National Shame

 I took a dawn walk down on the National Mall, and saw the current art work honoring the (as of yesterday) 700,234 deaths due to Covid-19. While not all of this was avoidable, things could have gone very differently.

I took the time from my walk to take some photos. It was really breathtaking how big it is, and how it really sneaks up on you. Each flag has a hand-written name and other info on it. Like the Vietnam Memorial, there is an index to find someone specific. 

The display is in between the Washington Monument and Constitution Avenue, and takes a large amount of space.

Fall Eating

Brussels and Sweet Potatoes

I've gone full on brassica-vore since it's now Fall. (Aside: it's bangin' out there with acorns pelting down, making the term "Fall" a bigger deal than the image of gently wafting leaves down. I was thinking I needed a hardhat in my front yard!)  Many of my favorite foods are now in season, and it just feels right to eat them. Cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, I love them all! But it doesn't always feel right to eat them, when they are not in season and they don't look great in the store. Only broccoli do I buy frozen, to add to other dishes. All the others have to be fresh.

I made this fabulous version of roast cauliflower the other day, from the New York Times, source of many of my experiments. This version has pancetta, olives, and parmesan, and half a cup of olive oil - so it satisfies my seasonal craving for blubber (got to fatten up to get through the winter, don't ya know). It definitely  made some meals by itself for me, not a side. I didn't think it would freeze well, so having done a whole head of cauliflower (and why not) I needed to eat it up quickly - three or four days. I have been known to eat an entire head of roasted cauliflower in one sitting, but this version is so very rich even I could not do that.

Roasted brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes on a sheet pan were even better for having bacon, shallots, and apples added (the apples for only the last ten minutes). Again, a complete meal, which I ate for several days. I need to be careful about over-buying, because when I'm with other folks, mostly we're eating out (or takeout) and it takes me a while eating alone to use up the vegetables.

Cabbage I don't roast, but it sautes up nicely and pairs perfectly with onions. I will have it with eggs scrambled in, or leftover rice as fried rice. Or, it can go with anything with gravy (omitting a starch) or be tossed in the pot for soups. And a shout-out to cabbage for being a champion keeper - I've had them last a month in my vegetable drawer. I wouldn't have tried to make a fresh coleslaw from the old head, but it was just fine as a well-cooked ingredient.

Broccoli is the easiest. Quick chop into my pyrex casserole, a quarter cup water, put on the lid, and microwave away. It's fine by itself, especially with parmesan and/or creme fraiche, or like cabbage, on the plate with something else. I've roasted broccoli in the toaster oven (especially for the sparse harvests when I grew it myself a year ago) but if I'm going to spend the time to roast, I'd rather have cauliflower or brussels sprouts.

No offense kale, I don't hate you, but I'm not in the habit of cooking you. 

As the brassicas take over my cuisine, lettuce-based salads fall off. I buy pre-washed lettuce mixes and I find some leaves are tending to slime before I get around to finishing off the bag, tainting the whole bag. Time to get out my countertop garden and grow my own!

I've got another head of cauliflower I ought to cook today. I'll do it roasted with just some olive oil, because I've got some fancy Octoberfest sausages I did on the grill yesterday. Yum!

Video of Trip

 Edit- the embedded video works for me, so not working for others must have to do with permissions, but I can’t figure it out.  Instead, try this link and let me know if it works  

Let's see if this works - snippets in order from the trip - only a minute total!

Boston to Baltimore

The view from my bunk into the main salon.

I'm home now, after a totally terrific trip. It was different from the previous one, though with a lot of similarities.

I ended up with a cabin of my own, since we were down one guest crew, and one of the guys announced that the solo cabin belonged of rights to me because I was the only woman among them. I protested that was not necessary, but everyone else went along with that. To be honest, I was fine with it, though less for reasons of modesty than having the additional space to spread out my stuff. As before, I left the door of my cabin open all the time except when actively changing clothes because I needed the ventilation.

My fellow guest crew included one guy in his early thirties that had shipped as professional crew on other tall ships, alongside some of our current professional crew. The other three guys were more of my age and demographic, including David who had been on both my Bermuda and Norfolk trips in the past. I drew the 8-12 watch (both morning and night) this time. I think that watch is the least disruptive to normal sleep patterns - I think I got a solid six hours between midnight off-watch and breakfast at 7:30, plus catnaps during the eight hours off in the afternoon. My watch was led by the third mate (a woman promoted since our trip to Bermuda in June), and had three other professional crew - two women and one of my pals from Bermuda, a vegetarian guy with a yoga mat and dangly earrings. We had a yoga-and-stretch break in the middle of every watch that conditions allowed. One of the other watches had a much more bro-ie feel and I was very glad to be with my folks.

