Pen's Nest

Bureaucratic hell got so frustrating today that I decided I should just go and get out of the house to deal with the lingering project of getting updated passport photos. I believe both major drugstore chains advertise passport photos as a service, but from my recent visits to the CVS I was pretty skeptical they'd have things up and running. So I went to the equidistant Walgreens instead.

The Walgreens has a rack for bike parking, right there out in front of the store. (the CVS does have bike parking, too, but it's around the corner). I actually walked this time, but good to know for the future.

The Walgreens has WAY more inventory than that CVS did, and doesn't have weird markups on things like double-sided sticky tape (price checking it because we use it to tape ant heads onto index cards to measure how wide they are). I was even able to find the type of toothbrush I've had on my shopping list for months now, and a phone backup battery and backup charging/data cable of reasonable quality for prices that weren't outrageous! It's ridiculous but it feels like a major breakthrough to be able to walk into a store and buy the kind of toothbrush I want, in this day and age. Far less packaging to deal with, hallelujah.

I still have no love for these chain stores, but at least it feels like slightly less of my soul got sucked out?

It was 50 degrees by the time I got home, so I set about adding more reinforcement netting to the catio so that Martha can join George outside again (she figured out how to shimmy up the wood and escape onto the back porch last fall).



Not the prettiest addition, but it's on there, at least!

This is a good illustration of how Going Outside blows George's mind:


Martha was a little unsure of things, too, but at least the catio's keeping her occupied while I continue to procrastinate from grading grade more papers.

I also finished getting the front porch plant rack set up:


I'm starting more lettuce in the squirrel boxes, finally. Between the seed starting mat underneath and the sun coming in from the window, this mini-greenhouse does all right, temperature-wise.