infestation: viruses and mice

So, first thing today, I got a message my Facebook account had been hacked, changed my password. Bruce wrote that Apple sent out a warning about security breaches for iPhones and Macbooks, so immediately updated both. Thomas arrived and we spent the rest of the morning creating mouse barriers, thick pieces of cardboard with steel wool in between, to duct tape to every place up and downstairs the mice might be getting in. Because they are still getting in. 

And then another hour putting up new smoke alarms all over. 

Jannette arrived to help in the garden which is shrivelling with no rain and the slugs are feasting and other bugs and viruses. Powdery mildew! Aphids!

Now it's 3.30 and I'm tired after an entire day of preventative care. Praying for rain. We've had an almost record-breaking lack of rainfall this summer so far. Amazingly, a few days ago, there was a storm so severe it was almost hurricane-like on the other side of town, but not a drop here. 

Lovely emails coming in. From Janet: I finished Loose Woman this morning. Started it by laughing, ended it by crying. There was so much of my own story in there. I was transported back to the years I spent as a young woman in Vancouver and in France ...

From Ron: I’m now rereading and loving your great-grandfather’s biography, while Von is reading Loose Woman. I’M LOVIN IT 2nd time around. It was relevant and still is, for this secular, but nevertheless, steeped in Judaic culture Jewish boy, who saw countless Yiddish plays in NY & Montreal. Thank you, thank you.

And notes about various successes from former students Linda, Michelle, and Miriam. Very gratifying, my friends. Thank you for letting me know. 

Finally, more good news: since my beloved hairdresser Ingrid moved to Nova Scotia in 2020, I've been cobbling together hair care, first my neighbour Monique, then other hairdressers who weren't quite right. A few weeks ago I asked my friend Katherine, who had a wonderful cut, about her hairdresser, and went to Rosemary yesterday. Bingo, as they say. Bull's eye. She knew exactly what to do with my thick grey thatch. I asked her to take a picture. 

Summery. Light. Poor Lisa LaFlamme, 58-year-old CTV news anchor, fired for the unforgivable sin of aging while female and letting her hair go grey. I love my hair, its silvery brightness. But then, I'm not on TV and I don't care how old I look. To paraphrase Gloria Steinem, this is what a 72-year-old mouse-hunter looks like.