Tues. May 5, 2026: The Weekend Fuels the Week
image courtesy of Ana Paula Feriani from Pixabay Tuesday, May 5, 2026
Waning Moon
Sunny and pleasant
Our last day of no retrogrades until sometime next year! It’s been quite the ride.
Friday, I honored the General Strike. At least as far as not going out and spending money and not working for someone else. I trotted down to the post office to mail a few things right after breakfast. Leaving the house without a coat was not my smartest move. But whatever.
Switched out the winter curtains for the lace panels on the two large front windows, the two large windows in my office, my bedroom, the front door, and the door to the porch. Switched the heavy kitchen curtains for the sheer roses on white, and the thick fleece panel at the back door for a sheer curtain that allows one to see the newly wallpapered door. It was a lot of climbing and moving things and swearing. But it looks good and lets in so much more light. I also switched the plain white twinkle lights around the living room window for a set of tiki lights that were originally bought for an event on Cape, and, for some reason, that box made it out here. But they are festive and fun.
My bad hip was very unhappy by the end of it. The chairs in Studio 9 look good, but were uncomfortable. My bad hip took umbrage almost immediately on Thursday night, and the good hip got grumbly soon after. Even though I stretched them both out in yoga Thursday night and Friday morning, I had trouble all day Friday.
I don’t like blackout curtains for myself, and don’t use them at any time of year.
Once the curtains were switched out, it was time to take the fleece off the furniture and replace it with yoga blankets. Then it was time to switch out the fabric on the tables, etc., in the living room and the kitchen. I didn’t get the coffee table done yet, or the table in my office.
After lunch, I put the tuna steak in the teriyaki marinade, and turned it every hour.
I set the outdoor rugs on the back balcony, positioned the bench, the bistro table and chairs, and the small red side table. It was still too cold to put out the plants, but I put up the birdbath (and filled it) and the wind chimes. And it was too cold to set up the folding tables on the porch and put the seedlings back out. But I did as much as I could, hoping I could do more as the weekend progressed. And I’ll keep adding fun stuff and hanging baskets over the coming weeks, until it’s fully an enchanted garden out there.
The marinaded tuna was so good! I would definitely make that again. I made mashed potatoes and steamed some vegetables to go with it.
Got dressed in Real People Clothes, slapped a pain patch on my hip, and walked down to First Friday. Stopped at the opening of the Future Labs show to support my colleagues and catch up with a few people. Popped next door to Installation Space, where I caught up with some cohort colleagues.
Even with the pain patch, I was in pain, so I came home pretty quickly and recovered on the sofa (prepped for summer) with Bea. I considered keeping the pain patch on overnight, but one is only supposed to have it on for 8 hours max, and I had it on for 3, so I took it off. I rolled out the hip on my foam roller before bedtime, which helped. If I use the same thing, it stops working, but if I switch things up between the foam roller, the acupressure mat, yoga stretches, rolling on the tennis ball, it seems to work better. When I eventually get a doctor’s appointment, I’ll see if there’s something else we can do.
I finally settled to take a look at the Kentucky Derby entrants, and was extremely angry that 24 horses were entered. It was bad enough when the field was expanded to 20, but 24? That’s putting every horse and jockey in the race in even more danger than the usual racing danger. The greed and hubris is out of control. Not surprising in 2026, but still.
Slept well, woke up to rain on Saturday. The hip was still sore, but more discomfort than pain. The morning routine was fine.
After breakfast, I headed out in the rain. First to Big Y, to pick up what I’d forgotten on Thursday. Then to the Farmers’ Market. I managed a parking spot in the nearest lot and was second in line, a few minutes before opening. By the time the opening bell, rang, there was quite the line.
I got my eggs from my favorite egg vendor, and stopped at Cricket Creek’s stall for some cheese for my mom. They have soap now, so at some point in the summer, I will have to try some. And I got a cranberry pecan sourdough bread from a baker.
Headed home, having taken care of everything in 45 minutes.
Checked the Derby field – 5 scratches by 10 AM, which was a good sign. Sorry to see The Puma was one of them, due to leg swelling, but better safe than sorry. Renegade was the favorite. An old friend was up on So Happy. I’m acquainted with the rider of Further Ado, and Gun Runner was Further’s sire, so that was worth a look. I considered Incredibolt as my longshot pick, but until I see them, I don’t like to make a decision. DRF didn’t post the usual photos/videos with each listing, and I haven’t paid attention over the past few months to the prep races. Digging into some of the horses, I really liked both White Shark and Albus – but not for the Derby. Ocelli – a 70-1 shot, is always tempting to show. When I covered racing, I often placed a show bet on the longest shot on the board, just for fun (and once won $350 on a $5 bet).
