So disturbing

This breaks my heart. And they're right. We should be doing more.

Taliban begins enforcing new draconian laws, and Afghan women despair: Afghan religious police wield new power to enforce a ban on women raising their voices in public and looking at men other than their husbands or relatives

Some Afghan women blame the outside world for their vanishing freedoms. “The silence of the world over the last three years will go down as a dark chapter in history,” said Meena, echoing a widespread sentiment in the country that global attention has moved on from Afghanistan.

Many of the women she speaks to say they have unsuccessfully applied for scholarships abroad, she said, and are running out of options.

“The Taliban will keep using religion as a weapon against women,” she said. “To them, seeing the hair of a girl is a sin, but starving your country is not.”

Congratulating myself

Because of my anxiety and also having bipolar II (mainly depression,  but also sometimes hypomania, I use an app called Daylio on my phone to track my moods every day. I have kept that mood diary for exactly eight years today. 

Awww

Lexington teen with rare aging disease dies

I remember when he was featured on the local news years ago. My heart goes out to his family.

Bring them home

'We could have saved all of them': Israelis go on strike as hostage deaths trigger demand for Gaza deal

Protests and general strikes swept Israel on Monday as frustration and anger mounted over the failure of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to secure a cease-fire deal with Hamas that would free Israeli hostages held by the militant group in Gaza for nearly 11 months.

The action comes after Israel's military recovered the bodies of six hostages, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, from a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, near the border with Egypt.

Goldberg-Polin's funeral was held Monday in Jerusalem. He was 23.

Protesters want Netanyahu do more to bring home the remaining 101 hostages, a third of whom Israeli officials estimate have died in captivity. They say Netanyahu is delaying doing a deal for his own political purposes. His ruling coalition government is propped up by far-right allies bitterly opposed to any kind of agreement with Hamas.

Netanyahu blames Hamas for the lack of progress.

Still, a cousin of Carmel Gat, one of the hostages whose body was recovered by Israel's Defense Forces on Sunday, told a press conference on Monday that "delays" by Netanyahu were the main obstacles to an agreement.

"All six of them were held together and all six of them were killed in captivity," Gal Dickmann said.

"We could have saved all of them."

Good

The country’s largest publishers sue Florida over school book bans: Works by hundreds of authors, from Maya Angelou to Judy Blume, have been challenged and removed from school libraries. Now a group is suing to bring them back.

The suit alleges that House Bill 1069 does not consider the book as a whole before removing it for having “sexual content” and that it does not specify what level of detail mandates that a book be removed for describing sexual content. Another concern, the suit alleges, is that the law’s use of the term “pornographic” is vague and often books that are described as such “are not remotely obscene,” including Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye.”

The suit said the law allows for the removal of books before consulting “trained professionals, such as teachers or media specialists.” It adds that some teachers have shut down their classroom libraries out of fear of objections, controversies or the risk of losing their teaching licenses.

There will be many repercussions

How did the pandemic affect babies starting school as children now?

In Bethnal Green, London, twins Aqil and Fawaz were just eight weeks old when the pandemic hit.

Their mother, Fahmeda Ahmed, lived in a second-floor flat with her husband and their two older children - Hasan, four, and two-year-old Khaijah. "It was just the same day over and over again," she said. "We couldn't go out, we couldn’t socialise, we couldn’t invite friends over and we couldn't go anywhere with the kids.

"“I was so scared going into the hospital because you would hear stories that you would catch [Covid]," Fahmeda said.

... 

She attempted to homeschool her four-year-old, who had just started reception, but he completely stopped talking. And then there was baby Aqil. He was having difficulty swallowing and Fahmeda tried for months to get a face-to-face appointment with a doctor. Eventually, at three months, he was diagnosed with tracheomalacia, a condition where the walls of a child’s windpipe collapse. He needed a minor operation.

"And I remember when Aqil was going into theatre, I was so upset. There was a nurse there and she said ‘I'm so sorry. I can't hug you’."

Four years on, Aqil and Fawaz are healthy young boys, about to start reception at Elizabeth Selby Infants' School in Bethnal Green. But they both have speech and language needs. Their two-year child development check was delayed, they weren't able to attend any baby classes and their first year involved very little interaction with the outside world. Fahmeda believes all these factors have had a lasting effect, and experts agree.

