Hi again, Wednesday, July 8, 2020
OK it’s July 1st. I haven’t written since last month. I’m just going to send this out (I hope) whether or not I’ve covered everything that’s happened since I wrote last.
The last letter I sent to everyone went out May 28th. I’d slipped to about every two weeks and the next one I wrote was June 10th and that’s the one I had trouble getting out. Suddenly I could only send to 5 to 6 at a time (and it wasn’t even consistent!) and I sent out several batches, then gave it up as a bad deal. Steve worked on my computer, and I hope I can figure out who got it and who didn’t, and send it out even if it’s late. (I like to think people want to read the letters.) Today I’ll just write what I can get down today and send it, without trying to cover everything that’s happened in the past month. [So thunderstorms are coming through this afternoon and keep knocking out the computer and modem. So far the letter hasn’t been lost.]
I got very frustrated when the mail program wouldn’t cooperate. First, mail stopped showing up in my (Mac) Mail program from the server (TDS); I called and spent several hours on the phone with them. The final result of that was them saying that it’s not their problem to get the mail that comes through them to get to my computer, I should come to their website every day and read it there. (“Let me tell you all the advantages of reading it on our website!”) That was about the last straw for me. I don’t WANT to open their website and do stuff to get to my mail, and it doesn’t display there unless you click on each piece, which makes both reading articles as well as tossing out spam a pain. After months of isolation on both our parts, we decided that we’d have Steve be our “ one contact”m and frankly, that’s made the shut down much easier on us. Steve has reset the mail a couple of times, since then, (because it went away again after a couple of weeks!). I’ve also looked for other servers, but TDS is the only one in this area that provides land-line phones and internet. (They also keep pushing us to get cable, but I don’t have time for that.) I’ve gotten used to just clicking on the mail icon and reading my mail that when it’s not working I have just “done something else” when it’s not working.
To start catching up:
July has been rainy, and I have to say it’s about time. Usually June is a very rainy month. My observation is that it usually rains at least 15 days (one year I counted 25) of the month. I think we had three days this June. It got hot enough that we finally set up the air conditioner in the living-room mid month, Kat had hers up since May, but she’s more heat sensitive. I still prefer open doors when it’s cooler outside than in. It’s been cool enough recently that I was able to make some scones the other day.
It’s been so hot that I haven’t been cooking much. We’ve been eating the way I think many Americans normally eat. Hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, also a lot of salads: tuna salad, potato salad, tossed salads. The other night we had just antipasto and corn. I miss cooking, but it’s not worth heating up the kitchen.
Another aspect of summer is that I put my e-reader on dim and black background at night to avoid attracting bugs. Before I discovered that trick, the light from the kindle attracted moths and other bugs to the screen, and I worry about biting insects. Dark screen also (I hope) allows me to fall asleep while reading. I read to wind down.
Off and on, since the last time I wrote, I have come back to the draft of this letter. In an earlier draft I wrote: “it’s hot, 90º, which is hardly surprising since it’s summer- or close to it. Solstice is coming on Saturday. While the wild roses are still there the iris are on their last blossoms. I have collected my first batch of red clover flowers. It really bothers me to have to buy them when I only need to go out and pick them when they’re there.” I’ve collected them twice since then.
Currently we have Daisies and day lilies and mallow blooming. (And since I wrote that, Kate’s climbing rose finally bloomed.) The Iris were gorgeous this year! The wild tiny white roses have pretty much taken over the back yard. I now know, after years of living here, that different flowers cycle through, different ones each year. I think I preferred when it was daisies and black eye’d Susans. The rose bush by the corner is an amazing dark red, and smells great (the wild white ones have no scent at all, so in my opinion have no reason for existing). Willow has had one pink rose from Miles. I sort of tell time by what’s growing, and the last letter mentioned that the lilacs had just passed, so it’s been a while.
For a while we had two real pineapples on the front porch (you can see from this image our crumbling front step. Apparently if you don’t refinish it every year, the rain sinks into the wood and it rots. Live and learn. The pineapples were $2 each so I got a couple, but they were also hard and green, so I needed to let them sit and ripen for a while, and that seemed like a good place to have them sit without being in anyone’s way.
Today Wally came up and replaced the boards on the front step, so it looks nice again, although we shouldn’t step on it today. Sadly, I asked Willow to pick up a small can of the oil so we could add another layer or two, but it only comes in gallons for nearly $50, far more than we need for a 3×6 foot space.
