Poison Oak...

...is so prevalent in the hills around here and I react very badly to it , so I'm always on guard for it. However, Spike isn't and if he gets the oil on his coat, I get it from him. It's looking very pretty this time of year, but it is just as deadly in the winter when the leaves have fallen off and it is nothing but sticks. I no longer spend much time thrashing around in the undergrowth on what John used to call 'bushwaking' or 'shortcuts'. These diversions were usually neither because we'd get lost and wind up going twice as far to find our way back to a trail, but it was the cases of poison oak I got on these adventures that made me put my foot down and refuse to go off piste....The rash is almost like a burn only it itches insanely. John doesn't seem to be very sensitive to it.

Lots of muscles I'd forgotten I had were protesting this morning as a result of my gardening efforts yesterday so we decided on the Spike Walk again this morning. I'd rather climb and descend that hill  which I figure is just as good a workout for hamstrings, quads and glutes as squats and lunges. The temperatures are expected to drop tomorrow and bring rain on Saturday so this seemed like a good day for it.

Reading about all the campus protests against the war in Gaza I  couldn't help but notice the similarities to my own college days where the Free Speech Movement was born at UC Berkeley and moved on to huge protests against the Vietnam War. Today's GenZ is often portrayed as the first social generation to have grown up with access to the internet and digital technology. But they are also facing the ongoing effects of Donald Trump, the failure to move fast enough on environmental issues, the growing income gap, astronomical college tuition, racial and gender inequality and police violence and the return of the cold war as well as our involvement in the conflict in Gaza. No wonder they are so pissed off. I don't blame them if they feel that nobody is listening to them. I don't blame them for being angry that commencement speakers and even graduation ceremonies are being  cancelled, 'for their safety.' They are not children, they are young adults, many on their own for the first time and grappling with a stunning array of examples of our neglect and ineptitude. They should be allowed to speak their minds and feel that someone is listening to them....

It all feels very familiar....