I’m going to revive my boring blog YET AGAIN, because I have thoughts to think before they go thunk and disappear.
Topics in no particular order to include:
I’ve spent the last 2 years re-learning how to sew. First as a necessity, to make masks for family and friends, then as a creative outlet while furloughed from my travel job. After returning to work last year, I started getting interested in quilting.
The Spruce Crafts site was extremely comprehensive – every time I looked for info on how to do something, their clear, written tutorials showed up. I looked at this one for a recent project, and although I went with a different method from a video by Jordan Fabrics, this is an excellent starting point and reference.
Bind a quilt with easy mitered corners with step-by-step instructions and illustrations to sew a perfect binding every time.
— Read on www.thesprucecrafts.com/sew-easy-mitered-quilt-binding-2821069
I had whitelisted CNN.com on the Adblock Plus app, but the videos and their unskippable, long pre roll ads refused to play. Had to watch on the CNN app all year, but sometimes it was damned inconvenient.
Tonight, I disabled Adblock Plus, played a video (with ad) on CNN.com, re-enabled ABP, made sure CNN.com was on the whitelist, and now the videos and damn ads play like they should. It just needed an app restart, I guess.
Add websites that you trust and want to support to your Adblock Plus whitelist. Ads will be shown on these websites.
— Read on help.eyeo.com/adblockplus/add-a-website-to-the-whitelist
Back in 2009, I blogged this recipe:
Stonyfield Yogurt – Beef Stroganoff
Ingredients:
1 lb beef loin, sliced into 1 inch strips
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 yellow onion, thin sliced
1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced
1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon
1/2 teaspoon paprika
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup beef broth
2 tablespoons dijon mustard
1 cup plain lowfat yogurt
(I always throw in 2 or 3 tablespoons of Worcesterchire sauce with the mustard and yogurt)Directions:
Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add sliced beef loin, onion and mushrooms, sauté until meat begins to brown. Add flour to the mixture, and continue to cook for two minutes, stirring constantly. Add tarragon, paprika, wine and beef broth, reduce the heat to medium, and allow to simmer 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in dijon mustard and yogurt. Serve over egg noodles.Yields: 4 servings
Nutrition Facts Per Serving:
Calories 340; Calories from Fat 150; Total Fat 17g; Cholesterol 70mg; Total Carbohydrates 13g; Protein 29g, Fiber 2g
Since then, it’s been a standby that we make about every 2 weeks or so during the colder weather. I’ve had mixed results – it’s pretty good, but over the years I’ve been scribbling notes about adjusting some of the proportions and adding things.
Tonight, I threw caution to the wind, REALLY changed some proportions, and it’s the best batch we’ve ever made. The only improvement would be if the meat were both tender and nicely seared; I think there was too much oil to get a good sear and it ended up braising rather than browning. Here’s how I currently want to make it from now on:
1 lb sirloin or thin sandwich steak, sliced into 1 inch strips
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon coarse cracked black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil, divided into 2 1/2 tablespoon portions
1 sweet onion, thin sliced
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
2 heaping tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup beef broth
1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
3 or 4 tablespoons tomato paste
3 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1-2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/3 cup plain lowfat Greek yogurt (Kroger brand, Chobani, similar
Egg noodles – follow package directions to cook 2 to 4 portions (we prefer the No Yolk Whole Wheat kind).
Directions:
Season sliced beef well with kosher salt and cracked black pepper, set aside. Heat 1/2 tablespoon olive oil in a skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat, to about 400F. Add sliced beef and sear until brown crust forms on some sides. Don’t move beef around too much. Once seared, remove to clean bowl, add the other 1/2 tablespoon of oil and saute’ the onion and mushrooms until the onions are translucent and mushrooms begin to release juices. Add flour to the mixture, and continue to cook for two minutes, stirring constantly. Meanwhile combine tarragon, smoked paprika, wine, tomato paste, and beef broth in a 2 cup liquid measuring cup, and pour mixture over the onions and mushrooms, stirring well to combine the flour coating. Reduce the heat to medium, and allow to simmer 10 minutes. Start the egg noodles cooking. When they’re almost done, drain and add to the strogonoff pan – using a Dutch oven makes this less messy. Remove from heat and stir in Dijon mustard and yogurt to taste.