Wrapped up my last category in the contest, wrote the reviews for the winners, chose the finalists, and sent off the scoring sheets. That felt good.
Had the cranberry pecan sourdough bread for lunch, which was quite good. And felt completely wiped out. I did some housework – because there is always housework, but gave myself the rest of the day to not worry about doing stuff.
I didn’t do much in the afternoon, although I made banana cream pudding and put a turkey meatloaf into the oven. The meatloaf turned out perfectly, and the pudding was good.
Golden Tempo won the Kentucky Derby, a 23-1 shot, with the first female trainer, Cherie Devaux, to win the Derby. Woo-hoo! My pal Great White was scratched at the gate for bucking his jockey off, which, I’m sorry, just made me laugh, although all the horses had to be unloaded and reloaded into the gate. I later heard the horse had fallen in the gate, which was more concerning, but he’s not injured. (I felt guilty for my earlier amusement, though). Renegade, the favorite, came in second. And Ocelli, the 70-1, came in third. Had I bet on him, I would have gotten some cash. (I didn’t bet on anyone, I’m not doing online betting).
Get this: the NEW YORK TIMES got the winner’s name wrong. The effing NY TIMES likely used AI and said “Golden Temple” won the Derby in the live updates. There was no horse named “Golden Temple” in the race. The winner was Golden TEMPO. Get a clue, people. This is your JOB. You can at least get the effing name right. This kind of mistake by the NEW YORK TIMES is not okay. It’s not surprising, considering what unreliable bootlickers they’ve become, but it’s not okay. If you can’t trust them to get a horse’s name right, you can’t trust them on anything else, either.
But we knew that, already, as soon as they hired a climate change denier as a staff writer.
Assholes.
Up at the normal time on Sunday. I baked Nutella rolls, which is a cinnamon roll pastry, but instead of the cinnamon filling, I used a jar of Nutella. I need to find a better way to roll it tightly, but it rose well, baked well, and was very yummy. Took longer than I hoped though, with all the mixing and the kneading, and two rises.
I did the Community Tarot Reading for the week, which you can read here. We’ve switched to The Forager’s Daughter deck, which is so beautiful.
In the late morning, I attempted another omlette, wanting to eat something before I left for the show. It turned out PERFECTLY! I was so proud of myself. It was fluffy, the filling was just at the perfect temperature, I got the foldy bit almost right. I was so happy. And, it was delicious. Using the right pan made a big difference, as did following Elizabeth David’s instructions, in my favorite of her books, AN OMLETTE AND A GLASS OF WINE.
I did not have a glass of wine, since I was driving.
Pulled on a dress, some accessories, slapped on some makeup, and got into the car. It was raining a little when I left, so I was happy for my new windshield wipers. Pittsfield wasn’t fun to drive through, but once I did the turn onto South Street, it wasn’t bad down 7 all the way to the turnoff for Lenox. The season hasn’t started, so there wasn’t much traffic in Lenox, and I got down to Shakespeare & Co. without a problem. Parked near the Bernstein Theatre, checked in, hung out with some of my colleagues until the house opened. Some people I’d met at WAM’s event in North Adams a few weeks ago were there, and it was nice to catch up with them.
The show itself was so beautiful. Nora Marlow Smith’s treehouse set was absolutely gorgeous, and Madeline Hebert’s lighting design was terrific. David Lane’s puppets were delightfully whimsical. Stella Schwartz’s costumes supported the stories and characters beautifully. Marcy McGuigan, Jennie M. Jadow, and Mel MacQuarrie were lovely in their roles, and Maggie Mancinelli-Cahill’s direction flowed well.
I was already a fan of this play, by Deborah Zoe Laufer, when I saw WAM’s reading at Ventfort Hall last summer, and it was delightful to see how it blossomed into a full production (no pun intended, since plants are so central to the play).
It was a truly lovely experience in the theatre, and I’m so glad I’ve been part of the team advocating for this script. I was invited to stay after the performance and lift a glass with the company, which I did, and came away with a small spider plant (there were plants up for grabs in the lobby from the previous night’s plant swap event). They were going on to have drinks and hang out at Dr. Sax House in Lenox (owned by a board member), but I needed to get home.
