Tue, 28 Oct 2025, 10:51 PM (-06:00)
There was that Whip-Poor-Will singing outside at dusk the other night. And there were those Monarchs turning circles in the front yard among the blooming wonders in the yard yesterday.
And a few days ago, there were the Stag Beetle grubs slowly turning in the compose pile as I buried the kitchen scraps. They’ve returned this year. I didn’t tell you about them? Just as well I suppose, for I suspect some of you might not rate squirming grubs up there with butterfly vortices or evening bird song.
But certainly ranking up there is what the Fair and Industrious Trudy spied leaving our yard the other morning. She saw a Roadrunner, dissatisfied perhaps with the dry creek that runs along a greenbelt a few blocks from here. It had evidently heard of the water that we set out. Word gets around, it seems.
Trudy spied the Roadrunner, and then the Roadrunner sped away. Can’t you just hear it?
Mon, 27 Oct 2025, 10:00 PM (-06:00)
With the long-overdue rain we had over the weekend, the front yard is abloom.
Fall Asters, Purple Trailing Lantana, Russian Sage, and even Mealy Blue Sage have exploded in purples that complement the yellow and oranges of the rest of the yard. And those yellows and oranges have found new vigor, evidently casting aside the seed-making on which they had become focused in favor of new buds and blossoms.
Because it had rained.
When I stepped out of the car in the driveway after getting home from school, a Monarch butterfly flittered about my head. I shouted in glee to Trudy who said they had been all over the yard all day.
Let’s be clear, the demise of Monarchs is so complete that a single butterfly is cause for celebration these days. Just one.
Yet there we were, standing by the curb with the yellows and oranges and purples spread before us. And swirling among the blossoms or sitting on a flower stretching their wings was a host of Monarchs. Ok, six of them maybe a dozen, or maybe more. Who’s to check my figures?
It was enough to make our hearts explode, the Monarchs landing here for a moment and then fluttering there. Gathering nectar, perhaps. Because it’s a long way to Mexico.
Mon, 27 Oct 2025, 07:25 AM (-06:00)
A Whip-Poor-Will called last night. It was that time in the late evening when the gray twilight is vanishing. The call came in thru the back patio door. I sat up and waited for the next. Only a yapping dog in the distance.
After some time, it called again. This time thru the screen door at the front. I went outside and stood still for a very long time waiting for the next. There was none. The graying light had turned to black. The yard was dark but for the orange glow from a streetlight across the street.
Up there somewhere in the branches of the Oak, the Whip-Poor-Will was resting its weary bones. Tomorrow would be another day. And it’s a long way to Mexico.
Sat, 25 Oct 2025, 09:56 AM (-06:00)
Someone left behind a package of minty gum. It was sitting on a desk after all the kids had gone. The box was full and wanted chewing. I figured someone might claim it if I put it on my desk in plain sight — next to the left-behind water bottles, headphones, and hoodie.
The next day, after we were finished talking about factoring quadratic expressions, Martin asked me a question.
“Mr. Hasan, did you find a package of gum after class the other day?”
“I did,” I said. “Is this yours?” I held up the abandoned minty gum package.
He nodded.
“Is it really yours?” I asked. (I’d ask the same for someone claiming the headphones, so why not for gum?)
“Yes,” he said.
I handed it to him. He took out a couple sticks of gum and passed them out to the other students sitting at his pod.
…
After class, I noticed the package of minty gum was on the desk. He had left it behind, again.
I walked over and picked it up. A scrap of paper fell from beneath it.
Sun, 19 Oct 2025, 06:29 PM (-06:00)
The Lindheimer Senna has started focusing on seed pods. The yellow blossoms, after having added reliable yellow color to the yard throughout the blistering days of Central Texas summer, are now gone. But they are certain to return next year.
As summer begins to think about winding down, I’ve stopped dead-heading the Cowpen Daisies. The front yard is still full of their yellowness, but gradually those blossoms are going to seed in such profusion that there will be plenty to collect and share and plant along the Chemistry Wing at the high school.
This year, we’ve had success with the Esperanza/Yellow Bells on the (scorchingly hot) south side of the house. We’ve left a slow drip hose on them when watering elsewhere in the yard on our weekly watering day, and yellow bells have reliably hung from the plant for most of the summer despite the mauling they took from the construction crew installing the new siding.
And we come now to the star of the early fall — Golden Eye. Ever since Bill down the street brought us some bare-root plants many years ago, these shockingly hardy natives have reliably pushed out a profusion of yellow every October. They grown to about six feet tall in places, and to get to the outside faucet these days, you must push your way thru a thicket of them, with bees buzzing all around.
Mon, 13 Oct 2025, 05:48 PM (-06:00)
As the temperatures moderate, it’s possible to actually sit outside. Sit outside and enjoy cool morning and evening breezes. Sit outside and enjoy the profusion of yellow and orange and purple in the yard. And enjoy the bees who especially enjoy the profusion.
The bees are impossible to catch in a photo. They buzz quickly from blossom to blossom and then fly off to parts unknown before the camera will cooperate.
But the flowers with their yellow and orange and purple blossoms are more accommodating.
Fri, 10 Oct 2025, 09:50 AM (-06:00)
It was the end of the day. A four-day weekend lay before us. We were all in a good mood.
The bell rang. Most of the kids quickly filed out. A few lingered to avoid the crush at the door and leisurely pack their bags.
“Mr. Hasan,” she said, walking up to me.
“Yes?”
“I was selected to be Boromir.”
She explained how she had applied and was selected for a Lord of the Rings event later this fall. She had a broad smile on her face as she spoke. She knew I would understand.
“That’s amazing!” I said. “Congratulations.”
“I’m keeping my Silmarillion and Return of the King Appendix A with me everywhere I go.”
…
This morning I doodled this and sent it to her. Some of you might understand. Some maybe not.
Mon, 6 Oct 2025, 07:33 AM (-06:00)
We had a short day last week. Not enough time for a full lesson, and several periods had just come off a legit hard test.
I put this up on the monitor at the front of the class.
“What’s that?” someone asked when they came into the room, pointing in genuine perplexity at the cryptic (?) glyph.
“It’s our plan for the period,” I said. There was an almost-audible sign in the room.
Of course that wasn’t quite true. (Of course it wasn’t.) There were kids who worked on test corrections. There were kids who worked on missing assignments. There were kids studying for other classes.
But there were no phones (as is the case every day this year, now that the legislature has our back on at least that issue).
Tue, 23 Sep 2025, 08:00 PM (-06:00)
1939
2025
(Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP)
Sun, 21 Sep 2025, 08:53 AM (-06:00)
1. Background
Years ago after I returned to work following surgery and lymphangiograms and more surgery and radiation therapy and chemotherapy for cancer, a colleague sat with me at lunch.
“You know, chemotherapy isn’t natural,” he said.
There just wasn’t much further that conversation could have gone. It was clear what he was implying — I was corrupting the gene pool.
Fast forward to today, and we have billionaire tech bro masters-of-the-universe breathing new life into eugenics.
2. Canceling Cancer Funding
I claim that bro-rebranded eugenics is hard at work. For example, Google around a bit. You’ll find articles about the Trump administrations cuts to cancer funding.
Admittedly, the story is a bit more complex than sensationalist headlines let on (link: snopes), but there is a reality on the ground that makes the full truth of the matter misleading — funds were just temporarily delayed and meetings temporarily suspended. Yet temporary or not, the actions have had consequences. Clinical trials got canceled in the temporary absence of dollars to pay salaries. Fundamental research projects got shut down in the temporary absence of approvals from review boards who are forbidden from collaborating with researchers.
Some cancer work was canceled.
