Lousy Smarch Weather (Redux)
Last Thursday was the Vernal Equinox, aka the first day of Spring. The long, cold winter of 2024-2025 has technically ended.
Sure as hell felt like it yesterday, when it was the sort of sunny day that demands you listen to the first six Van Halen albums and high five anyone in reach. Cleaned off the patio, finished tidying up the shop, made a zero clearance insert for the miter saw (technically the second one, as the first attempt from the prior weekend wasn’t quite right), and since I had time before dinner, started work on the gift box for last year’s Pan Mass Challenge raffle. Nothing too fancy about it - leftover walnut from the dresser/bed and desk projects with scrap cherry from the floating platform bed commission - but it was a good way of shaking off the cobwebs of the past three and a half months. I and a friend have a commission with our hometown to build a bunch of tiny monsters and whatnot, but I was feeling a little daunted about the project. A box was a better start. Plus, unlike last year, I don’t want to be scrambling to make good on a gift.
Today’s not as warm so I may not be able to finish it. But even though the Odd Pegs Dance Card is filling up awful quick, a lost day isn’t the end of the world. I have the science fiction novel (up to 36,395 words as of right this goddamn minute), Baldur’s Gate 3, a pile of books, and a rad as hell family.
It’s the latter I’m truly grateful for. Cheeto Jesus’ ascendency to the Imperial Presidency of Grift and Malice still sticks in my throat and while I admit there’s an underlying current of “I told you so” to the administration’s bumblings, the speed at which he and his sycophants and toadys implement his casual cruelty breaks my heart. Not because of his inherent assholery - that was never a hidden feature. It’s that so many people are still absolutely 100% satisfied with how things are faring. You would think we as a nation would be better than this but - gestures around - here we are. Within the Odd Pegs Family, we see Trump for who he is and we are horrified. I’m proud as hell that my 14-year old and almost 17-year old can clearly see and articulate the lack of morality in this administration.
But maybe - just maybe - the aberration that is Trump will make way for something better. I like to think that if we survive this ever-growing hellscape, we as a people will have had enough and get progressive as fuck. Free healthcare, free education, actual equal rights for all, billionaires taxed and then taxed again, a good number of politicians put on an ice floe and sent out to sea so they can find out how real global warming actually is - all the goodies that could make this dark period seem like a drab winter that fades away as we put on side one of Van Halen. When that happens, you better believe I’m going to high five you.
If you’ve got a couple dollars to spare, I have some sites worth your time:
I’ve volunteered at Bagly.org a couple of times and they’re a fantastic organization for LGBTQ+ kids. Whatever hard fought progress we’ve made in the past four years has been wiped out.
Follow Your Art is Melrose’s artist community. The Boss Lady has her studio there and if not for Kris Rodolico, I wouldn’t be the Odd Pegs of today. I don’t know why the arts are always seen as some sort of frivolous lark but we would be worse off without them and the groups that support them.
Music streaming is convenient as hell but if you want to truly support artists, I would recommend buying from Bandcamp. The first Friday of every month is “Bandcamp Friday,” where all profits go straight to the musicians. One of the albums I purchase this month was Nihtgield by the always excellent Crippled Black Phoenix.
Thanks to the ill-begotten concept of running the federal government like a web start-up, funding from the National Institute of Health (NIH) has gone tits up. Every dollar donated to the Pan Mass Challenge goes directly to Dana Farber. This matters even more now.
