Hi, again. Thought I’d get back to writing weekly, I guess not.
October 27 to November 8, 2020
I am editting a bit, but leaving some sections as written two weeks ago. That may be confusing The color is still pretty amazing for the end of October, more bare branches, but a lot of color, especially when the sun hits it. This week’s picture I shot at sunset, so only the top of the tree is as brilliant as it has been. Today and yesterday have been rainy, so this may be the week where we get rain and wind that knocks the rest of the leaves down, leading us into Bleak November. Amazing thing about light- what looks like muted beiges and browns becomes brilliant oranges and reds when the light hits it. I wonder if that’s why glaucoma makes you lose the ability to discern colors as well?
November did give us a week of nasty cold, during which we really appreciated the wood stove! But this is New England, and yesterday was in the seventies (I kept peeling off layers), and while we are mostly down to the bronzes, with occasional flashes of scarlet from the sumac and yellow birches, there are more leaves on the trees than I expected. Especially as we even had snow before Halloween. Four inches, although most of it melted within a day or two (except in the shadow on the north side of the house, I feel an analogy there…). I expect more cold and rain shortly, and am prodding John to get the last load of firewood into the woodshed. I must say that the lovely snow on the branches contrast of white against black looked even more dramatic- and unusual, with the oranges behind.
Early in the pandemic I’d ordered a good supply of organic pasta, mostly because it’s hard to find organic locally), just the basics: spaghetti, elbows, but a dozen pounds of each. And we always have a selection of ramen. It’s one of the things Kat can usually eat, even when her digestion is being a brat. Sadly, all the cupboards are full, and I haven’t got a place to keep three months supply of pasta, so we had stuck it in the wood closet temporarily, and the time has come when we needed that back! Willow came up with the scheme of getting another galvanized steel trashcan (we have two in the back hall in which we keep our flour, sugar, rice, etc.) for the pasta, and found a place for it under the counter in the pantry, by sending my 40 gallon bin of cookie cutters down cellar. I have to admit that we eat pasta two or more times a week, and while I love my cookie cutter collection (I have over 500), I use cookie cutters only a few times a year, so that makes sense. (Now that I’m reminded, I want to make cookies, of course.)
We finally picked up some pumpkins about a week before Hallowe’en. We went with little ones again this year. We may end up eating them, which usually doesn’t happen with the big jack-o-lantern pumpkins. They look cute on the railing posts. Also, no one comes up here to trick or treat. My “kids”, now in their thirties, no longer enjoy carving jack-o-lanterns. To a certain extent, the ‘art’ of making a unique design appeals, but not enough in these times of low energy. On a brighter note, Keene has not cancelled Trick-or-treating, so Kat and Willow could go help Avi as they did last year. Kat dressed up like a spooky Victorian veiled ghost (filmy layers OVER warm ones) and distributed the candy, Willow and Avi each could escort one of her kids. Usually I mourn the lost of ‘free-range’ trick-or-treaters, but this year I suspect supervision was needed to keep them properly distanced, masked, and not touching anything potentially contaminated. Kat says she asked each kid and some preferred having the candy thrown. Still, I enjoyed watching images of Halloween masks aimed at the lower half of the face go by on facebook. Ingenious commercialism! Howl at the Moon Night was actually the day I first started this letter. The week before Halloween has a lot of “spooky” themed holidays. As opposed to in the Mexican Dia de los Muertos, which has specific days to mourn dead children, or those who died in accidents, etc., American spin-off holidays seem to have more to do with Universal (and other movie) Monsters. I think the only reason we don’t have Zombie Day is because it doesn’t sound good. (Maybe Walking Dead Wednesday?) They do have Frankenstein Friday, Black Cat Day, Chucky the Killer Doll Day, Wicked Witch Day, Haunted Refrigerator Day (“You don’t usually see that sort of behavior in a major appliance”), and “Bring your Jack-o-Lantern to Work” Day. Pumpkin (Carving) Day is one week before Halloween, which makes sense, Candy Corn Day is the day before Halloween, the same day as “Disgusting Little Pumpkin-shaped Candies Day”. (Why do they even still make those? The only thing I can think of that’s grosser is (are?) those banana-flavored but peanut shaped marshmallow candies “circus peanuts”, which are still made, and when I looked the name up found to have been the inspiration for the marshmallows in Lucky Charms cereal!). The night before Halloween is also called Beggers’ night/ Devil’s Night/ Mischief Night/ Hell night/ Cabbage Night/ Gate Night, Mizzy Night/ Miggy Night/Tick-Tack Night/Corn Night/Trick Night/Arson Night/ Cabbage Night/ Gate Night/ Goosing Night/ Egg Nyte. It’s a night for “pranks”, as was the night before Guy Fawkes Day in England. I suppose we need occasional days for people to blow off steam (short of The Purge). During Saturnalia the masters and servants changed roles, and there are other historical holidays like that. They mostly appear in situations where one group has unreasonable levels of control over another. I suppose it’s a venting mechanism, but think a balanced culture would be better all around.