The goal is to get that good brown “fond” from searing the beef in a relatively dry, hot skillet, and then the onions act as their own deglazing and pick up a nice color. If that doesn’t happen, it still tastes great, and the extra Worcestershire and tomato paste still give a good, rich color to the sauce.
Serves 4. or if you’re us, 2. There were no leftovers tonight.
I have been trying to remove 2 “unread emails” from my Gmail account (on iPhone and iPad) for DAYS. I had looked at many webpages and Quora and Reddit posts.
It’s easy to overlook some messages in Gmail. In this article, we provide instructions on how to make Gmail show only unread emails, how to search for unread emails only, and how to add parameters to those searches.
Source: How to Find All Unread Messages in Gmail
It wasn’t ANY of the many good suggestions that worked in the linked article or the forum posts. I simply logged into mail.google.com on my laptop for the first time in 2 years and saw that I had 2 very old “Hangout” requests from friends from more than 5 years back. They were marked “unread.” So I read them, realized I’d never acted on them, deleted them… and WAH-LAH the little red “2” marker is gone from my iOS devices. They were vestiges of these ancient hangouts, apparently. The image shows my inbox – clear of unread hangouts. Wish I had screenshotted FIRST, deleted second.
Once again, deprecated Google functionality was screwing something up for me!
Now, I really should see about deleting the tags, buttons, and category that refer to Google+
You first have to read this blog post by TV’s Wil Wheaton – he tells a great story about his relationship with Jonathan Frakes, and how important it is to find the family that laughs with you, not at you. I’ll wait. Tagging @annewheaton and @lenperalta
I can almost imagine what it must be like to have a dad who loves you – WIL WHEATON dot NET
— Read on wilwheaton.net/2021/11/i-can-almost-imagine-what-it-must-be-like-to-have-a-dad-who-loves-you/
First of all, he’s no longer “TV’s Wil Wheaton,” ironic construct. He’s “Wil Wheaton’s Wil Wheaton.” He’s made a good life and career for himself as a writer, voice actor, nerd-culture TV host, blogger, and most importantly, dad to two sons. He’s also an awesome pet dad, though he doesn’t mention it in this particular blog post.
This blog post made me so happy and my face got all leaky – based on the comments, a lot of faces got all leaky out there in the internets. It’s a nice look at past Wil and current Wil, and how he relates (literally, in a chosen-family way) to fellow actor and Star Trek: Next Gen alum Jonathan Frakes.
Longtime readers of Wil’s blog will know a lot of his backstory; in fact, Wil was a very early blogger, almost a pioneer at the beginning of blogging. As it happens, I’ve been reading his blog for more than 20 years – certainly from when we still lived in the condo we had in a different suburb, and from when this blog was still put together with Movable Type.
At the earliest time I became aware of his blog, Wil was years beyond his Star Trek career – struggling, trying to figure out how to grownup with his young family, recording early writing success and wondering if he’d get to act again. I continued to dip in and out of his blog, catching glimpses and privately cheering when he reported something good happening – books published, voice-over roles, seeing old friends at Star Trek conventions.
Some time after that, after we moved to this house, and while I was still doing long blog posts, AND just after taking on the role of webmistress for the Holy Moly church website, this happened.
Poster by Len Peralta / @jawboneradio (CC Some Rights Reserved)
Just re-reading that reminded me of why I missed writing long blogposts. I used to do that A LOT, maybe too much. Also, many of the friends mentioned in the first part of the post (where the picture links are busted) have now moved to Arizona, and we’ll be seeing them soon. We’ll see Mitch and Gloria, too.
