I haven't been writing here much again since last week and honestly I won't be writing here for much of Leo season because of Irish festing make it hard for me to even find enough hours in a week for work and sleep around all the music and friends. Not because I've been feeling any sort of way not sharing keeping to myself, I've just not had anything inside me agitating me to write and nothing external that raised a reaction in me. I've also felt time moving extra fast again recently and not because of having just had the shortest/fastest day on record earlier this month and the second record shortest/fastest was just as Cancer season shifted into Leo season. (Not shortest daylight, shortest day. Look it up if you missed the articles on it. The earth is literally spinning faster this summer so it's less than 24 hours for the full rotation and the scientists don't actually no why. It's only 1-1.3 milliseconds per day even on the fastest days, but at this rate, by 2029 they will have to shave off an entire second. So if it feels like this summer the days are literally whirling by faster, scientifically they technically are.) But I couldn't sleep because of solar storm electrical migraine and waiting on the storm to roll in. 

I've also had way too many claimed evenings/plans this week -- I'm looking forward to nothing on the calendar this weekend since Irish season starts next week already! But, that said, by picking up rush tickets to Picnic last Fri, we were able to see everything that's showing in the first part of the season now AND on Founders Day (the anniversary of the very first play up at APT 46 years ago) we picked up "$46 in any section for any remaining plays" Founders Day Special for Tribes in the center more expensive section which we wanted to see didn't have a four pack confirmed and they sold out stupid fast. And while earlier that week there had been enough remaining seats across enough dates it might have gone on rush (half price for the cheaper seats on the sides) I made the call that Founders Day might sell it out so we should buy them if we could if we wanted to see it. So Crissy looked at my text to her of the dates that had enough seats they might rush tickets and made that happen while I was waiting in the Culver's drive thru and she had their WiFi -- which is good because now we have them and it did sell most of the dates nearly full with the Founders Day Special. 

O and I got the next season symphony tickets bought (this is my year in the round robin of the three of us who go to symphony together) so it's off my mental to do list before Irish season -- just waiting for them to be mailed and hoping they get delivered to my mailbox. Mail carrier has been messing up building 66 vs 96 and unit E v F recently so I keep getting mail that's not for me and don't know if I'm not getting anything.... I'll feel better once I have them in hand tbh. But it's done and ordered so I won't end up forgetting about it while distracted by all my Irish-Scottish music shenanigans and suddenly it's pretty much September and I never did it.

So technically, not only did I do lots of things this last week in my "break" before the whirlwind of Irish fest season, but I bought tickets and made plans for all sorts of other things as well. (Like planning with Amanda and Crissy our inaugural Whiskey Book Club for a duology to read one in Sept and another in Oct and picking out our Scotches for each book. It will be Oban for the second book, but between a couple eastern distilleries for the first. It's a magical fantasy based on Scottish lore with an East West being enemies division. I think one of the books is called something like A River Enchanted and the other is something Fire.... I could go to the other room to look at them and get the titles right figure out the author, but I'm cozy laying here snuggled under the blanket with the dog sleeping on me listening to the rain... Crissy and I both bought them on a Target run together and Amanda agreed to them for our first Whiskey Fantasy Book Club (it was her idea but I love associating specific things with specific books and I definitely have opinions on what season books are to be read and what types of weather and what cozy beverage suits them... Some are specific types of tea, some coffee, some wine by the fire, and some whiskey/scotch....) but then we couldn't do it because Amanda got pregnant with her second little last Spring couldn't whiskey/scotch with us and then we've been waiting on reading these giving her time for the littlest to get older and her drinking more before trying to start it up. So post Irish fest season (though there is Fox Cities Irish fest in late Sept, but that's just the one day driving up to it since we had full weekend tickets bought early when cheaper than single day later but then I accidentally double booked us since that's also opening weekend for this 100th season of Madison Symphony Orchestra so Fri Sept 19 night we will have the Tchaikovsky opening night... I'm sure Skerryvore will understand, at least some of them, choosing a night of Tchaikovsky with a guest pianist over seeing them two nights in a row that weekend, lol.) which means this year I've started two zoom book clubs with different groups of bookworm friends far away (though my birthday twin bestie is in both of them) -- slowly reading history books with tea once a month and devouring fantasy books with whiskey pairing as/whenever we can make it work. Sounds about right.