Here’s another bit of Trivia for you. In our list of “Halloween” themed movies John’s been watching, The Raven, with Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, and Boris Karloff (and a very young Jack Nicholson), is always a fun favorite. Lorre plays Dr. Bedlow, a magician who’s always drunk, and it occurred to me that the other names were meaningful, so I looked up Bedlow. It means “A person who knows how to drink a lot on a night out. Usually a farmer, and loves a Monday uni social.” So that name was another joke.
The Changing Times-Changing Worlds conference continues to approach at somewhat alarming speed. On the CTCW show before Halloween, Ellen Evert Hopman spoke about the Sacred Herbs of Samhain (one of her books). I was invigorated by speaking with her; she is a lovely and brilliant woman. The bit I found most interesting was that she explained that since the Celts start everything ‘in the dark’, the Celtic Samhain is actually held at the Dark Moon, so it will actually be the 15th this year. Another two weeks of Halloween if we like! At least this period will be the time of the “thin veil”, so we should be able to reach our ancestors more easily. Do look for visits in your dreams, or hints that the beloved dead may be dropping in. Last Wednesday I realized I’d forgotten to schedule a guest and was scrambling for something to talk about when I got a message from one of the CTCW speakers, cancelling for that evening. I’d forgotten to record that she was down for that day- luckily, or I’d have put up an announcement by then. Instead Lois and I did readings for each other- offered to do them for anyone else, but no one took us up on it. Then the next night, I totally spaced the planning meeting (which have been happening every Thursday night all year).
Willow has pretty much expanded our “pod” to include Avi’s family (which means their contacts, and since that includes school, it makes us nervous. She comes home exhausted from trying to get Kalen to do the part of schooling he does at home. (Is there anything so useless as only having school 3 days a week? The kids and teachers- and their families- are STILL getting exposed, but they have to deal with all the complications of trying to get them to work from home.) Still, Willow can tell how much she helps Avi (who’s working from home). She’s been trying to get him a one-on-one aide all along, and Willow does it well, although she still hates fractions. She likes being able to make Avi’s life just a bit easier too. During the October cold snap, Willow, Kat and I were at Big Lots and picked up scarfs. Willow and I got the same one- me in purple and her in green- that’s a loose knit tube. I have to say having something to wear over your head keeps you warm. Also I think it looks cool when I’m doing the show.