So I want to thank Wil for the comedic slap shot to the head that led me down that particularly enjoyable RAMBLE (random-access memory blog link excursion). And I hope he’s got a chance to work with Frakes and the rest of his extended chosen Star Trek family soon. Or maybe just take a road trip with Frakes, a van, and two GoPros.
Hey, everybody! Happy Infrastructure Week! We finally got ‘er done after booting Tan Dump Lord from office, along with his merry band of corrupt seditionists.
It’s actually Infrastructure Week for real! Hope it’s not a dumpster fire.
It’s been about a year and a half since my last blogposts of any substance (admittedly, they were very light on substance).
Since posting Lather, Rinse, Repeat in March 2020, a LOT happened. Once again, my long lapse in posting makes me feel compelled to play catch-up. 
In March 2020, David was in the middle of a job search – his choice – and I had no idea what was coming as far as my own job. I was furloughed from my Brand Name corporate travel management company in mid-April, 2020, and thanks to the unexpected but welcome act of Congress, I was on a pretty generous unemployment scheme. My health care was continued by my company, too.
David was worried, but eventually got a job with a pretty well-known company that has retail products, in about June of 2020. He’s not doing the kind of software development that he really loves and is known for in his community, but he’s happy and has been working from home.
I ended up buying a sewing machine, teaching myself to sew simple masks, and did pretty well at using them for donation premiums to the American Diabetes Association. Eventually I bought a better sewing machine and made some gifts for new family members. This was all documented in my Twitter feed.
This method of sharing selected tweets as a collection is, of course, deprecated. Because it was somewhat useful and somewhat possible to do in Tweetdeck, which is also deprecated. Thanks, @Jack.
https://twitter.com/GinnyRED57/timelines/1460621171477692422
So in April 2020, I was furloughed from work while David was still mid-jobsearch, and Illinois had entered a “Safe At Home” status in late March, asking people to keep trips outside the home limited to essential errands like grocery-shopping and getting car repairs and things. Essential businesses also included bike shops and sewing machine/crafts stores, which was a blessing as it kept a lot of people busy either riding bikes for sanity, or making stuff for themselves and others for sanity.
As my embedded timeline shows, I was intently focused on the 2020 presidential election – I left a LOT of stuff out. These are what I think of as the emotional high- and low-lights.
Politics, Schmolitics
On Election Night, I basically “slept” with my sleep headphones on, listening to the returns. I also did that the night before the election was called for Biden, as the count in Arizona (the first, actual one) went on. At the time the election was called, I was trying to figure out why Rudy Giuliani, America’s Former Noun, Verb, and 9/11 Mayor was standing in front of a garage door at a landscaping company. This happy gift from God went on for days, weeks even.
https://twitter.com/GinnyRED57/status/1325481818846588929
I had so many funs reacting to that.
https://twitter.com/GinnyRED57/status/1325210307174801408
Later on (see main embedded timeline) a hardcore Punk musician named Laura Grace actually performed a show at Four Seasons Total Landscaping, which is why I bought the shirt. The pinnacle for me was probably the “VR Chat Furries Re-Create FSTL and run around looking at everything” incident (also in the timeline embed).
It’s really weird – Rudy’s been very quiet lately, after his meltdown. Insert “snicker-snicker” GIF here on your own.
I was live-tweeting on Jan. 6, 2021 for the certification by Congress of then President-Elect Biden’s victory in the election. That whole thread is in the embed, too. Since then, the whole saga of the insurrection-coup-failed revolution has been churning along in the back of my mind. It makes me feel sick at how close we came as we ONLY NOW are getting more information from various journalists’ books and revelations from the Jan. 6 Commission in the House.
We HAVE to keep the house and Senate in 2022, but with gerrymandering and decades-long election fuckery by the Dominionist Right, it’s not looking good. The Council for National Policy will stop at nothing.
I’m just thankful that at long last, more competent and less corrupt people finally got Infrastructure Week done, even though it wasn’t everything that we wanted thanks to (hawk-split) Manchin and Sinema at the behest of the gorram Donor Class.
