What I Found Instead of Breakfast

Today I woke up annoyed.

I heard my mother screaming over the phone again.
Hooting and hollering all over the place.

“Shut your worthless mouth up.”

Please and thank you.

Once I heard her go outside, I went to open the fridge. As usual, it smelled like something was dying again. At least there were no roaches crawling around the seams this time.

I wasn’t hungry enough to deal with that mess today.

So instead I opened my laptop and started exploring my area online.

Most people who live around here are Black. I looked at some age ranges and a bit of the historical context too. Apparently the area grew from rural ranching and farming land into a residential suburb for the city’s expanding industrial and energy workforce in the mid-to-late twentieth century.

As Houston expanded, this place developed into a residential area alongside the growth of the Houston Ship Channel and the oil economy starting in the 1940s.

It used to be a predominantly white neighborhood until that shift happened.

While I was already reading about history, I briefly looked at B.B. King again.

Here’s the page I saw:
→ https://blackpast.org/african-american-history/king-b-b-1925/

While wandering around online, I also came across some buttermilk donut bars that looked absolutely incredible.

The kind that look so good you can practically taste them through the screen.

I needed that recipe.

Seriously… they looked to die for.

Too bad I can’t make them right now. Probably not for a while. But I really want those things in my mouth.

I’d die for a friend who would make them and bring them to me.

Just kidding.

…but I would definitely try them.

Later I ended up stumbling onto something completely different — Poppy Playtime babies.

I think it’s a game.

Kissy Missy looked surprisingly cute. Almost like a happy child instead of a surviving experiment.

She never really deserved what happened to her.

Seeing her just… exist like that felt strangely healing for a few moments.

I wanted to leave the house as soon as I woke up this morning, but it’s raining all week. And next week.

I also wanted to check out the nature center further north, but I’m not getting eaten alive by mosquitoes.

One nicer part of the day was learning about a program called Food with Plastic.

It’s a non-profit that operates in Ghana, Nicaragua, and India. Their model lets people exchange 20 plastic bottles for one balanced meal.

I’m sure there are other programs like that, but I had never heard of anything quite like it before.

Then I read about a retired chemical engineer named Tom Brown. Apparently he’s been working to rediscover apples that haven’t existed for centuries.

His project is here:
→ https://www.applesearch.org/

Apparently there were at least 14,000 apple varieties back in the 1700s.

That’s a lot of apples.

Personally, I think I’m still fine with my green Granny Smiths.

Not every morning starts well, but the day still keeps moving.

Anyway.

That was my morning.