TMI warning: Personally, I put my brain fog down to being drained. Having spent a month on antibiotics (for the infected tooth), I had the entirely expectable reaction of having lost all my intestinal flora. If you have lost your biome after antibiotics, you understand, it’s not rare these days. There are few things so draining as constant diarrhea. Don’t get me wrong, I am a fan of antibiotics. As a history maven, I recognize how many times I’d have been dead if I lived in the Middle Ages instead of just playing at it. With the impacted tooth I’ve been thinking about the pharaoh Hatsepsut who seems to have died from an infected tooth. After the infection was shot down, I got a new antibiotic for the (expected) fungal infection. I had had my kindle set up with alarms every four hours: every eight hours an antibiotic, and probiotic between each. I drank to avoid getting dehydrated. I was good about it, yet, you need all those gut bacteria. I keep reading that some of our emotions and ability to think are connected to the gut. I am beginning to believe that. I’ve read about this, and discovered that a colonoscopy prep (such as I did at the beginning of October) can also cause the same problem. So that and antibiotics on top is like surgery followed by chemo. The websites say it takes a month to get it in working order again. Swell. Also that it takes six months for full recovery, and that it’s not really full, you never get back everything you had. I would guess that means that I was already low from previous runs of antibiotics. Basically, if you haven’t skipped this paragraph, let your take-away be to only take antibiotics when you need to, and be as careful as you can to add the probiotics back as well as you can (also if you have a colonoscopy) We need our good bacteria. I’m taking several sorts of probiotics with dozens of types of bacteria in them- mostly it’s acidophilus that you can get easily. I’m drinking kefir, kombucha, eating yogurt, skyr, sauerkraut. Eating foods rich in polyphenols like green tea, onions, blueberries, broccoli, chocolate; whole grains, whole grains, apples, oatmeal and bananas are apparently “prebiotic” foods. Raw vegetables are sort of difficult right now while I’m waiting for my tooth socket to heal (more on that later). I’m trying to avoid sugars and processed foods. It is quite a challenge to find yogurt, kefir, etc. that isn’t highly sweetened. I saw Dr. Quirbach again on Friday, the one month follow-up after starting the blood-pressure med. That, BTW, seems to be working beautifully, and my BP is back to normal. He was the one who suggested the kefir, apparently he got turned onto the benefits of it when he adopted a child from the Ukraine. That’s about the only thing they’ve got going for them to keep the kids healthy.
So about the tooth- I had it removed a week ago Friday, down at the Tufts Emergency clinic. Kat went with me and got started on her work at Tufts. I’d lost some time when I had to cancel and reschedule an appointment because I had some cold symptoms. I’ve finally gotten through most of the preliminary stuff, and Orestes, my student dentist, and I went through the options for restoring my teeth. First option, I could have five teeth removed and have a partial plate to go around them. I basically told him that that was a bad option for me. Covering my palate, as that does, would mean that I’d have to take it out in order to eat, so I could taste my food. That really appalled him, since the point behind dentures is to be able to chew with them. He said he could make a type of plate that only covered part of the palate. No one had told him before that covering the palate stopped the ability to taste. He said that taste is in the tongue. I explained that’s only sweet, salt, bitter, salt and umami, but most of what we taste comes through scent, which goes through the palate. So he said that they could do a “outer arch”, which can’t be done as a partial. They’d have to take out ALL my remaining uppers, including the five that aren’t “hopeless”, put in four implants, and then attach the arch to that. That would be about $12-14 thousand dollars, whereas the partial would be “only” about $8K. Since I’ll have to get a loan from the bank either way, I think going for the one that would allow me to actually enjoy my food, is the way to go. If you do an internet search, the simple answer is that dentures don’t change how you taste the food “because taste is in the tongue”, but that some patients “complain” that they can’t taste with the dentures. This is a clear example of doctors ignoring reported results because it conflicts with what they need to believe. They don’t want to think that they are hurting their patients. At least Orestes listens to me. On the other hand, since having the one (lower) tooth removed, I am hesitant to embrace having 11 teeth removed all at one go. (They have to do that, so they can immediately put in a temporary denture to wear to protect the gums while the bone heals.) I was told years ago that I couldn’t get an implant because the bone wasn’t strong enough to support it. Now they say it looks great. But still, I am not eager for 11 times the discomfort. Admittedly, I only needed aspirin a couple of times after, so the minor ache a week later doesn’t count much. But with eleven? I think I would need some serious pain killers, and would probably be a horrible whiny baby and make the kids miserable for at least a week. “Luckily”, there’s the money issue, and until I hear back from the bank, we can’t go forward.
Let’s talk about Halloween- when I started writing Willow was finishing the Maleficent outfit for Joannie’s mom. She did get it out in time, and I think it looked really well. Willow and Kat went over to Avi’s to help as they did last year. Avi took Bianca around, Willow took Kalen. The sprig on top of the helmet seems to identify him as a character from a game I don’t know, and I get the impression that Willlow’s outfit was from the same game. She had both a mask with teeth at the neck, and another toothy mouth across her belly- on her hoodie.