Next Thurs it's down to Chi to see Seo Linn at Chicago Garlic Park (first I'll be seeing Keith in person since last year.) Then Fri driving down to Waterloo Iowa for their Irish fest over the weekend -- long gaps with nobody but then the times we do care about people are doubled up... Like Fri night going to have to choose between Doolin and Byrne Brothers at the same time (they overlap every day all weekend -- and neither of them are playing many fests at all this year) AND will need to decide if closing out Fri night at Skerryvore set or Seo Linn set.... (Yes both Keith and Martin will be there, but only on Fri because Skerryvore are splitting the weekend between Waterloo Iowa and Dublin Ohio since they're always the same weekend. The Skerry lads will have a long drive Fri night/Sat morning after their set ends and they pack up!) Technically, I have far more opportunities to see Skerryvore this year as they are playing in and around the area pretty continuously this year (I'm even missing their Madison gig got them coming to my actual home city not just all these driveably close shows and fests because it's the same night as one of the only 2 Coronas shows in the Midwest of the States for the entire year.) but I will be seeing Seo Linn Thurs night and get to see them Sat as well.... AND Seo Linn snuck in a bonus set just the core trio of them for Sat at La Crosse Irish fest which was just announced by the band yesterday as finalized. So will again have a fest with both Keith and Martin to distract/tempt me since Skerryvore is playing both Fri and Sat in La Crosse. No idea yet what time the Seo Linn Sat 9 set is though since it wasn't on the schedule which will need to be updated then.  I'll give a better outline of my Irish fest season plans/timelines in a future post once the schedule shifts finish.

So anyway. This is my calm before the storm (actually it's thunderstorming outside this early morning while I write this; writing it laying in my bed with the dog curled up asleep across my legs listening to the predawn/sunrise music of  heavy rain and birdsong and rolling thunder all together.) And tonight is actually the Concerts on the Square my parents paid for a reserved table because the guest artist with the chamber orchestra is the classic rock guest and they will be performing entirety of Dark Side of the Moon for it. (I'm excited we're supposed to be able to somehow get free cow bells to keep for this one!) so it's a table of 10 and it's my parents, me, Crissy, Sarah, Uncle Jeff and his wife Ling, and Uncle Steve Aunt Sondra and Shauna. It IS supposed to be crazy high heat index today but Shauna thinks she should be okay because it will be evening. On verra. Mom ordered pizzas for us form Glass Nickel they're picking up on their way downtown to bring as well as sending wines to chill at Crissy's work across the street and Crissy was planning to bake cupcakes last I knew before she left after stopping by from brie and French wine and to finalize plans with my mama and me. So that's basically my 5p-9p active plans (can be at table at 5) unless they move it to tomorrow for weather (but that's unlikely since it's not major unhealthy smoke warning and we actively are supposed to have storms all afternoon/evening tomorrow.) I do have to pre plan ahead though in drive time and deciding if I will stop at Leopold's for book happy hour shopping and prosecco. (That's 4-7 and I will drive right past it Soooo, might as well if I have time...) AND I will need to water plants give them refilled water bottles (empty wine bottles; for the last couple decades the rule is after Spring equinox we start rinsing and saving all wine bottles for me until I have enough for all my plants) before I head downtown as it will be a scorcher of a day in the 90s and they can't go without any afternoon/evening watering but I likely won't be back until after sunset. 