At Pennsic last year Willow mixed some tonic water with gatorade. Gatorade is popular at Pennsic and has the advantage of getting liquid as well as electrolytes into you. Willow also drinks tonic water since she heard that it helps with leg cramps (she stopped drinking it once, and the leg cramps came back). Together they are quite tasty: the quinine offsetting the sweetness of the Gatorade. I tried some again when she made it recently and it reminds me strongly of the half-and-half my parents used to use to mix drinks. That was a forbidden fruit. Admittedly, 12 oz. of Tonic water with 6 oz. of gatorade is 169 calories. It’s not water. The same amount of coke would have 210 calories. The other thing I drink a lot is 100% juice in selzer water, I’m estimating at about 1:5 so ~70 calories in a 20 oz. cup. We also drink a LOT of iced tea (Willow discovered that the reason that Red Rose, our favorite brand, is called that because it’s infused with rose petals. Who knew?), lemon water, lemonade, and the occasional egg cream. Kat drinks Coca Cola when she gets nauseous, which is too often, but it does help. The girls also drink pineapple juice which helps against acid reflux. Frankly, I think most of our calories are coming from what we drink in the hot months. We are eating less, and drinking more.
The girls do try to remind me to get out and exercise (take walks) when it’s not too hot. I have to admit that I dress for comfort, and that’s made more evident when I’m near Kat, who always dresses for fashion. One day we took pictures on a walk and here’s Kat, being picturesque, but I have one of each of us at the end of the letter.
Willow has been doing most of the errands. I went out to try to give blood last month, but my hematocrit was too low for them to accept. I worry that it’s the dental work that’s been put off too long that’s hitting my immune system. Kat tried the next week and was able to give, but Willow had to wait for her in the car.
I love this image of her waiting (Kat’s a slow bleeder). The drive was at a church in Milford that had lots of Pokemon stops, so Willow was able to capture some at the Saint Francis shrine. I love the way they make the Pokemon appear in the real space.
I fear that if I tried it I would get addicted to playing. She also got a flat tire on one set of errands, but luckily although I was going to come get them, Tire Warehouse turned out to have one in the size she needed, so that worked.
I want to do jigsaw puzzles, but I don’t want to waste too much time doing them. Will that be addictive? I don’t know yet. I tried the ‘ coloring’ fad and enjoyed it a few years ago, but didn’t get hooked. I have one puzzle waiting (Van Gogh’s Starry Night) but I promised myself not to try it until I’ve gotten the letter out. I also got a new box of iridescent paints, I’m trying in my coloring book.
The house is looking quite festive. We have 8 flag poles up now. USA, Earth, Coexist (many religious symbols), A BLM multi-cause flag, Gay rainbow, Bi-sexual, Asexual, and Transexual flags. Willow also got some glass paint and put a target on the back of her car. (Really, BLM, but it could increase the chances of vandalism by jerks. There are bozos that fly the confederate flag around here. I think they think that makes them “rebels”, not losers.
News continues to be stressful, although the Supreme Court handed down several rulings that I liked- including gay rights under the gender rights law, and maintaining the DACA program (and of course, the toddler in chief had a tantrum. He has actually said “I have the right to do whatever I want as President”. That was last year, but he still doesn’t seem to understand what it means to be president. I think he thinks he’s emperor.) Tantrums are his go-to response. I haven’t read Bolton’s book, but got the highlights from the news, not particularly interested in Trump’s niece’s book, we already know that he’s a jerk, has always been a jerk, and will probably always be a jerk.
Willow’s defense is writing fiction; Kat made a summer dress made of cotton sari fabric based on some Victorian patterns. Adapting a generic pattern from a book is challenging. I’m not sure I could it. Her biggest issue was not having the right colored thread to sew it, or the light interfacing she needed. This is the perennial issue for me- you need ONE thing, go to the store and see things that inspire you to want to do two or three more projects, take them home and they go into storage- which keeps growing, and for every one I finish, at least two new ideas spring from my fertile imagination. So there’s this huge stash, but it’s almost all committed to those other projects, so the next time I need something specific, I still have to go out for it (into the dangerous ‘cave of wonders’ that is the fabric store)! My defense is reading and doing the holidays. On the other hand, I have been tempted by jigsaw puzzles and also got a new “pearlescent” paint set I have tried with my coloring books (last year’s pseudo-meditation).
I think we all try to stay busy- but it’s the busy of the “retired”. The FB page Holidays that Might Get Overlooked won’t get done if I don’t check my old lists and see which events have moved, been cancelled, or been added. It’s not like I’m being paid for it, but I do hope it brings a bit of joy into some people’s lives. While many are promotions for products, I don’t think it’s bad to remind people of the simple joys of seasonal produce, ice cream, and I think awareness days are a good idea especially as it’s so easy to forget that many of the challenges our friends and neighbors are dealing with aren’t something they display.
