I am delighted to be at home in silence now.

So much this. Even though I had far less interaction with other people today than did Tom or shrift.

In other news, reports of shenanigans in Saturn's F ring: [link]

My town, man. What a fucking mess. [link]

The cops who are supposed to be protecting kids on the street? Yeah, no -- they're abusing them too. Let's be straight: this girl was raped by a series of cops. And when she told the wife of the Chief of Police, nothing happened. Fucking hell.

Tom, I'm sorry you had a hard day, but you took some pictures, which is creative and that's a good way of beating back the black dog.

Me, I'm out of jury duty (they sent us home today because one of the parties is ill and they have to continue later), and I made Mexican chocolate brownies and the dog looked at me like her goofball self: [link]

Oh, Tom. I'm sorry it was such a bad day.

I'm sorry Tom, that's a lot of awful to have to process. And I'll note that workplace death is weirdly fraught so if you can, try not to let other people's weird coping mechanisms get to you. Just as a personal example, I know when my friend passed away in December it was just... awful. And I'm sure I was not acting like myself, and now I hope no one took it as a reflection on them.

Thanks for the kudos, I am proud of Franny. Also note the bath bomb was a success, so now I will be buying the ingredients to make more of them. And who knows? Maybe we'll even make soap

I hope today is a better one for you, Tom.

I hate that so much of life's ugliness is piling in on people here. I wish I had a magic wand to wave and make everything better.

Steph said exactly what I would have said, Tom.

And I totally relate to the feeling of ' how is it that everyone seems so much more connected than me?' No matter how much I contribute to my communities, I still stand alone. Most of the time, that is a good thing, but in times of stress, it can weigh heavy.

It is a great thing that you can combine your coping mechanism with such amazing talent.

Not that you need to care, but I honestly think your 'eye' on the world, through your photos, could help others cope with their own sense lonliness. You always find such beauty in your surroundings.

Consuela, that pooch snoot is curative too!

I think this is something that several might be interested in. A school library needs books: [link]

I tried to be as supportive as I could, but really wasn't a whole lot.

Oh, Tom. If nothing else, I bet that support was a lot.

In lighter news, a guy on the bus this morning mansplained to me! It really is such a distinctive thing.

That pain in the ass author who I had to call? He received a typeset proof to review, and he told the coordinator that one sentence was still incorrect. So she asked how it should be worded, and instead of just answering (it was -- seriously -- just deleting TWO WORDS), he replied "Contact the editor that I spoke with. She knows how it needs to appear.)

First, that is arrogant bullshit. Second, it was more work to type that than it was to type "Delete 'alternative approaches'." WHAT THE FUCK, SIR. WHAT THE FUCK.

(The coordinator's email to me said "Apparently he will not tell me how the sentence should read...please don't follow his example!")