Filled up the tank of my Subaru Outback on Saturday. Seventy-five bucks. I haven’t driven it today; took my bike to a spot three miles distant to have Mother’s Day lunch with Kate. It was a pretty day, on the cool side, so I didn’t arrive all sweaty.
Pro tip, though: If you plan on drinking beer, a jumpsuit is a bad choice. As someone funnier than me observed, once you’re in the bathroom, it’s just you and your bad decisions.
Look at the weeds growing up around the struggling little street tree. Sometimes I wonder if the sheer homeliness of Detroit’s physical footprint is doing something to my brain; sometimes I’ll see some truly wondrous public installation of something, somewhere other than here, and wonder what it must be like to enjoy that sort of thing on the regular. But Mack Avenue resists all such beautification. As Elmore Leonard is said to have written, during his advertising career, “Some cities get by on their looks. Others have to work for a living.”
One thing about a bike ride down a city avenue, you find yourself with time and reason to run little errands. Into Staples for a dry-erase marker I (and only I) can use for the Wednesday whiteboard workout at the pool. Into Village Market for a teres major for dinner. Certainly I didn’t opt for a filet mignon, once I got a look at the price: $50 a pound. On sale. And then home for an afternoon snooze, because: Mother’s Day. And beer.
Here’s something Jeff Borden sent the other day, when he was in Hyde Park, where the Obamas once lived:
Too good to be true? Perhaps. But every so often I see something like this, and I’m gobsmacked, yet again, by the speed of our fall. I saw the first posters for the MMA fight on the White House lawn, and I wanted to cry. I remember the week after the 2016 election, sitting in the conference room in Ann Arbor, and our fearless leader confidently said Trump would get bored by the job and quit after six months, or else he’d be impeached. Well, he was half right. We thought the job would change the man. We never reckoned on this particular man, however.
Let’s go into this week with a spirit of optimism, however. You never know what any day will bring.
Suzanne said on May 11, 2026 at 1:13 pm
Proving once again that many evangelical people didn’t think through their support for Trump.
“Christian Colleges Call New Federal Regulation an ‘Existential Threat’”
https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/05/christian-colleges-financial-aid-earnings-test-regulation-trump/
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Sherri said on May 11, 2026 at 4:12 pm
I complained a few months ago about my adult daughter not adulting as proficiently as I would prefer (she did eventually deal with the issue competently, just not on a timeline I would have preferred), so let me now brag on her a bit.
Over the weekend, she tested for and received her 4th degree black belt in karate! She began practicing karate when she was 11, achieved her first black belt at 17, took time off from it in college, but resumed it after college, and has stuck with it.
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Julie Robinson said on May 11, 2026 at 7:47 pm
Congratulations to your daughter, Sherri. D took karate before I knew him, has thought about taking it up again, guess we’ll see.
We got home late Saturday but hosted Mother’s Day anyway. D cleaned, and our son and his wife fixed the food. Her folks were in town and it was one of the most relaxed meals ever. I really enjoyed it, but then I slept until 11 today. That’s the gift mothers really want, a good long sleep. At least this one.
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Deborah said on May 11, 2026 at 8:43 pm
Sometime during the night our router died here in Santa Fe. I went to Best Buy and bought a new one, got it home and tried to install it, gave up and made an appointment with the Geek Squad, they’ll be here sometime Wednesday.
Meanwhile the solar powered electronic gate apparatus in Abiquiu got stolen in broad daylight the other day in Abiquiu. It’s been a whirlwind of emails about what to do now. We don’t live out there full time which most of our neighbors do, so we’re leaving it up to them. We’ll support it financially but they’re the ones who have to deal with it daily. It feels like desperation is hitting a lot of folks who live out there outside of our “gated” community. I feel for them and can understand their frustration with the white folks on our side of the gate. While none of us are rich, “eat the rich” may be catching on.
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Colleen said on May 11, 2026 at 10:45 pm
44 bucks for a little over half a tank in my Crosstrek. Even more appreciative of my ability to work from home.
So apropos of nothing….I found out over the weekend that the former Executive Director at my first full time public radio gig is in prison. For life. For child SA. The victim was 4. WTF is WRONG with these people? Geeze.
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alex said on May 11, 2026 at 11:28 pm
Another motherless Mother’s Day, but had my dad and my brother over for dinner and a boat ride and the skies were beautiful and I took a spectacular picture and submitted to a facebook photography group and got it published. It looked like a surreal Dali painting, only instead of melting clocks it was funny-face clouds in a perfect blue sky reflected on barely rippling waters.