Work Stuff
Meanwhile, workwise: I spent more than a year on furlough. David’s been working for more than a year now where he’s at, and my job came back originally as a temp gig in May 2021. I’m grateful for the extra unemployment benefits I could sign up for in the state of Illinois. There were people in Red states that likely never did get through to sign up for their rightful benefits – thinking of Florida and Texas. The cruelty is the point.
For a few months, I worked for my company on a “leisure travel” project where we provided trained agents for a related travel concern, using very weird tools and mostly hating it because the callers were so hard to deal with. Finally, in August, I was “called back to the Big League” and found myself on a corporate team, taking calls and emails from business travelers.
More recently, I’ve also taken on something I call the “UK/EU Project” where I handle email requests from selected accounts based in, yes, the UK or in Europe. That’s been interesting, if frustrating, because of having to learn a lot of new tools (and in one account’s case, not feeling like the training and support has been there). It’ll get better, but I’m on vacation for 2 weeks and will have to re-learn everything (and probably be saddled with more accounts) when I get back at the end of the month.
Family and Friends
First of all, we are so, so fortunate not to have lost anyone close to us in our circle of family and friends to COVID-19. I’ve kind of fallen off my family’s radar the last few years (sisters in Idaho and North Carolina and their kids/grandkids, cousins in Utah and Arkansas) because I pulled back from Facebook and rarely check in there. Still, I’m happy to report that there are 2 new people who came into the world on the Illinois side in the last year, and they are very very cute. I haven’t Tweeted much about them out of concerns for privacy and safety, but take my word for it, they’re cute. There’s even more little kids I’ve never met on my side in ID and NC, but that’s for future trips. For now, we’re happy to get photo updates on everybody, but the most prolific photo-posters are the Illinois contingent.
We don’t see as much of them as we’d like; my nephew and niece Josh and Ashley are the parents of Dean Micah, and my niece and nephew Jen and Tyler are the parents of Brenna. It’s complicated getting everybody together as they are at nearly opposite ends of the broader Chicago/northern Illinois area, and in Jen’s case, she picks and chooses carefully. But when they can manage it, we’ve enjoyed seeing the little ones change and grow when we’ve gotten together.
There’s a bit in the embedded timeline about Jen’s baby shower and wedding – I have more pictures, but what I included is the gist. My friend Sheryl helped Jen with some of the wedding stuff – flowers and things, and my niece Naomi was helping her sister as much as she could, given work constraints. Sheryl is much more than a friend of the family at this point – she’s more of a dear aunt or motherly figure for the girls and Josh (and their spouses), and she’ll have them over to her home for their now traditional Thanksgiving brunch.
A few months before the pandemic, we got the wonderful news that David’s niece Melissa would be able to move into a new shared home in the Chicago area. She had been living Downstate, 5 hours away, and it was really hard on her being so far away from her family. It was hard on her grandpa, and her dad, too – because the burden was on them to go pick Melissa up (meet her staff halfway, usually) to bring her back for any major holiday or family gathering.
Suddenly, it was possible to drive just 25 minutes to pick Melissa up to join us for a family dinner! And just as suddenly, she and her whole house were so securely locked down in mid-March, 2020 that we could not hug her or take her to her grandpa’s house for a visit – we had to settle for waving at her through her windows, and got into using Facetime with her for weekly phone calls again. Thank God, when the vaccine finally became available in the early winter of 2021, she was in one of the earliest groups to get it. Even so, we couldn’t just pick her up for an excursion; we had to arrange for a Covid-19 test before she could go back, and at that time, that meant a 5 day wait for results! Which didn’t make sense, since she had to get the test at the beginning of the stay, and risk exposure during all the waiting time. Fortunately, Melissa’s house was spared any cases of Covid-19; some of the other houses in the organization were not so lucky.
