Happy Easter! and, What I Did Saturday

 So much more hopeful than last year. And a beautiful day, for much of the country. I have Jordan almonds for my celebration.

Yesterday, colder than today, but severe clear sunny. And I took advantage:

 Bixby's first sail! He wasn't seasick, hooray! He mostly wanted to be on my lap, and both he and I got cold. Because while there are moments of activity, a lot of sailing can be sitting around, and when the sail hid the sun and the wind was blowing dusty, it was cold!  But both my boat partner and I are fully vaccinated, so no masks needed! 

This was actually our second sail of the season, the first was on the equinox. No wind, but all the work of un-winterizing done. Didn't bring any dogs for that, too much hauling heavy stuff around to be avoiding little guys underfoot.

More adventures to come.

Distractions

 I haven't been producing a lot here, and the main reason is I'm in consumption mode. I am sucking in books, on paper and kindle and audio. I'm pursuing movies, not just the Oscars game, but other trivial movies as well. And TV. My ultimate zone-out is HGTV, where I know I'm in trouble when there's nothing but shows I've seen before. Though I do watch some more challenging TV - I am watching Snowpiercer, starring the wonderful Daveed Diggs. But it's dark, and I ration it - an episode is at least an hour, and one is generally all I can take at a time. 

On movies, the most recent of the Oscars contenders is The Father. It is wrenching, especially if you have known anyone with dementia. It is a fine piece of cinema, playing with the unreliable narrator to the max. I appreciated it, I'm glad I saw it, it affected me more than Minari, but less than some others (Promising Young Woman, Never Rarely Sometimes Always). So I think it is worth seeing, and a possible contender.

For books, are any of you into mystery series? I've got a new hot tip - and I was thrilled I was able to turn a librarian friend of mine onto it, indicating to me it's not that popular. But it deserves to be: the Bess Crawford series by Charles Todd. Our heroine, Bess, is truly a heroine - a nurse on the front lines of the First World War. But she pops home to England often (who knew they did that?) and much of her detecting takes place there. I've recently encountered in fiction several British works that bring home to me how very devastating, and society-changing, was that war for Britain. In my reading, we're now up to 1918, the Americans have entered the war, and the first wave of influenza has struck. 

The setting is unique (in my experience), and our heroine is extremely admirable, as are many of the recurring characters. (I have to like some of the folks or I won't bother.) But the books also revert back to Downton Abbey / Agatha Christie settings, so there is familiarity as well.

And my library has most of these as audio books - I've decided to go that route! I have both jigsaw puzzle apps and coloring books on the ipad, and listening to a book while puzzling (the app makes a satisfying "snick" when a piece is in the right place) or coloring, is a splendid way to finish out an evening.

I take in new book selections from many sources constantly. I love me a series, where I can get to know the characters. But I also look at suggestions from other sources, including best seller lists and the Book of the Month Club selections. The most unsettling book I've read, a one-off from one of these sources, is Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam. I'm not going to say much about it, other than it disturbed me and stayed with me. Mostly, I do comfort reading, and this was well outside my comfort zone. I found, while picking up the image for this post, that Netflix is adapting it to be a movie. 

Finally, (this is not by any means a comprehensive recap of what I've consumed recently, just what I'm talking about now), I watched Bridgerton, and enjoyed it well enough. Pretty people in pretty costumes in lovely settings being silly and (surprisingly) sexy. Actually, I multitasked through much of it - it didn't require the kind of focus Snowpiercer, for example, takes. But since I liked it, I got the book from the library, but stopped after a couple of hours of reading. Too different from the TV show, and not compelling enough to keep me paying attention. It might have worked if I read first, before watching.

Distractions can be a marvelous thing!

Vaccinated!

Maryland continues to be clusterf*ck of chaos when it comes to vaccine distribution, but I am amazed at how much of a difference it feels to know that I finally caught and tamed my unicorn. Having the one-and-done Janssen vaccine means I'm not in limbo - I'm building antibodies as I write, and in two weeks I'll be - not invulnerable, certainly not, but much more protected.

To be honest, I never really thought I'd die of this virus. But I did assume I'd catch it, and be very very sick alone at home. It's that thought that made me scared. The last time I was very sick, I was very incompetent at taking care of myself. Drinking, eating, washing... all seemed beyond my reach - though only for about 48 hours. So when I did my big stock-up shopping as we hunkered down a year ago, I bought shelf-stable foods for WTSHTF, but I also bought many quick, easy, comfort foods - Trader Joe's chicken noodle soup, frozen dinners, my favorite ginger candies in five pound bags. 

I spent my 65th birthday at home alone, with our first family zoom session. But as time went on, the certainty that we would ALL get sick started to wane. The solution, was of course, hunkering down, even more than masking up. So my horizons closed in. 

Briefly, at the end of the summer through the holidays, my horizons expanded to encompass my boat partner and her family, DC, and some outdoor socializing with family and local friends. But as word of new variants came out, my horizons closed in again. I had fewer trips to local stores. I took fewer walks, always masked to the hilt. Even family and my boat partner were masked encounters. 

Now, I can feel the possibilities opening up like a flower around me. I have vaccinated friends! I could travel to visit family! I can easily live within the current guidelines, and be glad for it. To be totally honest, I like hunkering down at home. The thought of going places fills me with anxiety - not Covid anxiety, just generalized anxiety. These past few months, there was no decision to be made, no need to build up my gumption to get out there. Now, I can work back up to it gradually.

The Oscars Game

Friends have introduced me to the Oscars Game: Try to watch all of the top contenders for the top awards before the awards show happens. Then, share opinions by texting or tweeting during the show, since we now have informed opinions about these movies. Part of the problem in Normal Times is simply trying to guess which movies are contenders (so there is enough lead time to see them all), and then trying to get to the theater or find a way to stream them, before time runs out. Luckily, this year, most of them should be available for streaming, if at a sometimes steep price.