My mother passed in 2022 and the time has passed like nothing and makes me all the more aware of my own impending mortality. Am I living life to the fullest? Fuck no. When have I ever done that? When will I ever?
The current political climate seems to wring the joy out of any attempt at enjoyment of life, but today we got together with old friends and took a road trip and went plant shopping and then went out and treated ourselves to a splendid dinner. The cheery blue skies and mild temps helped make for a good mood and I didn’t do anything mind-altering (pot-smoking) as I might have done in the past because I wanted to savor it all, or as much of it as I could. It was truly a blessed day for my godless soul, even though the pain of living under the current regime was never far from my mind.
Gardening is one of the few hobbies that gives me exercise and saves my sanity and this next week should be a nice respite with all of the money we blew on plants today. Begonias, lobelias, impatiens, fuchsias and more. One of the silver linings in the mess left by my former renters who departed in November (and stole my shower doors) is that they left behind some very nice outdoor planters.
My magnanimous feelings for the awful renters seem to have been triggered by the same things I was feeling about my mom. I forgot all of the things that pissed me off about my life with her in it and remembered all of the things that made it good, and it brought tears to my eyes, and reflections on a life that flies by all too fast.
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Ann said on May 11, 2026 at 11:45 pm
$40 for a full tank even for my Prius. Though I must say that this is one of those times when the Prius seems like an exceptionally good decision. I remember during the last gas crisis when we could have sold it back to the dealer a year later for what we’d paid for it. We declined.
Colleen, that’s awful.
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Julie Robinson said on May 12, 2026 at 4:33 am
$6 to recharge our Kia EV-9 at current rates, and we have also heard from the dealership about buy back. We let our daughter drive it if we aren’t going anywhere but she mostly rides her bike.
OTOH, groceries.
Colleen, who is this jerk? They need to be exposed.
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David C said on May 12, 2026 at 6:02 am
It was my first Mother’s Day without my mom. Kinda weird. Since she passed, holidays without her have been mostly OK. We hadn’t come home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter for years, so we were used to not seeing her than. We usually made it back for Mother’s Day. Even with mom’s Alzheimer’s, it was always a good day.
$39.25 to fill up our Outback. That was with $1.00 a gallon off using Meijer mPerks. I’m OK with them tracking our very uninteresting shopping habits in exchange for a buck a gallon off.
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basset said on May 12, 2026 at 6:02 am
We didn’t observe Mother’s Day at all… got distracted, I guess. Same thing with my most recent birthday.
Nancy, how’s Kate doing? Enjoying the many surprises of home ownership?
Knee surgery update: put the walker away yesterday, day four. PT starts today. Still hurts, but not quite as much.
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Mark P said on May 12, 2026 at 11:04 am
My mother died 13 years ago, my father 26 years ago, and my brother eight years ago, so no family get-togethers in a long time. The closest “family” I have now are friends I’ve known for 50+ years who live 1300+ miles away in Denver. I just got back from a visit. They worry about entertaining me, but I tell them that just being there is entertainment enough. Unfortunately, I have to leave my wife at home. Her dementia seems to be progressing. And she calls me multiple times a day, so I still have to deal with it when I’m gone. The other unfortunate thing is that it costs me $5000 to pay a sitter for two weeks while I’m gone, and that’s at the low cost of $15 an hour. I would love to move to Colorado, but house prices make it impossible to live near Denver. Maybe some other place, like Canon City. Maybe the suburbs of Pueblo.
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ROGirl said on May 12, 2026 at 1:32 pm
My brother was in town a few weeks ago with my niece. I told him about the time my mother slept with my orthodontist while I sat in the waiting room, and he told me about the time she dropped him off at a store while she left for an hour or so to spend some time with a friend of the family whose law office was nearby. I was 12 and he was 14 or 15, so it was around the same time frame. She stayed married to my father for several more years, until she took up with someone about 23 years younger than her, at which point my father told her to leave the house. She died around 12 years ago, having outlived by a year or so her much younger husband, who was an alcoholic. When I visited her in the assisted living home, she remembered my father, but not the second husband.
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Dorothy said on May 12, 2026 at 1:37 pm
Every time I see the price of packages of beef at the grocery store these days, I think “Who the hell is buying that?!”
