It's Monday again? Damn. It doesn't feel like we had much of a weekend — that is to say, we were busy all weekend, doing things other than "the usual." (We are always busy, just busy with our routine.) Kin's sister, brother-in-law, and nephew were in town for an A's game, so he played the tour guide on Saturday, driving them into The City.

Now we're dog-sitting for the week; and Kaia returns from Eugene this week too — a full house for a while.

And that's all good. I've loaded up the snack basket, I've plotted out the meals and outings in preparation.

Speaking of food, I've been brainstorming what meals I'll cook on our first RV outing. We pick the trailer up next Monday, and then we're heading out on the road at the end of next week. We'd already planned to take a three-day weekend in Arcata; but as it'll be our first road-trip with the trailer, we're just going to go to Monterey — it's closer, if nothing else. I am beyond excited. (I sent Kin calendar invites for one three-day camping weekends a month for the next nine months, heh.)

But that's all "good to come," not "good that just happened this past week."

Even though the past week felt incredibly busy, I'm not sure I have much to report. I took a "de-load" week with running — reducing my volume by about 20% — but to be honest, it didn't feel any easier on my body. But I'm glad I did it; just like I'm glad to write here every week and mark "what's good" — recovery is good; reflection is good; gratitude is good.

The media I did months ago for Teaching Machines continues to trickle out, as do book reviews. I feel farther and farther away from all of that — that's good, I think? That said, I just started to read Hannah Arendt's The Human Condition, and much to my chagrin, not only does it open with Sputnik — my god, we give so much agency to that damn satellite as we narrate the past/future — but I realized that "condition" in the title might not simply mean "state of being." What if it's "conditioning" as in the inescapable Burrhus Frederic. I'm on page 31, so I can't say that Arendt refers to "behaviorism" (and the index makes no mention of Skinner or his theories), but still. God dammit. As I've often said, I feel like that poor kid in The Sixth Sense, except instead of dead people, I see behaviorism everywhere. I'm not sure my next writing project is going to be entirely Skinner-free.

Speaking of new books, Kin had bought tickets for he and Kaia to see Kamau Bell and Kate Schatz on their book tour for Do The Work, their anti-racist activity book; but as she's opted to stay in Eugene a bit longer than originally planned (ostensibly to avoid the very busy Eugene airport with the World Athletic Championships there), I went in her stead. We bought three copies of the book (but didn't wait in line to get it signed as I wanted to get to Lovely's promptly and wait in that line instead — pretty much the best smashburgers ever and second mention of the restaurant in this weekly series, eh). One of the things I love most about Oakland, I must say, is its strong commitment to "the work."

I also bought a new houseplant: a money plant (a pilea, not a money tree). Hort|Culture, a local group that works with homeless youth, sets up a stand once a month in front of our building, and I'm happy to support them. (And hopefully get better at keeping plants alive.)