My watch back at the wheel while I do a boat check

While previous trips north this year by Pride II were leisurely coastal trips, with stops in places like Newport and Gloucester, we went well offshore on our way back from Boston. The captain had read the weather, devised a plan, and as rarely happens, it all went well. We motored out of Boston harbor on Thursday morning, raised sails as we passed the final islands, turned off the motor, and left it off until we reached New Jersey on Sunday. We went well out east and south, avoiding the shoals off of Cape Cod and Nantucket, and then we curved west 100 miles south of Long Island as the wind shifted just as forecast. It was a time of just ocean and sky (and no internet). I am endlessly amused by just watching. Pretty much the only sight to be seen was when we passed through a fishing fleet, southeast of Nantucket, in the early morning.

The wind picked up a lot, as did the seas, and for about 36 hours we had Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. A few folks (both guest and professional crew) were seasick - some pretty badly. I, fortunately, again never got more than slightly queasy, hooray! Not due to virtue, just luck, but I was so very glad. I had brought a pound of my ginger candies and shared them freely with the crew. When the wind and waves really got going, I was physically not able to handle the wheel all on my own. I lasted about twenty minutes, with the mate beside me helping to haul the big wheel when a wave caught us behind and flung the stern around. As the captain reminded us, we were in control of a 190-ton vessel with seventeen people on board, and we needed to really pay attention to what we were doing. My arms are still sore from that twenty minute trick at the wheel.

Because I wasn't sick, I found it exhilarating! But, I did get bashed about when moving around the deck. Once I lost my footing and went sprawling. Often, I was letting go my handhold on one place on deck or down below, timed to the roll to fling myself to the next handhold. Because we had a favorable wind, sail handling was fairly infrequent, and I confined myself to sitting on the deck and coiling ropes when the maneuvers were done. The other main job when on watch was doing a boat check - which required moving from stem to stern, crawling up and down four different ladders, kneeling down to peer into the depths of the bilges to determine how much water was coming in, and pumping it out if necessary (there are four separate water-tight compartments, and six different vantage points). On the night watch during the wild ride, I told my mate that I was not going to take a shot at the wheel, and that I was not comfortable moving around the deck in the pitch dark (no moon) to do the boat checks. As a result, I hung out by the wheel to help keep a watch and chatted with the crew, but did no useful work. As I told the mate, I am of an age and sex that permits me to admit my limitations, and to be fine with them.

We had some rain and wind
At this point, I could handle her fine

The wind calmed down as we approached the New Jersey coast. We went into the Delaware Bay, and up it as far as the canal that connects to the Chesapeake. Sadly, this was my second time on Pride through the canal and the second time it occurred when I was sleeping off watch.

Monday at noon found us in the Chesapeake, well south of Baltimore. The first plan, based on a forecast of light winds Monday and Tuesday had been to anchor and spend the evening swimming off the boat before heading to Baltimore on Tuesday, beating Ida who would show up Wednesday. But the wind turned lovely and favorable for Baltimore, and the captain "proposed" (without any real discussion) that instead we sail all the way into the harbor that night. He noted that rain and thunderstorms were now forecast for Monday night, so the swimming would not be so great. 

We got to Baltimore around 5 pm on Monday, and while we were welcome to stay on the boat until our scheduled departure on Wednesday morning, the siren song of my shower, air conditioning, and bed were just too much for me. I got a ride to the train station, rode down to DC and metro'd back home. I was clean and in bed by 8 pm, and slept ten hours.

Tuesday, the grass I hadn't mowed before leaving was just too gross to ignore, so with a burst of energy I got the worst of it cut down, and then just chilled for the rest of the day. Wednesday, I worked out with my trainer, got my post-travel covid test (results just in, I'm clean), and bought some food, as waves of big rain passed through. 

As often happens, it seems I retain water when traveling, because Tuesday's weigh-in was very high, Wednesday's was two pounds lighter, and today was lighter still. But it's time to really focus on what I'm eating, and to work to get even stronger and in better shape. There might be more cruises in my future!