We did lose David’s Aunt Norma early in the pandemic; this was not Covid-related but it was a terrible shock as that side of the extended family is very, very close to each other, and Norma was the linchpin. It was so, so, so very weird watching the burial via YouTube, as that was during the time of “NO MORE THAN 10 PEOPLE” gathered at a time, even outdoors. And that total included funeral staff! So my father-in-law could attend, as a close family member, but just a few others (Uncle Bill, her adult children, and I think one adult grandchild spoke). We went to the dedication of her headstone a year later, and it was nice to see everyone gathered in one place. We hadn’t planned to go back to our cousin’s house for the luncheon (we hadn’t been with that big a group of people in more than a year) but spontaneously decided to go, and we were glad we did.
In former years, Norma used to invite the whole extended family to her big house for Thanksgiving, but more recently, she had drawn back from that and left it to her adult kids to organize after she and Bill downsized. So for several years, we’d made our own plans for Thanksgiving, as it seemed nobody was taking on the task of doing the full-extended-family event anymore. Which was fine, as it gave us a chance to do something closer to home and not have to drive more than an hour in any weather with food. David’s dad and stepmom live just 15 minutes from us now, so we get together all the time for dinner out and so on.
Speaking of Thanksgiving, it’ll be different from last year. VERY different. This time last year, there was no vaccine, and I didn’t want to risk infecting Shel and Linda (aforementioned ‘rents) by entering their home for any reason without masks. At the worst points, I only wanted to stand outside and wave at them through their door! But the improving test-positivity rates in Illinois last spring, and the blessed vaccines, made life much more normal here.
However, in November 2020, post-election, pre-holiday season, we “weren’t there yet.”
So we hosted an all-day Zoom Thanksgiving. We had an open Zoom video chat for hours, and anyone we knew could drop in while we served ourselves a nice little dinner. I talked to my friend Ellen in Germany (it was timed so it was evening for her) and many other far-flung friends and family). It was actually pretty fun, and cleanup afterwards was a snap.
This year? We’re traveling to be with Mitch and Gloria in Phoenix. We will be stepping aboard an aircraft and hoping nobody decides to cut up rough and make a Freedumb Seen about masks or whatever. We will visit our sibs, and then go to the Grand Canyon for a couple of nights, where for my belated birthday I’ll be getting my lifetime National Parks pass – of course, I didn’t turn 62 early enough to get the cheaper lifetime pass, but I am happy to pay the higher rate in order to support our national parks. After the time at Grand Canyon, we go back to Mitch and Gloria’s for a group Thanksgiving with them and their neighbors; they seem to have found a wonderful community.
https://twitter.com/GinnyRED57/status/1436449449073598465?s=20
For much of last year I didn’t do much but log some couch time – even with all the free time! I didn’t feel like riding my bike! Finally, with my friend Sheryl, I made a pact to ride my indoor bike trainer while she walked on an indoor low-impact trampoline.
https://twitter.com/GinnyRED57/status/1348673859738890240
This got us through the first 5 months of 2021 and I really felt great – and then my job came back and my schedule changed. Suddenly my daily chats with Sheryl, while we planned for Big Family Events, dropped from a daily hour on the bike (or an hour walk while my knee was recovering from a sprain) to NOTHING. No walks, no biking, nada, except on the weekends. I still have to figure out some afternoon-evening time to schedule something consistently with Sheryl. But I did enjoy our walkie-talks or bikey-talks so much, so I have to get going with that again.
We’ve seen some of our other friends in the cycling and ADA (American Diabetes Association) communities, most notably a wonderful 4th of July barbecue at Carlos and Marlene’s in the far south suburbs. I’ve seen my friend BL for a couple of walks and I dropped off masks with other friends and visited.