I’ll always miss my mom on Mother’s Day. But this year I got to have both of my kids around because our daughter flew in to Columbus on Friday morning and surprised us! Mother’s Day also happened to be her dad’s birthday this year so that’s what prompted her to plan the surprise. It made for a merry Friday morning when her brother came to the house, blocked the Ring camera, and then made so much noise we almost didn’t answer the damn door.
The trees growing in this neighborhood, which is in its 7th springtime, are finally getting enough leaves on them that you can stand in a wee bit of shade when you gather at the school bus stop in the afternoon. And we have lush trees and reeds behind us because our property abuts a small pond or wetland, so looking out the back windows is very pleasant these days. We’ve found a couple of turtles that were about the size of a salad plate in the grass, but we keep our fingers away from their mouths. VERY large snapping turtles have been seen, too.
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Julie Robinson said on May 12, 2026 at 2:20 pm
Dorothy, we had offered to pony up for steaks on Sunday, and they cost $80. That was for eight people, and we’ll be having steak stir fry with the leftovers. They didn’t like the steaks for sale so bought a prime rib and cut it up. Whatever, I was happy to get together.
I read that Costco has analyzed its receipts and noted people buying less fresh meat and more canned tuna.
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Sherri said on May 12, 2026 at 2:40 pm
I’ve got a first world problem.
Zepbound is working great for me. I’m on the lowest dosage, and have lost 18 lbs in 17 weeks. By any reasonable standard, I continue to be very strong despite the weight loss.
But I don’t have reasonable standards. I’ve lost about 20 lbs on the top of my squat and deadlift, and 15 lbs off my bench. Rationally, I know that being able to squat 275 lbs at age 64 is still very good, but remembering that a year ago I was squatting 295+ is frustrating.
Eventually, things will stabilize and I won’t be losing a pound a week and maybe then I can start rebuilding, but I just have to deal with the fact that I’m heading off to compete at Nationals in a month and I’m not where I was last year.
Like I said, first world problem.
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Dexter Friend said on May 12, 2026 at 3:41 pm
I worked for a year in the heat treat department and I case-hardened a heavy chain, which coupled with an industrial Yale padlock would surely suffice as a bicycle lock.
Then I rode from a remote lot to Tiger Stadium and later found the super lock and bicycle vanished, cut away from a Plum Street light standard.
Later I visited an Ann Arbor bike store and bought a U-lock and a “travel-bicycle”, which I told myself would likely also be stolen as I carried a bike around everywhere, and parked free and biked in Chicago, Charleston, Fort Wayne, and a lot in Cleveland. I forced myself to have zero emotional love for that bike. It never was stolen, but some little peckerheads in Cleveland almost got away with the saddle. I was returning to the bike and ran them off.
In summary…Detroit really has changed if you can park your bike and use a cable lock and you keep your 2 wheels. In my day, five minutes…a cable-locked bike would be cruising off down the pike lickety-split.
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David C said on May 12, 2026 at 4:39 pm
I have two good bikes, a road bike and a gravel bike. I also have a $30 Craigslist dad bike I use when I have to go somewhere I can’t watch it all the time. It’s old, but it still rides nice. It also isn’t worth locking up with anything but a cheap cable lock. If a theif destroyed a good lock, it would cost more than replacing the bike. I’ve had my beater bike for fifteen years with no problems.
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alex said on May 12, 2026 at 9:56 pm
Sherri, glad to hear Zepbound’s working for you. Mounjaro was doing a fantastic job for me, and then my insurance took it off its formulary and forced me onto Ozempic and now my blood sugar numbers are bad even at the max dosage, so I have to up my Metformin and Tresiba to see if those will offset it. Fucking ridiculous. I hope when I go on Medicare in a few months that I can go back to the tried-and-true treatment that worked. My doctors appealed the change and my insurance “approved” Mounjaro, with the caveat that this didn’t mean they would pay for it. What the fuck is that supposed to mean?
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Julie Robinson said on May 12, 2026 at 10:58 pm
Alex, sorry to burst your bubble, but Medicare excludes weight loss medications.
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susan said on May 12, 2026 at 11:43 pm
Alex and Julie, according to Medicare.org, “GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro can be covered for Type 2 diabetes, while Wegovy may be covered for cardiovascular risk reduction in qualifying patients.” But there are lots of loop-holes.
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alex said on May 13, 2026 at 9:41 am
I’m not taking it for weight loss. I have type 2 diabetes and my weight isn’t even an issue.