Charlestown

Neighbors

We’re snugged up in Charlestown Navy Yard, next to the USS Constitution, which is still a commissioned Navy ship. Today has been leisurely. With no wind and stifling heat, the Captain decided we would stay here an extra day rather than bob around and swat flies in Cape Cod Bay. We take off tomorrow morning, and plan to show off all our sails as we make our way out of Boston. She’s a pretty thing, and we intend to flaunt her beauty and sashay our way out.

First thing, we got a “behind the scenes” tour of the Constitution, before it opened to the public. The world of tall ships is a fairly small one, and it turns out that our first officer and two of the crew had served with one of the riggers for the Constitution. He is now a civilian government employee of the Navy, (he said “with a house and a wife and a dog and a car” with a deprecating laugh) in charge of maintaining a lot of the rigging and fixtures of the old ship. So he led us around, behind the ropes that say “authorized personnel only”. Being a fan of naval history (in the form of historical fiction) I was delighted to be able to physically appreciate the reality I have read about so often.

See how low the overhead is on officers’ quarters of the Constitution
- and this was a big ship!

Then a few hours of chores, break for lunch, and free for the rest of the day. 

I walked a few miles of the Charlestown part of the Harborwalk, then made my way up to the Bunker Hill monument. From there, a “special” ice cream place, a seat in the shade near the water, and read for a while. Probably a few of us will go to a harbor side bar for a drink before bed.

As a commissioned Navy ship, the Constitution fires its cannon at 8 am and pm, as the colors go up and down. As a courtesy, we make a point of managing our flags to their schedule. That’s the only remaining duty today. 

I can’t get over how pretty she is!

The Zipper Game

My bags-within-bags exploded on the bed

A fun game my mother taught me:

Buy cute luggage that has many convenient zippered pockets to organize your stuff. Further organize your stuff by first putting it all into convenient zippered bags, before stuffing those bags into the convenient zippered built-in pockets. Then, see how many zippers you have to open to find the thing you need RIGHT NOW! Bystanders can enjoy it too!

I wrote the above during my June voyage aboard Pride II. I was embarrassed as I tried to lay out my clothes for my 4 am watch while trying not to disturb my roommate in the upper bunk. Aboard the ship, all of my stuff has to live in my bunk with me, which means I’m constantly moving stacks of convenient zippered bags around trying to find the one I need. 

After a couple of days, I figured out which bag and/or compartment held what, and so my average numbers of zippers per clothes change went way down. I further refined things on my car trip to Maine. Now, I think I’ve got it down. 

I am hyper about packing light but also about having everything I actually need, and a few things I want to make life more pleasant. I know from my previous trip that folks on the ship wear the same clothes for several days in a row. I cut back on some quantities (tshirts, pants) but held the line on types of stuff: long sleeved shirts as well as tshirts, shorts as well as pants. Also one each of rain gear and swim suit. My use of toiletries was at a minimum on the last trip, so that got cut back as well. 

It’s really important that I be able to lug all my stuff myself. On this kind of a trip, I can’t ask my peers to carry my stuff for me. I remember reading an adventure travel book some years ago, about a woman doing white water kayaking in Indonesia. She was miffed that no-one offered assistance in lugging her boat - she had always depended on guys helping her out. She wondered in the book if it was a sign she had become less attractive to men. My mind was blown away by this. Wait, guys help you out? You expect it? When ;you sign up for an exotic outdoor adventure, you are not expecting to pull your own weight? And, this is your due because you are cute? This is not an expectation I ever had. 

On all my travel, this year and before, I expect to lug my own stuff through airports, train stations, up and down escalators. Wheels help, of course, but no wheeled bags on the Pride, no space to store them. Collapsable duffles or packs, that are soft for sharing bunk space with, is the best bet. So my current favorite bag is a pack that is carry-on sized, where all the straps can be secured inside so the multiple handles allow it to be treated as a duffle. 

I was pleased to see that the total amount of walking for Amtrak was much less than getting to and from airport gates (especially at Dulles, where I had booked my Boston flight). Still, metro to Union Station, off to the Amtrak platforms, through Boston’s South Station and the Silver Line T to the hotel, I was glad of the shoulder straps. 

