Saturday, June 20, 2026

     The first thing to do in the morning is to check the New York Times web wage to see if we are still at war.  We are. Bombing, fighting, closing the Strait of Hormuz is back. But we are now more interested in soccer then war.

   Yesterday the 5 of us watch the soccer game between Brazil and Haiti in my living room.  The sound is low so we can talk and also watch.  The hero for me is the little man in green who runs on the field not touching the ball, staying close to the action.  The tall man tells me he is the referee. Every man running on the large field is very small on the TV screen.

     We have a long discussion about octopuses (or is it octopi). I have many ideas about these creatures, and the clever poet fact checks me. I am mostly correct and then we talk about the reliability of google and other AI systems. And the little man in green keeps running. The conversations drift through the room.

     I started reading LAND a novel by Maggie O’Farrell based in Ireland. At first it was confusing but then I caught on and really like the book. More books are waiting as I start my 86 year of being alive having opinions, and memories. I realize that 30 percent of my opinions and memories are wrong but I don’t know which 30 percent. I am grateful to them with their trusty phones to fact check me.