Left to my own devices, I would see far fewer movies. But I enjoy entering into the spirit of the Game. Sometimes, the chase leads me to see movies I would otherwise skip. Here is my list of possible contenders. I copied the outlines from a friend, and then I've added some additional. The list contains some movies I have no intention of watching, but others think are Oscar-worthy.

Ammonite	O		Fossils	Rent
Another Round	O		Drunk Danes	Rent
Da Five Bloods	X		Vietnam Vets	Netflix
The Father	__		Senile dad
The Forty-year-old Version	X		Playwright Rapper
French Exit	__		Aging in Paris
Hillbilly Elegy	No
Judas & the Black Messiah	O		Black Panthers	HBO
The Life Ahead	__		Sofia Loren	Netflix
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom	X		Musicians
Malcolm and Marie	No		Abusive relationship
Mank	__		Citizen Kane
The Mauritanian	O		Guantanamo Bay
Minari	O		Koreans in Arkansas	Rent
Miss Juneteenth	O		Mother/Daughter	Rent
Never Rarely Sometimes Always	O		Teen Abortion	HBO
News of The World	O		Reconstruction Texas	Rent
Nomadland	X		Road Trip	Hulu
On the Rocks	__		Bill Murray	Apple
One Night in Miami	O		Talking	Prime
Palm Springs	X		Groundhog Day
Pieces of a Woman	__		Dead baby	Netflix
The Prom	No		Gay highschool girl	Netflix
Promising Young Woman	X		Revenge	Rental
Shirley	No		Shirley Jackson
Soul	X		Cartoon Jazz Player
Sound of Metal	X		Deaf Drummer	Prime
Trial of the Chicago 7	X		Abby Hoffman
U.S. vs Billie Holiday	O		Censorship	Hulu
The Way Back	O		Basketball	HBO

If there is an "X" I've seen it. If there is an "O" I will (probably) see it. If there is an underscore, I haven't decided. And a few are just plain "No".

I am being very careful about what I see. I have seen movies in the past that depressed my mood for days. I'm not wanting to risk that right now. But there aren't a lot of rom-coms on this list - maybe Palm Springs? Maybe The Prom, though that got really bad reviews. One thing I like about streaming at home - I can stop a movie, and come back later, or even never if I really didn't care for it. 

What do I think of the movies I've seen? That would require a different post.

The Sh*tshow Continues

I have tap-dancing class online at noon. I signed in a couple minutes early on my ipad, in the basement, wearing my tap shoes. At 12:04, (I found out later) the local hospital sent an email saying they had spaces available. At 12:30, I checked my phone and spotted the email, which had been forwarded by several listserves I'm on. I turned off the zoom camera and clicked on the link to the website, then the red "REGISTER" button on the screen. It took me to the screen you see here. Does this mean "just be patient, you are in a cue"? Or does it mean "refresh every 30 seconds and you might get through"? 

I decided it meant the latter, and so every 30 seconds for the next TWO AND A HALF HOURS I clicked "refresh". Then, at last, it took me slowly, s-l-o-w-l-y to the next screen, which said "no appointment availability". 

So glad I have absolutely nothing else to do with my time.

Apparently, there is a phone line for "non-internet friendly old people" run by the state that will, according to the message, have more appointments available on Monday. Guess we know how I'll be spending my day.

Chasing Imaginary Unicorns

My state is down near the bottom in vaccine distributions. It is SO annoying and frustrating. Because the state decided to decentralize the vaccine distribution, many people like me are spending every day chasing rumors and catching glimpses just as the unicorn vanishes around a corner up ahead. 

I am not terrified of getting the virus but I would like to avoid dying from it. I know that “normal life” requires herd immunity. My only risk factors are being old and fat, so I’m towards the bottom of the first priority group. And so I’m not desperate to get vaccinated, but I want to be responsible, pay attention, and take my turn when it’s available. That was my calm and rational approach to this a few weeks ago. And then chaos broke out.

There are literally 8 different possible distribution channels I need to monitor, not just daily, but multiple times a day. Twice in the last week I got to a website that had appointments available when I started to register, and then all slots were gone before I finished the process. And these were slots I had pre-registered for. And most people in my same situation are also going for the same multiple different channels, so each channel is having to deal with the whole eligible population of the state instead of just a sub-section. There are strong dis-incentives to be a good little citizen and just wait your turn, versus clogging the system by all jumping on at the same time.

There is no confidence that any place I’m pre-registered for will actually send me information about available slots when they have them - so I go out there and shake the trees. 

In my more charitable moments I chuckle and say “it’s like trying for Hamilton tickets!”. But honestly, it’s a clusterfuck of inefficienc;y. Not incompetence, not at any one place, but in the choices made at the beginning of how to approach this. It angers me, because they had more than half a year to build a better plan. 

Truly, if I had an appointment I knew would be honored, and that appointment was a month or two away, I’d be much happier right now than I am.

Archive Project: Intriguing Finds

 

Working my way through the boxes, I find such interesting things. Last night, I found a postcard my grandfather sent my grandmother in 1916, before they were married. These people are strangers to me - my grandfather dead decades before I was born, my grandmother frozen mentally in the Victorian times she was raised. But how cute!

It's a penny postcard of the veterinary college he attended, sent to her at the family farm where she lived, age 19.

"Say don't you think you had better get busy? Big basketball game on tonight, vets vs. Lawyers. "Noble" is feeling rather "indisposed" again, has kind of a "grip".  ONS"

Was she invited to the game? Who is "Noble"? A friend? Or an animal patient? Things I will never know.