Now, I’m taking a break in my tour of Boston before heading to the ship via Uber (because of the hurricane, they changed docks to Charlestown).  This morning, I walked from the hotel to Faneuil Hall via the Harbor Walk - following each pier out to the end and back in again. The area where my hotel is, Seaport, is undergoing a tremendous amount of development and construction. It’s noisy, and the still active fish market smells. Planes taking off from Logan are low as they pass overhead. The convention center is here, and last night there were groups of people with tags around their necks searching for places to eat. This neighborhood is very much a work in progress. But it’s got a similar vibe to DC’s waterfront and the new Wharf development. But gotta go - late checkout at the hotel is nearly up, and there is likely to be ice cream in my near future. 

Pandemic Thoughts

Pandemic Pup

We thought we were done with this! It is SO DAMN FRUSTRATING! This was so avoidable. It proves we need the vaccine to be universal - and that includes internationally, because variants will continue to arise unless the whole world gets vaccinated.

Way back in the 1980s I read some science fiction books* that tell the story of a planetary epidemic, of flu. Scores of people all over the planet are sickened and die. A vaccine is developed. Then the crux of the story: the vaccine must be distributed planet-wide within a short period of time or else it won't work - the virus is evolving quickly. A risky time-travel method is used, and our hero self-sacrifices to get the job done. But the basic point was made. Everybody needs this, and needs it now, or it won't work. We know what to do, people. We need to do it!

I went past a lovely coffee shop in town today, Kaldis. Back in the Before Times, but post-retirement, I went a few times there with my laptop to get various things done, including blog posting. Every time I went I felt I was play-acting the life of the freelance writer, as so vividly told by my New Jersey friend. This coffee shop was late to re-open for seated service, but today as I went past there were people seated with their computers. The sign outside noted limited hours - daytime, not into the evenings. But I won't go in there to sit, not now. 

My grocery shopping habits have changed so much during this time. I was probably going to the store 3-4 times a week before. In January and February of this year, probably my most hunkered down in place time, I only went about every three weeks. I started growing my own lettuce on the countertop, so I had something fresh all the time. I'm so much more focused on using up my food before buying more. I keep an inventory written on front of the fridge, and I add expiration dates to somethings noted there. I also maintain a much better shopping list. It's on my phone, and I add to it often while in the kitchen or perusing recipes. For non-perishables like dishwasher detergent, I add to the list as soon as I open a new container, so I always have another standing by. Folks, this may not sound remarkable to you, but I've never been this organized before. 

There was a long, comprehensive article about masks in the NY Times Wirecutter section this week. I got into designing and engineering cloth masks, and I have a substantial collection now. It's time to review them - replace the elastic, in some cases, replace the metal nose wire in others. I've also got some disposable surgical masks and some KN95s. I thought maybe I had overbought, but no. I think I'll get a chance to use them. I feel KN95 is the most secure, but not the most comfortable. 

I'm so glad I went traveling when I did. I've another trip coming up, by public transport - either a plane or train (depending on hurricane impacts - I have reservations on both). I went and got tested today - I have no symptoms, but it seemed a responsible thing to do, to head off inadvertent spreading. I'll get tested again when I get back. Testing remains easy here - I waltzed right in (mid-morning) and was out in five minutes. I'll be wearing a mask during my travel, of course, for several hours, and so will probably take several to be able to change when they get damp.

I went ahead of the science and got myself a booster vaccination, of a different technology. I had the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, single shot. Not so many of us had that shot, compared to Pfizer and Moderna, so there is very little information available on its efficacy. Recommendations expected soon will not include the J&J, because they don't know. Not, you will note, because they think it isn't needed. In fairness, the J&J was distributed two months later, so if there was any reason to think its efficacy period would be similar to the others, it can come later. But wait - it's a totally different technology! Why would its period be similar? When they do come out with recommendations, they will focus on whether J&J should be boosted with another J&J shot. But I decided to roll the dice and get a booster of one of the other ones, a "mRNA" version. Studies in Europe of mix-and-match technology have shown increased efficacy from the mix-and-match approaches. I believe the U.S. should be widely distributing the vaccines around the world, but I still got my own booster. Shading of principles with self-interest.

The picture of the pandemic pup is only for the cuteness factor. He loves his lobster from Maine!

*The science fiction books are part of the "Dragons of Pern" sagas by Anne McCaffrey. She wrote a bunch (16?) books all set in the world of Pern, and now her family members have continued the business. Several of the books have references to the epic song cycle "The Ballad of Moreta's Ride", and finally she wrote a book with the story of the ride. She also wrote another book taking place at the same time with a different main character, much more focused on the effects of the pandemic.