Kat put on one of her filmy Victorian gowns, over a lot of warm clothing, and did the ’spooky ghost lady’ bit again. She offered the kids to take the candy or have her toss it to them, apparently tossing was popular. It was really cold that night, and we got no one here, which didn’t surprise, but sort of disappointed me. I think Halloween is an excellent holiday because it taught kids that neighbors were people too, and it was safe to approach them. I suppose that was pretty much gone already. It’s turned into “Free Candy” night- with costumes. Candy and Costumes are pretty cool anyway. But I know that one of the lessons we learned was that you were going to get a lot more apples, bags of popcorn, and popcorn balls than candy, and most of it was going to be the mini-bars or boxes with two chiclets in it. There was no expectation of full sized bars or handfuls of little candies. Like the house decorating, I think a lot of trying to keep up expectations has changed Halloween. I enjoy looking at the yards with graveyards or mounted Death figures, but at the same time, I think a jack-o-lantern should be the default decoration, and a smaller candy bar should be acceptable. This should be a night of fun and sharing, of community. There should be more home-made costumes. As usual, putting the ability to sell ’stuff’ and people not having time to do it themselves, and worse, average people made to feel that they should be ashamed if they don’t have the ability (time, money) to do what the occasional rich folk can do is a negative result of capitalism. Capitalism isn’t intrinsically bad, but it can have some bad effects when not restrained by human empathy and common sense.
I sigh to report that last week the pyrex dish that Mother always used to make Yorkshire puddings in was broken. It was in the sink and a cast iron pot fell on it. My goodness that pyrex was thick! No wonder it lasted so long (she had it in Farmington, so probably bought it in the sixties). I will miss it, and all the wonderful associations I had with it. It’s funny, I was looking recently for images of Yorkshire puddings, and they were all small round versions: essentially flat popovers. I know that since we don’t “roast” food over fires anymore, it’s unlikely for people to put the eggy batter in a pan under the roast to catch the drippings, but the idea that no one ever pours it around the roast (the variation when people turned to ovens), or makes it in a roasting pan I find disorienting. This is another example of people expecting what is familiar to them.
The Election was a bit anticlimactic. We were thinking of voting early, but decided that our town was small enough that it would be safe for us to vote, and I wanted our votes to be counted in that first batch of in-person votes that we all expected to be Trump heavy. No one I knew was surprised at how long the counting took. Frustrated perhaps, but not surprised. I guess the saddest part was that there are so many Trumpists. Apparently they believed, and still believe, his lies, and there are a lot more than we’d expected. Who’d have thought that nearly half the people in America would rather support cruel selfishness and hate, than facts, science, and working for the common good? As a Yankee, it offends me that they are willing to ignore all the evidence that helping everyone makes us all stronger, and they’d rather (as that old study shows) have less themselves than let people they hate (blacks, Native Americans, people who believe differently) benefit as well. They only want to prosper if they can do it and keep the people they despise (like women) beneath them. That makes no sense to me. I want all of us to do well. That there are so many who have embraced hate is going to make it very hard for the Biden administration to fix all the things that Trump has broken. The sad part is that I don’t think that Trump broke America, I think the hatred was there, and I didn’t see it. We moved along in what we thought was progress, getting civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights, animal rights, protection of the environment, …. And we didn’t see that under the veneer of progress, many people were chafing that they used to at least be able to run their own families and businesses with a belt or rudeness to those they didn’t like.
I guess that falls under the heading of something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately as we get ready for CTCW, and dealt with the election. It’s a thing people do- we ignore stuff we don’t want to see whether fascism or magick, how dentures may prevent you from enjoying your food, how a treatment can cause other health problems. No one wants to be the bad guy. We all think we are doing good, and if we don’t see how to prevent it, we simply don’t see what we are doing wrong. It can be really painful and difficult to get past that. I’m not sure how we can help, other than to offer people a way to get what they want without causing harm. And if they could have thought of that themselves, they’d have already been doing it. Sigh. I’m going to figure that’s enough to mention for now. Every day I’ve been putting off getting to writing (since daylight savings time I’m getting up earlier, but since it’s dark before dinner, I’m ready to go to bed around nine!). I’m sure things will be better when I’m not going to the loo every hour, and have more energy.
Stay safe, wash your hands, wear your masks. Live and write until we can see each other again.
Tchipakkan
Tchipakkan 