Honestly, this is such a lovely storm this morning!! Lights flickering and all before I turned them back off!! When I couldn't sleep no matter what I did, I was planning to read some Plutarch while waiting on the storms I expected but weather apps didn't (yet) have in the hourly forecast but then I saw lightning heard thunder so I went checked the minute cast to see how long and it said about half hour til it started and so I decided to write here instead. It's an incredibly dark outside storm this one, so even though it's an hour after sunrise, my bedroom is darker now than during the night because the exterior/parking lot lights are now off -- and so I won't be reading Plutarch unless I want to turn a light on for it and I'm very much enjoying the dark and stormy mood of this early morning. More likely to get some sleep with the windows open for it than turn on the light to read tbh. Just gotta make sure to close the window before the sun comes out to bleach the books and it starts getting hot enough I should have the windows shut and turn the ac on. The birds are singing again now though, so this heavy patch of storm must be passing. I should look at radar/minute cast see how much more it's blown up -- it's already been raining over twice as long as minutecast originally predicted. (Do not get me started venting Bout how bad forecasting is following all the doge cuts to NWS and NOAA earlier this year and how many people are ALREADY needlessly dead from tornadoes and floods due to lack of datasets they used to collect to build models and that's BEFORE the Pentagon was cutting access in July for NOAA and NWS to have the satellite imaging/data for their models AND before the big ugly bill was passed that in addition to removing funding for PBS and NPR also dismantles and ends the emergency broadcast system for severe weather alerts on TV's/radio/phone.... O and hurricane season is just around the corner, second week of August being when you traditionally start having the named ones hit land (although Mexico has been slammed with them already this year, especially ones forming in the Pacific.....) I warned you people are going to be dying preventable deaths in some of the most insane severe weather seen globally this year (climate change has us in year that is neither El Nino nor La Nina -- the major conveyor belts are stalling out and that means chaotic unpredictable weather until the new systems of physics in the warmer patterns establish themselves) and there won't be the prediction or warning systems in place in the US that people have gotten used to relying on.... I've seen what I've seen in precogs and it will get far worse before it gets better with people dying in violent weather due to lack of predictive data and lack of emergency warnings...) 

 Anyway. At least this was a lovely summer storm should get it out of the system so I can keep later today clear for the concert to go ahead before tomorrow's storms since my mum is worrying about having got the table and what if it gets canceled both nights because you don't get the money back then for the pricey reserved tables... You have no idea what intense weather witching I had to do to move that high pressure zone up this far north so we wouldn't be under the derecho ridge Tues-Thurs (that's mostly hanging out west and north of where it was predicted) like they expected. Or if you pay attention to the weather systems and meteorologists like I do or if you're energy sensitive you do know. Will people die from heat dome exposure, possibly... But the heat dome over the south and the derecho setup above it we're going to happen no matter what, it's actually less intense and violent and extremes with the delicate shifting I've done to try to keep this afternoon and  tonight clear and beautiful in Madison.

 Mostly what I do with the weather is to try to keep the right balance for my trees and plants friends and to reduce risks for wildfires/forest fires happening within my zone -- but I do shift things sometimes around my plans so outdoor things don't get cancelled and I have safer driving routes. But I've also had times where my best I can do is driving through tornado warnings barely missing the touch down or driving through intense flash floods (especially heading to/from Minneapolis) and have and to make the call not to go to shows in Milwaukee, Minne, or Chi because I can't promise to get there and back safely though blizzards of high winds. I do the best I can but I won't brute force for my own convenience in ways that might cause extensive deaths elsewhere -- especially with how touchy and volatile and unpredictable climate change has made the net stream and weather patterns over the last decade...

I think we're getting to a break of this storm cell though before the tail end of it forming, the frogs are singing in the pond now with the light rain and thunder And occasional bird song -- so maybe I will get up to make tea and read some more of this  Plutarch chapter before I start in on the next novel, lol. Or not -- maybe I'd be a better me if I got some more sleep. And I am very cozy right now.... On verra.