Mahtin's Blog

(untitled)

So...It's been a month since I was last at the farm, I think. Chris was sick, really, sick, this month. He had West Nile (2nd case in his county) and meningitis. He was admitted to the hospital on the day they figured out about the meningitis, and his fever went right down, thankfully. But man, it took a long time for him to get any help. And he didn't have a phone, and Shelley's phone ran out of minutes during that time, so there was no way to get the latest news about him-- until he was in the hospital and had a phone there.

There was a crazy heat wave in July-- on one day, it was 103 outside and Chris's temperature was 104. Jeez.

Herman said that the beans are dying, because there is too much boron in the water (corrected this from soil to water). Fava beans and peas can grow ok with the boron, but not things like green beans (aww!) or cow peas (yucky).

Last Sunday Z and I went to bring our compost to the community garden. I ended up staying there for 6 hours, with a brief break for lunch. I worked on the compost. Worked and worked and worked. And I looked at the duckies a lot. Apparently the time I went over and it seemed like there was only 1 duck, the mama must have been sitting on her eggs. Folks say that she hatched 12, and (as of Sunday) 6 survived. Paul brought over a generator and a pump, and we pumped water out of their swimming ponds so we'd be able to give them clean water to swim in and drink. I'm extra-worried about the mosquito question now (well, i always was), but giving them fresh water probably doesn't do much to help with that problem. Those little duckies are so cute!

I gave tours to some people, and I was so negative...I feel bad, but then again, I don't.

Since I hadn't planned on hanging out at the garden for very long, I didn't wear a hat. This was a bad idea. I got probably the worst sunburn of my adult life. I am still peeling.

I'm trying to get a blog at http://www.thepatientsblog.com, but it's hard to get confirmation emails at hotmail accounts these days.

I have a wicked g-i bug. I was really freaked out about germs around the house last night, but who knows where it came from.

I started going to the gym again, i think this has been my 4th week. I started lifting last week, and I've been using the rowing machine a few times a week this whole month. It sucks, cuz every time I don't go for a day, I feel really bad about myself, and I miss the exercise. Don't know if I'll be able to go today! I haven't been swimming at all, partly cuz I am doing cardio (machines) to build up endurance, and partly cuz I don't want to get all used to swimming before they close the lap pool for 3 weeks for renovations. I have such a love/hate relationship with the gym, cuz I always pick up terrible germs there.

My other personal update is that my vacuum is no longer usable, so I am still trying to decide if/how/when to go out of business.

posted by mahtin @ 3:26 PM

Nationalism is so interesting

As you may know, if Brandeis had had a major in Cuban Studies, I would have at least qualified for a minor, based on the number of classes related to Cuba that I took.

This thing about Fidel being sick and giving power over to his brother makes me sick. The guy is 80 years old, let him go! And it doesn't make sense to replace him with a 75 year-old. I hate this thing where people sacrifice their bodies for a long-term cause- it just doesn't make sense. Especially when there are tons of other people who could take over as president of cuba. I remember that when I was in Cuba 9 years ago and I asked who would take over when Fidel dies, people said it would be Carlos Lager. I don't know what the hell ever happened to those plans, cuz now people talk about Raul.

Last night I was watching the news on Univision or whatever channel 14 is. It was so disgusting, they would start to say "El Comandante," and then correct themselves to "El Dictador." The reporters were clearly told in advance what language to use when referring to Fidel. There were thousands of people in the streets of Miami last night, celebrating Fidel's incapacitation. A lot of them were my age or younger. They had never been to Cuba, and all they knew about it was what their parents and the right-wing media had told them. They were not very knowledgable about the country or the political situation. Fucking right-wingers.

Today on Talk of the Nation, they mentioned the idea of people reclaiming their property in Cuba. Gross. But it reminds me of the Palestinian question. Can those people go back and take their houses back? In their case, the houses are often razed to the ground, so there is nothing to go back to. But in Cuba, houses were reclaimed for other uses.

I like to look at things this way: a significant portion of the population must have wanted Fidel to stay in office if he managed to do so for so long. And when he dies, they are not going to be able to go back. I still always go by this expression: "You can never go back."

I want to go when he dies. Take pictures, audio, whatever. Ayudar a defender a la patria, even though I don't believe in patrias exactly.

posted by mahtin @ 11:15 AM