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Icarus said on May 13, 2026 at 9:55 am
My birthday orbits Mother’s Day, as does my MIL’s birthday. We were going to have a joint gathering to celebrate on Saturday and order takeout or delivery so no one had to cook.
Saturday got moved to Sunday, and instead of ordering, someone decided we’d just have ham, scalloped potatoes, and some appetizers. If there is a page devoted to bland white people food, we are probably featured on it.
I don’t know why this is bothering me but my FIL and redneck BIL do nothing to contribute. They don’t help with food prep. They don’t help with cleanup. They barely take their own plates to the sink…in fact Confederate Jethro waits for someone else to clear his plate but he can get his fat ass up for seconds.
And I’m the one that has to clean the F-ing roaster and scalloped potato dish, which is a family heirloom but it really nothing more than a cheap kmart casserole dish.
okay, end rant.
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Deborah said on May 13, 2026 at 10:26 am
For Mother’s Day LB and I did gardening, which I very much had been looking forward to doing. It was mostly cleaning up winter’s residue but still nice being outside in nice weather. LB made delicious chicken salad, which she is a master. She had made a roasted chicken the day before when I first arrived in Santa Fe. The roast chicken included honey, orange, paprika, onion and butter, leftover chicken was used in the salad on Mother’s Day.
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Scout said on May 13, 2026 at 1:39 pm
I know at my age I’m one of the lucky ones to still have my Mom. Luckier still that she and my Dad moved to AZ 11 years ago to be close to me (only child) and the rest of the family. So I spent Mother’s Day with her, my daughters, my grandkids and my great grandkids. Five generations total, and four generations of mothers represented. My Mom is 87 and works out at the Y four days a week, has a better memory than I do and is still fairly young looking… we look more like sisters than mother and daughter.
Gas was $4.90 at Costco last week when I filled up. Glad I drive a Prius. I have started driving more conservatively -hard for me- to get the most out of my hybrid battery and make the gas stretch further. We are hardly driving the Forester right now since it is not a hybrid. We’ve been looking into a Solterra and revisiting the idea of solar panels.
HCR wrote today about the manic middle of the night shitposting Orange Foolius has been engaged in. I cannot believe we can’t get rid of that crazy rat bastard no matter how insane he behaves. It’s ludicrous.
alex, I hope you are able to get back on the meds that worked for you when you take Medicare. In addition to having a bat shit crazy pedophile running this place into the ground, the health care industry’s evils are just disheartening and never ending.
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Deborah said on May 13, 2026 at 2:23 pm
Yay, the Geek Squad guy came this morning and we’re back in service with our new router. It cost $189 for the service but it was so worth it to get wifi back, but yes, it’s a ridiculously high price. When you’re working on a project and you don’t have wifi on your laptop it’s a royal pain. The nicest Geek Squad guy came, a Native American man probably in his 60s from what used to be called the San Juan Pueblo which now goes by its native name Ohkay Owingeh, the guy couldn’t have been more polite and helpful. He used San Juan Pueblo with me, because I’m a white person. He actually was from the Santa Domingo Pueblo originally but married a woman in the Ohkay Owingeh pueblo. Some of the NM Pueblos go by matrilineal property rights. I think most do, but I’m not positive about that.
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David C said on May 13, 2026 at 3:12 pm
I just paid $540 for three months of Crexont, the Parkinson’s med she’s on. The best you can say about Medicare part D is better than nothing. The formularies are narrow and the cost sharing is expensive as you step up the different levels. It’s just the sort of thing you would expect W and the Republicans would cook up.
On the fun side Xi didn’t bother to meet Trump at the airport. He walked down the stairs from AF1 looking like a boy who asked his crush out for a date and she said no, she’s washing her hair that night.
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Julie Robinson said on May 13, 2026 at 3:45 pm
D’s newest heart med was over $700 for three months and his Repatha was either $270 or $300 something, I’ve blocked it out. They are helping his numbers, I guess the cardiologist will tell us if it’s enough.
I was prescribed Mounjaro so that I wouldn’t cross over into diabetes and lost 30 pounds, but developed severe skin reactions at the injection site. So I was switched to Wegovy pills, only when you change they make you start over on the lowest dose, so only three pounds since. This is all out of pocket, but from watching my sister I know how expensive and physically devastating diabetes can be. Also, from watching my husband I know how expensive heart disease is. I’d really like to avoid both.
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