Church Stuff – Holy Moly
The last time I was in church at St Nicholas, prior to last Sunday, was mid March 2020. This was just before the news broke about the choral group in Skagit Valley, WA that turned into a super-spreader event. After that, the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago put out the word – no in-person worship, no indoor gatherings of any kind. Like a lot of faith communities, there was some scrambling to provide some kind of service. In the case of Holy Moly, where we’re not super technical, the solution was to just put out a Facebook Live service from Father Manny’s home. Other churches came up with more elaborate streaming solutions, but when I finally went to church Sunday, I walked in to find that a tripod was set up in the aisle, ready for Manny to put his iPhone in it and start streaming to the church Facebook page. No extra mike, no ability to move the camera.
Well, okay, I had stepped back from providing more technical solutions more than a year ago – we host the church website but I’d been feeling less comfortable with my ability to do anything more complicated than uploading pictures and updating the events page, so I had given access to 2 lay members for coverage. And they did their best. It’s fine. But now that I’m coming back, I may need to check under the hood and see what they’ve done in the interim while I’m off this week. I haven’t had a chance to talk to the other lay folks that have something to do with that.
Well, here’s Sunday’s service – the officiant is Fr. Manny Borg, the musical offering is a solo by my choir friend Jess and accompanied by She Whose Downbeat Must Be Obeyed, Mary.
And the sound is awful. I’m pretty embarassed.
I should have checked in earlier. Manny used to do this from home and it was okay, but I stopped watching each week and didn’t realize how the transition to in-person worship sometime in the late summer had kept the same setup, but at a far greater distance.
Now, I happen to know that we (St Nick) own a very nice video camera setup, and there’s a microphone with it. We also own a very nice digital recorder, and there was an even better microphone with that. But both rigs are about 10 years old, and in the case of the digital recorder, it may have ended up with someone who became estranged and later died. I don’t know where it is. And the video camera? I don’t know if the woman who used it most is still around, and no one else currently knows how to run it.
I really need to talk to Manny and his more technical better half to see if they realize there are better options than putting an iPhone in a tripod.
Anyway, it was a nice service, and because the choir is not supposed to all sing together yet, we just had practice for our upcoming Lessons and Carols service, in which we will sing while wearing masks… and on Sundays, we scatter ourselves out in the congregation. There’s no hymns; just piano, organ, and a weekly soloist.
Upcoming events, including the first choral performances we’ll do for the visit of the assisting bishop and the Lessons and Carols service are HERE.
Yes, I know it’s in all caps, bold. I didn’t have the heart or inclination to edit it on my iPhone when I pulled it from the most recent email bulletin. Speaking of which, I need to talk to Douglas, who does the weekly bulletins using Constant Contact. I think he’s manually editing the front page template to add the bulletins each week. There’s a better way.
That brings us pretty much up to date, and I’ve spent all day on this, on my old laptop, in bed, because I can. I do enjoy Infrastructure Week, which happens to coincide with Vacation Week 1 for me.
Life has been on hold around here for three months, and just got confirmation that it’s likely to stay that way into the fall.
What next? My chosen career in corporate travel isn’t coming back anytime soon, and my current hobbies (sewing and knocking around virtual worlds) don’t really fill the bill.
School? Learn a new skill? Take up where I left off? Use my chameleonic superpower for good, not napping on the couch undetected?
I shall make inquiries.
So about six weeks ago, we were waiting for something good to happen.
My husband David is in between bullet points on his resume – it’s set up like a very long leave of absence and we are fine, but it’s a frustrating and confusing process in the Trumpizoic-COVID19 Era. You may find out more about him at Geeky Ramblings.
If you look at my Twitter timeline, you’ll see a really long pinned thread that documents my day-to-day (or minute-to-minute) experience of the Coronavirus Crisis.
The most helpful link I could offer is the Illinois Department of Public Health page that updates daily with Gov. Pritzker’s updates on the state response. As of 5pm yesterday the state is on “shelter at home” status.
As of yesterday, Saturday March 21:
As of today, Sunday March 22:
Yikes. This week is going to be rough.
You should check your state’s health department page, or the CDC page. Pay no attention to the orange shitgibbon flinging dung from the White House press podium. He has nothing useful, let alone accurate, to say.
