For the past three days, I've started to write entries but haven't managed to get past the first paragraph. Today I succeeded in getting down enough words to warrant posting (for whatever that's worth). So here are the truncated entries that might have been, from Monday and Tuesday, and the one I wrote for today.

Monday: As if my aching back and legs weren't evidence enough, there's a huge pile of outgoing mail on the corner of my desk that proves I did some actual work today. But really, my back and legs are enough, because I can't get away from them. I can sit in the recliner and watch the ballgame and not see all the work I did, much less all that still needs to be done. I probably won't work this hard tomorrow. It's hard to do that much two days in a row.

Tuesday: Whatever planet it is where winter-strength rain falls during the first week of summer? That's where I live now. And my new planet is ill equipped to deal with the conditions. Gutters are flooding, cars are skidding, and the oak branches that overhang my driveway are drooping so low that they hit the top of my car as I go in and out. Those trees deal with this kind of weather pretty well in the winter, when there are no leaves to weigh them down. At least, that's my diagnosis.


Rainy winter day in June.
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Today: We didn't get any more rain today, at least not in the strictly literal sense. Work rained down on me like hailstones, and nobody could seem to take the hint that (a) I was already busy with something else that they'd asked me to do, and (2) I need all the information at the same time, so that I don't have to do it all twice. If you guessed this was payroll day, you guessed correctly.

(Warning. Politics ahead. Bail now, while you can.)

On the brighter side, the Supreme Court partially redeemed itself today. Yesterday it allowed states to reinstitute voter restrictions, because it said that things had changed since 1965. Texas immediately proved them wrong by reintroducing restrictive voting laws that had been struck down earlier. Then Texas spent the rest of the day trying to pass a draconian abortion law, only to be thwarted by one of their senators, Wendy Davis, whose twelve-hour filibuster was heroic and inspirational.

Unfortunately, for every true American hero like Wendy Davis, Texas produces ten thousand adult humans who can be teased, bullied and tricked into voting against their own interests and in favor of their rich oppressors. So there's that. And Texas is run by Rick Perry, so there's that, too.

Bearing in mind that all progress is good but all victories are fleeting, we have the Supreme Court to thank today for inching us toward equality, with the demise of DOMA and their hands-off approach to the lower court's decision to overturn Proposition 8. Even if these are fractional advances by slim margins, precedents are being set. Do we still have to fight for our own rights and everyone else's? Of course we do. But today it got a little easier. We'll take what we can get and live to fight the next battle.