Oh, thank the Gods

I woke up to a sunny, breezy 68° F. It's lovely. I have one fan on low. Last night both of the ones in the living room were on high. It's 75° here in the house, and the high is going to be about 81°. It's so much better than the 101° heat index the other day. I love this.

Today

I have: 

1. Washed the percolator and hand-washed dishes.
2. Emptied,  loaded,  and run the dishwasher. 
3. Made coffee for my roommate. 
4. Woken him up.
5. Stripped the bed and laundered the bedclothes in the washer. (They're in the dryer right now).
6. Sorted and folded laundry from yesterday. 
7. Woken my roommate. 
8. Let out the dogs several times. 
9. Listened to music.
10. Tightened a loose leg on the living room farm table. The dogs keep knocking into it as they play.
11. Mended two blouses. Why does my sewing kit,  which has 22 spools of thread,  not include navy? I even have chartreuse.  I have never worn chartreuse in my life. But at least those three years of home oeconomics/Future Homemakers of America membership paid off.
12. Taken my oral meds and insulin.
13. Taken items to the car.
14. Took books back to and picked up a hold from the library.
15. Gotten a new library card (my key one wouldn't scan anymore).
16. Taken items to my storage unit.
17. Retrieved the old game notebooks so I can look for something.
18. Went to the store for tea and soda.
19. Finally caffeinated/browsed the web.

Not bad so far.  Things also on my list today:

1. Water plants.
2. Clean bathroom.
3. Print something from the desktop.
4. Read.
5. Straighten up room.
6. Break down cardboard boxes and take them out to the recycling bin (also known as a Rosie here in Lexington).
7. Find the missing game-related information.
8. Zoom with my roommate to test something.
9. Dust some bookshelves.
10. Watch 'Midsomer Murders' during dinner.
11. Feed the dogs and cat in the evening.

Thursday [I was off] I:

1. Made coffee for my roommate.
2. Woke him up.
3. Let the dogs out several times. Fed the dogs and cat in the morning (I usually do evening).
4. Caffeinated and browsed the web.
5. Listened to music.
6. Took a friend out to the Indian restaurant (Masala) for his birthday.
7. Went to the store.
8. Watched 'Midsomer Murders' during dinner.
9. Cleaned the percolator and washed any plastics.
10. Took my meds (morning and night).

Friday [I was off] I:

1. Made coffee for my roommate.
2. Fed the dogs and cat [morning and evening] and let the dogs out several times.
3. Ran dishwasher.
4. Woke him up for class.
5. Caffeinated and browsed the web.
6. Listened to music.
7. Took a friend to get his hair cut.
8. Did a lot of laundry.
9. Picked up some meds.
10. Took expired meds to the pharmacy for disposal.
11. Cleaned the percolator and washed any plastics.
12. Took my meds (morning and night).

Saturday I:

1. Slept in.
2. Made coffee for my roommate.
3. Fed the dogs and cat [both morning and evening] and let the dogs out several times.
4. Ran the dishwasher.
5. Caffeinated and browsed the web.
6. Did a lot of laundry.
7. Make a bank deposit.
8. Trimmed my nails because I couldn't type anymore comfortably.
9. Took a shower.
10. Made banana nut bread.
11. Watched 'Midsomer Murders' during dinner.
12. Took my meds (morning and night).

Things for tomorrow (Labour Day]:

1. Make coffee for my roommate.
2. Run the dishwasher.
3. Caffeinate and browse the web.
4. Listen to music.
5. Pull out things in the utility room.
6. Get the vacuum out of the shed.
7. Move the dryer (with help).
8. Clean out the lint hose and exhaust. It never has been in all the time he's had the house, since about 2005, and the other day we were talking about appliance fires and thought perhaps it would be good. It's also why we're running the dishwasher in the morning rather than while we sleep.
9. Read.
10. Take a shower.
11. Watch 'Midsomer Murders' during dinner.
12. Feed the dogs and cat in the evening.
13. Let the dogs out often.
14. Launder the rest of my bedding.
15. Watch 'Meet the Robinsons' (maybe).

Not bad for my little vacation. Mind you, our air conditioning is out (for the second time this summer--the first time a dog chewed the wires; I suspect there's something wrong with the thermostat this time] and it's been 85°-95°F inside. We've all been very hot during the heatwave, which has had heat indices in the hundred-and-something range outside. Fortunately, we do have fans. Hopefully, we'll be able to afford to have it looked at and fixed soon.