the mellow tigger's musings

Reminder for locals in Minneapolis: The general strike is scheduled for 2026 January 23 Friday.

People are posting photos and stories of cars left abandoned in the middle of neighborhood streets or on the side of highways after ICE took away their occupants. I can't remember if I've mentioned it already, but since ICE is taking unfair advantage of "public space" to enter businesses and arrest shoppers or employees (even after benefiting from the staff's labor first), some businesses are closing the public space. One grocery store I visit locks the doors now, so patrons have to wait for staff to unlock the door to let them enter or exit. A local business magazine tells this story about statewide business changes, including this new practice of locking the doors. Local KSTP News aired this piece about business closures in downtown Minneapolis. When our plutocrats notice, then something might finally change.

You know it's bad when local police from various cities have to hold a press conference to tell the public (paraphrased), "Please, stop hating on us because we're not the ones committing these obviously unconstitutional crimes. Our own off-duty officers are being racially targeted for illegal harassment by ICE."

But, at least it's all done now. Within a 1-block radius of my house, I know homes that include each of the currently-targeted ethnic identities: hispanic, asian, native american, and somali. I hope these notices (redacted here for sharing publicly) that I delivered can help in at least some small way, and it isn't just me spinning in circles wondering what to do.

Just in time for Christmas is this 9-minute comedy sketch. It's designed to present itself as "a news show by autistic people for autistic people". I don't know if anyone in the whole show is autistic, but I found most of this show mildly amusing.

I especially liked the brief segment narrated with "And a cat at a New Year's Eve party has found an autistic person to hang with." It reminds me of my mother's mother who would go visit an old friend of hers, and instead of staying with them I would go outside on the porch in the West Texas desert heat to play with the feral cats. I didn't realize the cats weren't everybody's friends until that adult homeowner called me "the boy who gets the cats to play with him".

Enjoy your holidays. I expect to read a book and play a few more computer games than usual, which is great.

The fall equinox was Sunday, and I didn't note it here at the time. It was also probably Sunday that temperatures finally felt more like the Fall season here in Minneapolis too. Today, even though my walk to the park and back after work today left me sweating, I took the air conditioner unit out of the bathroom window upstairs. That's significantly sooner than usual. The extended forecast is nice, and I'm feeling confident that I can open my windows for cool, fresh air without aggravating my sinus allergies. (More on that good news later.)

The television news has been talking about fall colors frequently already. All of the trees I see on my walks are still solidly green. Smaller shrubs and wildflowers are giving up their leaves, though. The average date of first fall frost in the Minneapolis area is October 7th, not far away, and that's roughly our peak fall colors time too.

Besides the plants, I also recognize the cooler weather because Hope (my cat) has been insisting on more lap time than usual. She isn't crawling under covers with me in bed. It's not nearly cold enough for that behavior yet. Hope is, however, insisting on more time on my thighs or in the crook of my arm for warmth. In that vein, I'll leave you with today's Foxes In Love comic. (from Tumblr or Mastodon)