Hi again! (sent Oct 6, but for earlier time.)
Actually, September was Honey Month, but I started this September 30th, to cover the second half of September, and I figure a half a month is plenty for one letter.
We had a bit of cool, but the weather has turned warm again. Kat had taken her air conditioner out when she wanted to turn her heater on, (and the window fell on it and smashed her thumbs!). Then it turned hot again, the way September does, and when we heard we were going to get a cold rainy week we perked up. I was looking forward to firing up the wood stove again! It didn’t rain enough to mention, but because the weather forecasted it, John finally got the last of the load of firewood from the beginning of the month into the shed.’s supposed to be a cold winter and Robert is selling a lot of wood, and saving the short pieces for us. He had another load ready (one van load for $150. I have no idea what the dimensions of the van are, but I’m thinking it’s around a half a cord). One thing about the off cuts, they are challenging to stack.
We thought fall was coming early this year. The maple behind the house was gorgeous- the picture is from about the 20th. But I went out on the 30th and it was bare. I wondered about that, then I remembered a story in a gardening book about how to make your tomatoes fruit earlier than your neighbors. The trick is to run a spade down through the roots about half way around. Apparently that damage makes the plant panic and put all it’s energy into setting fruit quickly. You’re only supposed to do it to a couple of plants so that you get the “show off” early tomatoes- mostly you want them to produce a lot.
I thought about how that maple is near the septic system, and how they had to cut out some roots that had intruded when working on the septic system this spring. Maybe the same thing happened to that tree. As we’ve driven around it doesn’t look like we’re to peak yet. (Although, as you can see reflected in the house window, the maple to the south of the house is now bright orange.
I can’t report much on fall flowers. There’s some goldenrod. I miss the blue asters, which I learned this year are sometimes called Michaelmas Daisies. I wish I’d known that earlier. Frankly, I haven’t been getting outside much. We have all been very low energy recently.
I choose not to think I’m depressed, it rather feels like when I had Lyme disease, but without the pain. Frankly thinking about how there isn’t pain makes me smile. But no energy is really inconvenient.
Also I have a hard time concentrating. Other people do too, it’s not just me. We have a hard time remembering what month it is, much less what day it is. I have really missed the Pagan Pride Days as Facebook shares memories of what we did ’on this date’ in previous years.
We were all bummed out by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I have been appalled by the flagrant abuse of power of the Republicans. The nomination of Barrett to the Supreme Court is a travesty. Clearly they are only going for someone who’ll vote as they want. I don’t think that the majority of Republicans really care about Roe v Wade. I think they are courting that vote, but why they would doesn’t make sense because the majority of Americans are against it. So wouldn’t you think they’d want to have the support of the majority? Apparently they don’t. Having Trump’s tax returns make it certain that he will face trial the minute he leaves office, he’s willing to do anything. I figure it’s the same for the rest of the GOP. They know that they’ve “been made”, and the majority are sick and tired of them screwing most people, so they are terrified that if they don’t keep control by whatever means, they will all be gone, and the people will get health care, and civil rights, and the corporations will stop getting their sweetheart deals, and they won’t get the financial support they’ve been getting. Their election interference and voter suppression is as obvious as the white supremacy based police violence. We have GOT to get people with empathy into the government and the greedy bastards out.
Trump said actually said “We want to get rid of the ballots and we’ll have a peaceful…, there won’t be a transfer, frankly, there’ll be a continuation.”
If they can throw out the the ballots before they are counted, then he can say he won. If they can put in a personally-picked justice who’ll vote their way, the Supreme Court will confirm his election. He knows he’s losing by numbers, so he’s trying to invalidate the election. That’s right up there with “no Covid testing and there will be no cases”. Any problem he can ignore, he can say isn’t real. That also tells you how much he will care if people start dying in a civil war. He doesn’t care how many people die, only that he keeps power. A civil war isn’t impossible, it’s happened before. He’s been openly talking about staying longer than two terms if he wins, and not leaving if he loses. Other Republicans are being more open about putting their guys in the Court then handing them the decision. They have convinced themselves they can get away with it. That makes them incredibly dangerous.
