Ta-Nehisi Coates, when he was in his U.S. Civil War phase (he appears to have moved on to Jane Austen and King Lear now) mention that he thought it was important for Black people to study Civil War history. I’m sure many do, but I was never one of them. And even now I don’t have much interest in studying the battles and such, though of course they were important. Not to say that is what Ta-Nehisi concentrated on — he also studied the people, and in a way that made you want to read about them.

I am not sure that I am ready yet to completely focus on this part of history — I still have more to go on the pre-Civil War stuff — but when I do, I’m pretty sure that my focus will be a bit different. For one thing, I am more interested in the women of the times, and what happened with them. Can’t study the women without studying the men, of course, but not on the same way.

Anyway, I need to structure my time better so that I have more time to do what I like to do, and what I need to do.

Plus, I’ve been meaning to put various things I’ve come across in doing research for my book on there, so I’m trying to get that together, too.

I have BuddyPress installed, and have upgraded the site itself to the 3.1, but have not enabled multisite yet. I think I will, though, because on another project I am working with both of those things — BuddyPress and multisite — so I may as well get as familiar with them as I can.

All this means, of course, that once again this place might begin to feel a little neglected — but maybe not. I don’t feel any obligation to write anything special here, or couch it any particular way, or even use correct grammar — it’s just for writing whatever is in my head at the moment, so that works.

I wish they could just stay puppies.

Besides, I have resolved to write something every day, even if it is nattering nonsense. Well, write something here that is, because I did write other things today, but they don’t seem to count even though that was for pay and this is just for me. The other stuff is just to keep the lights on and the keys to the doors in my hand – which is important enough. Little else gets done without those two. Well, and the phone. I have been trying to impress on my granddaughter – as I apparently failed to impress on my daughter – the “poor folks bill paying priorities.” Rent first, then gas and lights, food (if there are children in the house), then phone and whatever is left can be used for clothes and other items. Saving money is in there somewhere, too, but even that is difficult to do until after the basics are taken care of.

She remembers all that now; I just hope the lesson is still rattling around in her head somewhere when she is out on her own.  She’s pretty responsible, if a little dingbatty sometimes, so I think it will be.

My oldest grandson is pretty cool, too. He came and walked me home from the store today, because while I was on my way to the store I almost had a heart attack. Or, at least I thought I was going to. See… there was this dog. Well, two dogs – I don’t know the breed but they looked kinda like Lassie – a collie, I think she was. Shorter hair, but the same markings and long snouts, about the same height, I guess, but wider and very muscular, like pit bulls. And short tails – I looked, because when one of them came bounding across the street toward me I was so hoping to see a wagging tail. But it wasn’t there. Anyway, there it came at a dead run, right at me – and there was nowhere to hide! The dog reached me and first circled around me and then started jumping at me – but not aggressively or anything, just… well I don’t know what it was doing. I was wearing a puffy black and white jacket so maybe it thought I was a cow and was trying to herd me. Who knows. Still, I stood there, petrified, whispering something like “N-n-nice doggie. Nice doggie.”  I even tried to flag down a passing truck, pointing at the jumping creature and mouthing, “Help! There is a dog. Don’t you see? It’s a DOG! And it’s jumping on me!”

It’s possible the man just thought I was crazy having an episode, or trying to get me and “my” dog into his truck to do him harm or something, because he floored it. Obviously he had no idea the terror those three little letters, d-o-g, hold for me. But my grandson did, so when I called (after the dog had gone and I had tottered into the mall, then gone to another store) he came trotting along to provide protection. Because no way was I going back down that same street by myself. He’s only 14 but taller than me, and most important, not afraid of dogs. Of which, of course, by this time there was no sign. He and my granddaughter (also not afraid of dogs) had a good laugh when I told them what had happened, after I was safely in the house.

So. That was my excitement for the day.

[edited to (hopefully) remove ableist language. ]

Since I always need a distraction, even from my distractions, I’m also going to be seeking out and gathering together resources. History stuff, writing, anything else that catches my fancy, and filling in some pages here and at thebookoflouis.com (which I really need to work on, too.)

Of course I will have ideas that pop up as soon as I start that, but I need to learn to make better use of pen and paper (and of my editorial calendar and its draft function) so that the ideas are still there waiting for when I get to them.

Anyway…  off to commune with rubber gloves and dust bunnies.

[graphic from Exploding Dog]

I know what they mean, and the whale was sick and all that… but still, that’s like saying death row prisoners in Utah (or wherever that is they have firing squads) are “euthanized with bullets”.