As the numbers increase, it’s important to keep track of how quickly the DEATH numbers DOUBLE. Research on your own, but the rule of thumb seems to be that doubling every 3 days or less is BAD and will steepen the curve of mortality. The goal of staying home, and sheltering in place, is to slow the rate of infection and increase the number of days it takes before the mortality rate doubles. This will help to #FlattenTheCurve and keep our health care system from being flooded out and overwhelmed.
We as a country are trying not to lose our shit, and there are signs that people are responding in creative and positive ways – online singalongs, sharing recipes for bread and making simple masks to donate to hospitals to save the medical-grade respirator masks for the front lines in this war. I read where shuttered Broadway show casts have offered spontaneous performances before the state of New York locked down, and some of the costume and fashion community is gearing up to make masks (hospitals have requested donations but they’re aimed more at the worried well for now, though they are washable and compliant with CDC guidelines).
I went out yesterday just to get out of the house, before the state-mandate to shelter in place took effect, and visited the local ALDI, which was interesting, along with da Jewel. No paper products, no bread, very little in the way of cleaning supplies. No flour, either (about that, see below). Who ARE these profiteering assholes? We were already set for at least a week, but I did get some “nice to have” nonessentials: honey, popcorn, CLIF nutrition bars, deli meats and cheese. We’re ordering takeout tonight (and will tip generously, a welcome trend).
I’m thinking about doing a vegetable garden for the first time in about 5 years, but would have to plan carefully to choose stuff that I could possibly can – like tomatoes. Or cucumbers? David LOVES “new” pickles. Maybe onions again. Carrots? Haven’t touched the compost bin, it’s probably a horror show.
Apparently, we’re on a war footing, as Trump can’t function without an adversary to deflect on. He delayed invoking the Defense Protection Act for requiring manufacturers to switch to making medical supplies? Why? And then when Trump finally invoked it, he declined to actually exercise the powers. WHY? Meanwhile, it appears that the feds are outbidding state procurement agencies as they make new bulk orders, while distributing expired equipment to states in lower amounts than requested. Except for red state Florida, which got everything it requested. WHY? The Washington Post and other papers are covering this, and more.
This Twitter thread has the timeline of the Trump administration’s inaction dating from when the Chinese government notified our CDC leadership on JANUARY 3.
OK let's put this one to bed.
— Jeremy Konyndyk (@JeremyKonyndyk) March 22, 2020
All the "China virus" and "Wuhan virus" stuff from Trump and Pompeo is a transparent attempt to divert attention from the administration's own failure to prepare.
It's BS. https://t.co/nnm7TgBVbb
The US Government, via the CDC and the National Security Council and the HHS, had the heads up on the “novel coronavirus” in early January, and could have passed the alert to the greater medical community, the various federal AND STATE emergency response entities, manufacturers of PPE (personal protective equipment) and manufacturers of equipment like ventilators and other breathing apparatus. Did it raise the alarm? #ItDidNot
Meanwhile, the entire country is trying to figure out new ways to work, struggling to find activities for children at home after school closures, struggling with sudden unemployment, and coping with illness of themselves or loved ones. It’s going to get unbelievably harder to handle this, with such an erratic and unstable “commander” in control of the ship of state. People feel isolated and are looking to find some kind of community.
At the time of writing, 10am Sunday 22MAR, it’s supposed to be Sunday Eucharist at Holy Moly. We would be singing the first hymn (though to be honest we usually start late). But we’re all home on our own, coping with the oddity of a Sunday “off” in the normally busy season of Lent. According to the official announcement from the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, all in-person worship is suspended through Easter,
Later, Bishop Lee added a short personal video:
And last night, just before the official statewide order took effect, Father Manny offered a short prayer service via Facebook Live on the church Facebook page.
I managed to attend this along with about 16 others. It seemed to go well but I was admonished by my choir buddy Mike for not doing social distancing properly.