I did actually listen to the Presidential debate. I wasn’t going to, I already know I’m going to vote against Trump. I will say that as time passes, the more I hear about Biden the better I like him, and that’s nice. But I tuned in about half way through and was so – appalled ?- at the end I went back and watched the beginning. I was quite surprised to hear Biden to tell Trump to shut up, although I could really understand his frustration. Wallace should have been given a mute button. Apparently Trump wouldn’t agree to it in the negotiations. Perhaps his advisors told Biden to show more strength, but once again Trump’s lack of control was appalling. I will say that I enjoyed the Saturday Night Live version (more than the real one).
I did another session of calling people and asking them if they were going to be supporting Biden. I’m not sure how that helps. I got thoroughly sick of being hung up on. I didn’t get many Trump supporters, but sitting and introducing myself and getting hung up on is not pleasant. It does make me wonder how accurate polls are.
I did finally get in touch with Tufts Dental, and have been assigned to a new student, Orestes. Another complication was whether they’d let me in when I got there, since they are using the temperature thing to screen people, and because I have been running a slight temperature all month due to the wretched condition my mouth is in, he had to put off the appointment until October. Since I had a covid test scheduled for the first for the Colonoscopy (the sixth) all I need to do is bring those results and they’ll let me in anyway. Yay.
I am having the same problem with Orestes that I had with Chris- he does all his communicating by ’texting’ and I only see them on the once every 7-10 days I take the mobile phone out of the house. After he’d offered me the chance to get an appointment I actually got in the car and drove up the road a half a mile until the phone could catch a signal. They don’t seem to get that some of us don’t leave our houses, and mine’s on the side of a mountain where there’s no signal. What is wrong with using the phone (number I gave him) or email?!
Sadly, Kat’s teeth are also in trouble and we need to get her back into the program. Orestes is going to try to do the thing where we are scheduled at the same time, to reduce driving.
Last weekend I went down to Steves and helped him put him together his new computer desk because his old one was beginning to sag. The new one arrived, but he didn’t feel up to trying to do it himself. I’m not sure I did much- there were a few places where we really needed three hands at once, but mostly I think I was moral support. I made him take before and after pictures to prove we’d really done it.
Sadly, I got off late and didn’t get there until 2, and since we’d figured in advance that in order to not get home after dark- or into the sunset- I had to leave by five, so we didn’t get as much time to chat as we’d hoped. He hasn’t felt up to coming up to visit us, and it was nice to see him again.
John and I did go out and have lunch with Mark (outside) last week. It’s not the social life we’d prefer, but it’s better than nothing. Mark likes to read to me and I enjoy it, and we talk movies. He mentioned Theatre of Blood, an old Vincent Price film in which he plays a Shakesperian actor killing off the critics who gave him bad reviews- using methods from various Shakespeare plays. I think it came up because Diana Rigg (as well as a lot of other British actors) was in it, and she’d just died. Fun old horror movie!
Last week Willow went over to Avi’s for a trial week. Keene is doing that ‘kids go to school three days and stay home two’ thing. While we do think school kids are plague monkeys, Avi really needs the help, and Willow misses them terribly, so she’s going to try it. The first week the school said that she got Kalen to do so much more. That’s because she can sit and just do nothing but tell him to get to the next problem. I’m reminded of when Mother used to sit with us trying to get us to finish our spinach or broccoli or liver and she’d tell us stories punctuated with “take another bite”. Anyway, outside of the potential risk of all the contacts Kalen and B get from school, that only adds 3 to our “isolation pod”. (4 if you count Scott.) I’d added Steve and Mark. I hope we aren’t being too complacent because NH is doing so well. While the kids would probably be fine, I have to admit that I am still morbidly obese, and sixty eight. I think that’s technically “old”, even though I don’t feel it. (I do feel fat.)
We have switched over the summer plates to fall colors ones (at the equinox), and I found some lovely leave patterned ‘palm cups’ to go with them. I didn’t make our traditional Mabon bread- it was too warm to bake. When it cooled enough, Kat and I made another batch of Jerky because she’d finished the one we made early in the summer.
