Weather in the Tries:

According to my phone, the next week the highs will be in the 50s dropping into the 40s. Today, Monday will be 71. The lows wll be in the 40s and 30s with one day, next Monday, at 29. Yep, Fall has done fell! Ka-Booom!! Of course, the weather is always subject to change at a moment’s notice. 

Some things of possible interest…

I think I’ve mentioned before that I subscribe to Jerry Coyne’s blogs. He publishes several a day, I tend to read the Hili Dialog when it comes first thing in the morning, and the Caturday Trifecta every CSaturday. Jerry is a cat lover, and a duck lover, and a scientist, and is extremely prolific. This past Caturday part of the Trifecta was a story from Spoon & Tamago, a blog about Japan, and the story Tan Yamanouchi’s New House Speaks to His Cats’ Desires. 

I went to the website and was delighted with the story of Tan Yamanouchi, an architect who designed and built his family home to accommodate their two cats. The photos of the home are great. I had so much fun I started reading other stories, and subscribed to the blog.

Another story that fascinated me is: You’ll Soon Be Able to Stay in One of Japan’s Most Beautifully Designed Prisons .  The architecture of the prison is every bit as interesting as the article. However, I found this paragraph particularly interesting:
Japan incarcerates its citizens at a far lower rate than most developed countries: 37 per 100,000 people compared with 132 in Britain and 629 in America. And the inmate population in Japan has seen a steady decline over the past decade, which helps explain why Nara Prison was shut down in 2017.

I have not done any research on the topic of why we have so many in prison, but my opinion is it is tied to privatizing the prisons and using prisoners/slaves to do the work of the companies who own and operate them. Ah, Capitalism. Ain’t it grand?

Another newsletter I subscribe to is MEDPAGE TODAY. I started reading it during Covid, and though it’s meant for those in the medical field, I can still understand most of the articles, and find several of them fascinating, and always well written. The other day, I found one that I’ve read about now and again over the years, but this one gives us all the good parts.

The ‘PinkTax’ Wake-Up Call for the Healthcare Industry—All genders should have equal access to care. The good news is that (white) women are now earning about $0.82 for every dollar a (white) man makes. That up 4 or 5 cents since I was working for a living. The bad news is Black and Latinx women earn a whole lot less. And yes, medicines and treatments cost women of any color more than men for the same thing. I remember when Washington State removed the sales tax from prescription drugs with the called-out exception of birth control pills. We still had to pay tax to keep from getting pregnant!

It’s a very interesting article. I hope you’ll grab a cuppa and sit for maybe 5 minutes and read it. Frequently the responses are interesting. They are limited to those working in the medical field.

Death Care:

We have finished 5 weeks of our 8. A lot of grief work, and much of that is cross-cultural/race work. Truly fascinating, but I don’t plan on doing a lot of grief care. We have a wonderful system for grief support here in the Tries through Chaplaincy Hospice and their Grief Support Groups. I may be wrong, but I think most of my grief care will come immediately after the death, with some anticipatory grief ahead of it.

One of the videos I watched was Megan Devine on Grief. It’s a 48:12 minute long, and fascinating. She is an excellent speaker. Do a search for her, and look for that video. Or watch a bunch of the shorter ones.

At this point I have no idea how busy I’ll be, if at all. When the class is over, and I know more, I will talk to the kind person who does my Taxes, and a lawyer. Because I plan on doing my work without charge, or minimal if I spend money for my client, do I need to have things like liability insurance? What do I need, what do I not need, do I need to become a business? So many questions, that I’m not quite intelligent enough yet to know what they are and who to ask. 😉

I’ve known for some time that I live in a white bread snowflake town, but didn’t know HOW show white my town is, until I did a little research just to find out. I will try to put the table I made in here. Not sure if I can get it to translate, but                 

Race                   Kenwck     Richland    Benton Cnty    Pasco   FrankCnty

European	60.7%	87.0%	65.0%	38.2%	60.7%
Hispanic	30.9%	7.8%	25.0%	55.1%	53.0%
African	1.8%	1.4%%	2.0%	2.4%	1.9%
Asian	2.4%	4.7%	3.0%	2.1%	2.0%
Native Amer	0.7%	0.8%	0%	—-	0.8%
Other	3.7%	2.62%	1.0%	0.5%
Hawaiian	—-	0.1%	2.0%	0.5%	0.8%
Multi	—-	7.18%	—-	—-	29.8%
Mixed	—-	3.2%	4.0%	1.7%	3.9%
Euro alone,Not Hispanic or Latinx	—-	83.0	83.0%	—-	47.0%

Pasco is one of the Tri-Cities, however it is in Franklin County

These figures come from Kennewick: https://bestneighborhood.org/race-in-kennewick-wa/ , Richland: https://www.biggestuscities.com/demographics/wa/richland-city Benton County: https://censusreporter.org/profiles/05000US53005-benton-county-wa/ Pasco: https://statisticalatlas.com/place/Washington/Pasco/Race-and-Ethnicity  and Franklin County: https://www.homefacts.com/demographics/Washington/Franklin-County.html

*Pasco is in Franklin County, Kennewick & Richland, and several other small towns are in Benton County/ Kennewick, Richland, and Pasco are 3 cities separated by 3 rivers. (that’s not quite true but darned close. We do have 3 cities and 3 rivers—Yakima, Snake, Columbia.)

Humor:

So, I decided to let my hair grow, but it was thick and needed a trimming and cut to go with the curls and waves. I called a stylist and asked if anyone in the salon enjoyed cutting naturally curly or wavy hair. She said she loved to cut it, so I made an appointment and went in. The first thing, of course, was the shampoo. How I love to have someone wash my hair and give me a head massage at the same time.

Then it was back to the chair where she dried my hair and turned me so I couldn’t see the mirror. Hmmmmmmm… Then she started messing around with something hot and pulling my hair through it. Odd, that. But she clipped and she cut, and gave me more than a trim, and then started messing around with that hot thing again. The end result is here:

I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. I settled for laughter. She was worried I might not like it, but if I’ve learned nothing else in the last 8 decades of my life, is it’s only hair, and it will grow out, and a shampoo in my own shower helps a lot. Of course, wearing headphones didn’t help, they took away my cute winglets. So, the next morning I got up, took a shower, and played with it myself. I don’t have all the curls in back that I had, but I think some more of the extra hold gel will help with that. And a spritz or two of pink and or purple and voila, the next day:

From the Paws of the Big Chihuahua:

It’s Fall. It’s turning cold.  I’m busy. I’m napping. Naps are good. Either nap with me or go away.