Here’s something you may not have known: Saturday was National Knit in Public Day. I learned this when we stopped at a restroom on the Detroit Riverwalk and beheld a crowd of about 20 women, chairs pulled into a circle under the shade, needles click-click-clicking away.

“Is this a stitch ‘n’ bitch?” I asked, deploying the entirety of my knit/crochet knowledge in one short sentence.

“We don’t bitch,” one lady said, immediately contradicted by the woman to her right: “Oh yes we do.” But then she added the reason for the gathering: National Knit in Public Day.

The things you learn on a simple bike ride.

It was a lovely day. Hot, but not punishingly so. We pedaled from Belle Isle to the new park on the west riverfront, and back. About a nine-mile loop, nothing fancy, somewhere between a workout and a lark.

It was a good weekend, if you don’t count a brief lie-in on Sunday morning, as I recovered from a stomach issue that became a bowel issue as whatever was bothering me worked its way through the system. A very mild complaint, and the only thing it kept me from was some light housekeeping, so: Win-win.

I’m sick so infrequently I should spent more time being grateful for it. We went to a birthday party/cookout Sunday afternoon, and got to talking about Michigan’s tick problem, which becomes more serious by the year, thanks to climate change, which isn’t happening, of course. We have the common, non-serious ticks, but also the one that gives you Lyme disease, and the alpha-gal tick has been spotted in Berrien County, so look for a big spike in vegans hereabouts. (Alpha-gal syndrome is a comer, the tick-carried affliction that leaves one unable to digest mammalian meat or dairy. For life, as far as we know.)

Alan likes to go fishing up north at this time of year, and any county in northern Michigan is Tick Central; he’s always brushing them off his clothing or sometimes detaching them from his body. Last year he found one that had already grown to the size of a raisin, but it was a common dog tick, whew. He remarked it’s hard to do the taxonomy once they’ve had their fill from one’s bloodstream, but there you go. Michigan problems.

Speaking of things that suck the lifeblood from a person and leave filth behind, after the UFC circus at the White House left me nearly incandescent with loathing for every single person connected with the current administration, I can only say: I hope RFK Jr. gets alpha-gal. I’m surprised he doesn’t have it already.

Anything bad that happens to any of these people is not enough:

"And lastly, Michelle Obama is a man, am I right America?"

Said on a UFC ring on the White House lawn while Joe Rogan holds the mic as it's broadcast on the Ellison controlled Paramount+.

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— Alejandra Caraballo (@esqueer.net) June 14, 2026 at 11:33 PM

Some bloggage:

It’s not just the UFC bullshit that makes them so, either. I won’t even quote a snippet. Gift link; just read.

And now to get to that light housekeeping. Happy Monday, all.