Last week I tried Chicken Parmesan- (I probably only me nation it because I took a picture) only to discover that I had no breadcrumbs, so it was sort of a ‘diet’ version. I have been trying to go lower carb because they wanted me down to 255 before the colonoscopy. Another day we had pork hash with biscuits. It’s nice to have it cool enough to bake again. I am looking forward to bread and scones and stuff.
We had a bowl of lemons left on the kitchen table when it cooled off and we didn’t feel like having lemonade more, so Kat decided to make another lemon sponge cake. There is no picture because it didn’t work. The ‘angel food cake’ pans I have are all the two piece variety, where you can run a knife around the edge of the pan and lift out the bottom, then slide the knife across that flat part, so the only tricky bit is around the center tube. I’m not sure why, although we suspect the faulty thermostat being too slow to come to heat, but half the sponge deflated and leaked out the crack. The next week, she tried again, making sure the oven was ready before folding the beaten whites into the beaten yolks… and this time it leaked into the pizza pan she’d put under it for leaks. I have now found a solid tube pan and we’ll give it another shot. That first sponge cake was very good. And Willow is curious to see if we can do a chocolate sponge cake. So am I (although not until I’m done “Banting”).
Cutting carbs is hard- potatoes and rice and pasta and bread products are so delicious and filling!
We have fallen back into the habit of Wednesdays being Pizza night and my doing a show for CTCW. This past month I’ve had guest speakers so I don’t have to do much but enjoy it. Lois has figured out how to put the recordings up on our Youtube channel. That’s the only advertising we have, that and word of mouth. I wish I knew more about promotion.
Lois is incredible. I’ve been full of inertia, and meanwhile she’s totally redone the website, putting up the speakers and workshop pages. I’ve been trying to get to it for months. While I’ve been putting up a blog post or two each week, and doing the show, and trying to consolidate the speaker pages from the past ten years so we can get rid of all the extras. We’ve been having meetings every week, the past one we had the deadline for late speakers (we are SO bad at deadlines) and finally got Orion and Kirk’s proposals in. Next week we have to pick panels- which we do by which have panelists signed up for them. We can’t really have a panel without panelists, no matter how good the topic, and until we know who’s on panels, Kathy can’t make the schedule.
I have continued to study the Lenormand card system, and have even caught Cathy in my web. She picked up a deck she saw on Wish for less than five dollars and loves it. I will admit that when she mentioned it, I went to Wish and looked at it for a couple of hours. Very pretty stuff. Often VERY cheap because they are very bad at showing the real product. Sometimes they have basically what you can get here, sometimes they have cheap knock-offs (they are infamous for using artists designs without permission!) and you don’t know what you’ll get until it arrives. Willow figures it’s about a 50/50 chance. She also warned me away from it. I think it’s like the lottery, it’s cool to think you could get your frivolous desires met for a fraction of the real price. I
’ve been studying the Lenormand since July, and am getting fairly good with it. I now have five books and four decks (and four more on my wish-list). I’ve decided to make a set during the Inktober challenge. I started by cutting 3×5 index cards in two, and trimming the edges. I figure it’s easier to make another blank card if I mess up than to have a nice drawing ruined by cutting it crooked afterwards. October has 31 days and Lenormand has 36 images, so I’ll have to double up or run over.
Gretel has come downstairs, she no longer stays in Kat’s room all the time. Zoloft does beat her up every so often, and goes into Kat’s room to sit on the bed and prove that she’s dominant. Gretel chirrups a lot, and seems to always be in heat. We know she needs spaying, but budget wise, at this point dental work gets priority over spaying the cat.
Well, that’s it for this week. Next week I get to tell you all about my colonoscopy and visit to the dentist! (You can look forward to that.) Maybe more ranting about crooked politicians. Stay well,
Tchipakkan/ Virginia
“I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” – Ruth Bader Ginsberg. (So does BLM)
Those who never retract their opinions, love themselves more than they love truth–Joubert
Tchipakkan 