Finished listening to The Best Strangers in the World by Ari Shapiro. Ari was host of All Things Considered on National Public Radio until last year. Which isn't why I listened to the book. I listened because after googling his name, I discovered this Ari Shapiro was the same Ari Shapiro I had babysitted (along with his brothers)! I still remember his very pregnant mom sitting in the grass with us neighborhood kids asking us what kind of nicknames kids would use if she named the new baby Ari. His parents were so kind and smart, and oh, how I wished they were my parents. When I listened to the book and learned of the outdoor adventures their family went on, I would have fit in well with that family, unlike my own who never did outdoor or athletic things and didn't understand my energy and did nothing to nurture our intelligence and interests. Oh well. You don't get to chose your parents.

Last evening I leveled the raised bed frame, loosened up the dirt a little bit inside the frame with the garden fork and then emptied the dirt I had picked up Monday evening into the raised bed. Then went and got some more dirt and emptied those containers into the raised garden. And added some store-bought mix. It's about half full now. I'll have to make at least one more trip to pick up dirt. Ugh. I don't think I'll fill it to the top though, so I'll have room to add another layer next year. Also filled the half barrels with new potting soil and wetted that down. I'll plant those today with what I have so far, hopefully.

Honey expects me to help him sign up for Medicare this weekend, or get a card or some such thing. Great. Just what I wanted to do this weekend. More paperwork.

I forgot to write about American Idol yesterday. Haven't watched it in decades, but had flipped through antenna TV and listened to the last 30 minutes of the finale for lack of anything else to watch. When did it become a christian music singing competition?

And speaking of TV, Netflix had gotten too expensive ($20/mo for non-ad streaming) so I switched to a subscription with ads. And OMG! I've had other streaming subscriptions with ads, but Netflix is THE WORST!! Lots of ads placed in weird places, not between scenes. Lots of ads. I decided to keep my Amazon membership because the streaming has ads (but nothing like Netflix) and it is cheaper for the membership than subscribing just to Amazon streaming. I HATE contributing to that sleazebag Bezos though.

Finally slept the entire night. I guess this is my new normal, 6 days of waking throughout the night and 1 night of catch-up sleep.

As someone who doesn't do Facebook or Insta or any of the other socials, I found this comic today relatable.