Earlier this morning I texted choir leader Mary to check in, as I knew she’d be listening to “With Heart and Voice” on WFMT:
Suddenly my entire social set has lit up every communication channel – my cycling friends are fretting at the thought of no group rides just as better weather is coming, but also brainstorming how to help a friend move next week, and noting that riding a bike solo is specifically allowed along with walking, hiking, and running outside. And we also reassured each other that bike shops are essential services and are remaining open (though maybe with reduced hours).
My friend who’s moving next Saturday is in a panic, because she thinks that she’ll get us all in trouble if we’re driving to her apartment next week. She’s Brazilian-American, so when she called me yesterday I greeted her with a cheery “Bom dia, my friend, what can I do for you?” The relief and delight in her voice was evident; everyone that can be there will be, with dollies and handtrucks – no more than 10 people. We even had someone check with a lawyer to ensure that helping a friend who’s moving is probably covered. Realistically, I don’t think any of us will be stopped by the STFH brigade. And it’s not going to take long: it’s from one part of the complex to another, though we may move big batches of stuff via car as it’s evidently a sprawling place.
After a long, long hiatus, I returned to Facebook just to share important and vetted news items, and then yesterday started reconnecting with friends and family all over. Suddenly, everyone is baking bread because of certain idiotic panic stockpilers, so I reviewed a couple of new recipes that were being passed around in the Highlander fan pages because Elizabeth Gracen, a former star of the series (and of a spinoff series, The Raven) passed this along:
This “Jenny Can Cook” is so fun to watch – and she adds some hilarious asides. I have ALL the equipment she uses and more – this looks incredibly easy and uses dry yeast (have a jar full in the fridge). Meanwhile, I brought my months-neglected sourdough starter back from the dead.
And since we have bread on hand (it freezes well) I will wait to use this until next week, or keep it fed weekly if I make Jenny’s recipe instead. And yes, that’s former talk show host Jenny Jones – who notes “This dough is very forgiving…unlike some people.” It’s worth subscribing just for that excellent content alone.
If anyone of my local friends wants some sourdough starter, hit me up. I have more inactive starter in reserve and can pass it along.
What else? In family news – everyone as far as I know is doing okay and dealing with the lockdown here in IL. I had some frustration with several someones, who shall remain nameless, who didn’t see the value in voluntarily limiting interaction and practicing social distancing. But now that the Guv has made the terms clear, it’s good. I’m a little concerned about family in other states who’s governors have been slower to adopt the notion of containment by staying put, but they seem to be alright. At least one family member is on the front lines, though, so I need to check in.
I found out that the public library was closed when I went to drop off the books I had borrowed. Sometime on the 12MAR, a patron or employee was there who was later tested positive for COVID-19. They closed the next day (probably unaware of the exposure the previous day, but the last time I visited was well before that.
I’ve been listening to A METRIC SHIT-TON of podcasts, streaming radio like WFMT and WBEZ and KUNC and WBUR, and watching live things on Twitter. Here are a couple of things that really got me through the day yesterday.
In other entertaining entertainment news – we’re hooked on Picard, and got Dad hooked, but now we feel like we shouldn’t go over and bring the Apple TV and takeout along because we don’t want to risk bringing them the equivalent of the Romulan flu. It’s starting to emerge that many, many people are asymptomatic for a long time, or the whole time, when infected with COVID-19 so we don’t want to risk it. Until we can test, and they can test, clear of the virus, we’re hunkering down. My father-in-law Shel will just have to settle for the 1 free week with CBS Discovery and binge it after the last new episode airs Thursday. Thank God it’s been renewed.
I may haul out a really horrific Puzz-3D puzzle later if things get d//esperate. I used to enjoy doing 2D puzzles, but honestly I don’t think we have the patience or skill right now to put the Millennium Falcon together.
In the meantime, please follow the rules of social distancing, washing hands with full lather for 20 seconds, and trying not to touch face/mouth/eyes. Stay safe and be as healthy as you can manage. Think good thoughts for the sick, and be kind and generous. We will get through this as long as we stay strong and #FlattenTheCurve.