It was sunny and lovely driving back, a really nice stretch. Being a Sunday afternoon out of season, there wasn’t much traffic, and even Pittsfield wasn’t all that bad.
I stopped at Adams Fresh Market and picked up an apple pie, then stopped again on the way home for gas. I was only down by a quarter of a tank (three quarters left), but since we don’t know how high gas prices will go, or if there’s going to be a gas shortage this summer, I topped it up (for the same price that used to fill half the tank). I generally fill it when I hit half a tank, because I hate getting low. I’ve been driving on this quarter tank since the end of March, when I filled it up after getting my light fixed. Walking to as much as I can when I don’t have a lot to carry makes a difference.
Home, peeled off the party clothes, put on comfy clothes, cooked dinner, and then just. . .relaxed. There was nothing else hanging over me that night. There was plenty of coulds/shoulds, but no “have tos.” So I hung out with cats.
Monday morning was cool, but sunny. Up at the usual time, morning routine was fine. I’m adding the deck to the routine after breakfast for the season, where I change the water in the hanging birdbath, and, once the plants go out, I’ll see if anything needs to be watered.
I sent off the invoice for the contest, wrote checks for the remaining bills for the month, and trotted down to the post office to mail them. It was lovely out, just a soft spring morning.
Okay, a little pollen-y, and I was a little sneezy at times, but overall, terrific.
Got home, did some admin work, and joined the Feminist Writing Community session. Once Hampshire College closes, I’m not sure what will happen.
But yesterday’s session gave me structured writing time to work on BETTING MAN. I got about 1200 words done on it, slowed down because I hadn’t done enough research ahead of time. I was writing a polo match in this chapter, and it’s been a minute (quite a few years) since I attended one, so I had to refresh my memory.
Had my lunch break, caught up on some email, did the day’s marketing, and posted the tarot reading where necessary. The invoice I sent earlier that morning was paid by lunch time, which just made me happy.
Dug into the ghostwriting in the afternoon. I was slower than I would have liked due to the research needs of that, too.
While I feel for the employees of Spirit Airlines who lost their jobs, can we stop romanticizing the airline? They were crap. Yeah, cheap, but horrid to deal with. I flew them once, to visit horse racing friends in Florida, and it was the worst flying experience of my life. I swore I would never fly them again, and I never did. And Delta refusing to serve snacks and beverages on flights under 350 miles isn’t “recession” – it’s greed. They can afford it. Cut back on the CEO’s obscene salary and you can fund snacks for 40 years. But airline passengers are such sheep that they will just put up with mistreatment rather than pull their money out of the industry until it changes. No more industry bailouts when billionaires are getting tax cuts.
Don’t even get me started on the Met Gala. The fact that Anna Wintour brought on the Trash Billionaire Couple as chairs doesn’t elevate them. It tarnishes what she spent decades building. No, I didn’t watch. I never do. The whole event has made me queasy for years, because it’s about rich people showing off, not genuinely supporting the art of fashion.
On a happier note, I was thrilled that Bess Wohl won the Pulitzer for her play LIBERATION. I’m happy both because the play deserved the recognition and it certainly will have an impact when WAM produces her play CAMP SIEGFRIED later this season.
Heated up leftovers, enjoyed some quiet time on the porch, and then went back to the ghostwriting. Didn’t get quite where I hoped to be by the end of the night, but I’m close. It has to be done by tomorrow no matter what, so it has to get done.
Much as I didn’t want to order anything from Botanical Interests because they lied about their catalogue, they do have the one kind of cat grass my monsters like, so I bought 3 large packets of that, and my favorite deep purple nasturtiums. Much, much less than I usually buy from them in a season. Those seeds arrived today. So, as the planting days roll through over the next few weeks, I have a lot to plant, between the seeds from different companies.
I hope by tomorrow, I can start putting things out on the front porch. I will wait out back until Friday, I think, because night temperatures are still dipping into the 30’s.
This morning, I was up at the usual time. Morning routine was fine. It’s supposed to be in the high 70’s today. I will put a meal in the crockpot after breakfast. We hope to run an errand this morning (maybe several) in the car. Depending on how long that takes, I hope to get some work done on BETTING MAN before switching over to the ghostwriting. I hope to get a lot done before I head out to yoga.
Hope your week has had a good start!
#cooking #farmerSMarket #freelance #health #housework #theatre #worldEvents #writing
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