16 SEP 25

Head popping with seasonal allergies... all that pollen stacked through a chunk of the Midwest bristling in drought...

Oxbear calls for morning updates ending his day across the Pacific... Patience decides to spin him a somewhat specific fiction for a little flavor in the conversation... “Puck got a girlfriend yesterday... her name is Deborah Jinx and she has lots of nose piercings... he takes her out to eat because he's very 'gentlemany' and now he has only a dollar left... he took her to Tetris...” // “Tetris?... Ted Drewes?” // “Yes! Ted Drewes... and he invites her over like 24/7 and I'm kind of getting sick of it”...

Classes largely conclude after lunch... Yali and Patience tumble back outdoors for three hours across a swathe of mostly dead lawn... sitting in large storage boxes filled with cold hose water where they recreate sinking ships... there's a mild air quality alert from fires out West but... the world is always at least a little bit on fire someplace...