simple--but underneath there's still a lot of chaos left over from everything we've dealt with the last few months.

Need to do a lot of things to get ready for Peg's memorial next weekend. Seems easier somehow to completely redo the yard and the kitchen.