.

first, rip, pope francis. i always kinda liked him and thought he was reasonably progressive, for a pope. he legitimately always seemed like a genuinely decent guy.

second, pete hegseth was caught sharing classified military information in yet another signal chat, this time with his wife and his brother (among other people). because he is a dumbass who has no idea how to do his job. and! kristi noem, the head of homeland security, had her purse stolen at a restaurant - very secure there, ms noem - and said purse had inside it such things as her apartment keys (makes sense), her makeup bag (also makes sense), her passport (could conceivably make sense), and, er, $3000. in cash. which seems like the kind of money you carry around if you want to make a big purchase that you don't want anyone to be able to track. my question is: how did someone get close enough to her purse to steal it? she has secret service with her. we really are living in the stupidest timeline, seriously.

in happier news, i had today off on account of patriots day, which is marathon monday and also celebrates the battle of lexington which kicked off the revolutionary war. (reenactors gather on lexington green at ass o'clock in the morning to reenact the battle which i think is both really cool and kinda nuts.) the only states that celebrate are mass and maine. and it was mostly a nice day, even! i got a late start (partly because tamalinn called me before i could bestir myself out of the house, and then i had to tell her about sinners and try to figure out what besides black panther michael b jordan was in that she might have seen) and went to the diesel and had breakfast for lunch and wrote a bunch, most of it for a random thing that i don't know what to do with. i had to exorcise a scene out of my head, i guess. but it was productive! which is always good.

Yesterday it was still January and I drove home
and the roads were wet and the fields were wet
and a palette knife

had spread a slab of dark blue forestry across the hill.
A splashed white van appeared from a side road
then turned off and I drove on into the drab morning

which was mudded and plain and there was a kind of weary happiness
that nothing was trying to be anything much and nothing
was being suggested. I don’t know how else to explain

the calm of this grey wetness with hardly a glimmer of light or life,
only my car tyres swishing the lying water,
and the crows balanced and rocking on the windy lines.

--Kerry Hardie, "Acceptance"