It seems to me that people in our culture tend to ‘put on a happy face’ for the public. “No-one likes a whiner.” But we all “buck up”, and do our best to deal with both the global and the personal challenges, but right now, they’ve piled up so much that many of us occasionally get to the point where we don’t deal with it any more. The phrase “The Straw that Broke the Camel’s Back” is being illustrated constantly. We could deal with any of these problems if they’d just come one at a time, but when they come all at once, and just KEEP coming, at some point the accumulation is too much to deal with. It manifests as anxiety, as depression, as mysterious physical symptoms, or as anger or fear… either for “no reason” or sometimes we semi-arbitrarily find something or someone to aim it at. Occasionally you can detect someone crumpling under the mass of stress, and we try to express support long distance, but it sure would be nice to be able to go over and give them a hug, bring them some comfort food, or just be there. People are herd/pack/social animals, and let’s face it ’social media’ is only better than nothing.
One Saturday last month a car stopped in front of our house. It was Mike, who’d lived here before with Linda and Dennis, and his wife Eileen. They’d been out bringing stuff to his son a few towns over, and he decided to show her where he’d lived. I think we chatted (distanced) for a half hour or more. It was so nice to actually see someone else! Finally we decided to invoke the suggestion that each household could interact with ONE other household, as long as both were careful and they kept it to one, so we decided that Steve, who lives and works at home, alone (with his cat) was someone we could all agree on, and he’s been up a few times (as mentioned in my tale of computer woes). It feels SO good to have that little bit of normalcy back.
When they decided to open up restaurants again, Mark invited John and me to lunch again, and I decided that it was safe enough as long as we ate outside. Luckily T Bones has a patio. They also have folding chairs and tables under a tent in the parking lot, but thank goodness we went to the patio because the chairs there were comfortable! Figuring that we’d be eating outside, we invited Mark to come for Fourth of July. Willow picked up some of the natural charcoal and a new grill, and we had hot dogs, hamburgers, and chicken as well as corn on the cob and potato salad. Enough that we were able to just eat leftovers the next day. It’s a pity that the pile of buns was so tall, Kat made a lovely tray of sliced tomatoes, onions, pickles, cheeses, sautéed mushrooms and jalapeños to go on the burgers. It was sybaritic as well as traditional. It made me feel better.
Poor Liz had to see Roxie, her little dog, through the fireworks because she’s really close to the lake, and that is a great place for people to feel they can shoot rockets off safely. Dogs don’t care for it though. A few days later she was up all night with Roxie who was ill. I wonder if it was stress reaction from the fire-works, but she almost took her to the 24 hour Vet in Lewiston, but didn’t because she’d have to leave her and go home to wait for a call, and it’s an hour each way. Luckily Roxie was OK in the morning. Sadly, Liz went out to the lake to have a swim and relax, but when she looked for her afterwards, she couldn’t find her. Amanda had invited Roxie into her camp for a visit, and not told Liz, so Liz flashed back into panic. Roxie is adorable but she’s about 8 pounds, less than any of our cats!
I want to do a thank you shout-out to Alexis amd Kate (Bob’s daughter, so that would make him my nephew-in-law?) went up to Clearwater last month and repaired the dock which had been really ripped up by the ice this winter. Liz isn’t sure that there aren’t still too many rocks fallen out of the crib to put in the boat cradle, but Kitty is optimistic. Having seen the before pictures I am VERY impressed!
Turns out that Kitty has decided to move back to Farminton too. 
She loved her house on the Lake Sabbatia, but has found a lovely house a block or so from town, which will allow her to come out to Clearwater (at any point the road is passible). From the Zillow images, it looks like she’ll have room for a lovely studio. (Kitty’s my sister who does gorgeous water-color paintings.) Having been an art teacher, she continued spending summers at the lake while the rest of us only visited. She’s fond of the motor boat, although I love the pictures of her and her dog in kayaks.
I’m afraid that rarely a day passes when we don’t have one of those nostalgic moments, we think about other years when we’d have gone to Panteria, or Canobie Con, or GNEW. We’d be getting ready for Pennsic. We can tell ourselves that we’ll probably be able to go next year, and it’s not as if it was happening and we were missing it. Still, stray thoughts like “How is Butler County going to get by without the influx of Pennsic money?” or “I’ve got no need to make new garb.” pop up. We don’t have to reserve a room for stopping half way, we don’t have to re-up our stock. I don’t have to prepare classes. (I tell myself I should be revamping the old hand-outs, but I don’t get to it.)
On the other hand, I am doing classes. First, I did my 6th Century Plague class from 2011 for the Palio Virtual event. That was on Googlemeet and I had to try to relearn how that worked. Turns out, as poor Ciarnait tried to walk me through it, that in the
Help forum it actually says that Google “doesn’t play well with Macs”. She was reading this to me while looking at a split screen because we’d been trying to figure out how I could put up my graphics, but as the help page explained, while you can get a Mac to go full screen with the usual button, usually you have to turn the machine off and on again to get out of it. I decided to not use graphics. It was rather nice to see friends in garb, and I was reminded how much more comfortable, as well as attractive, garb is over regular clothing.
I am more comfortable with Zoom than Googlemeet. I have started doing talk shows again. I chose Wednesday nights 8 to 9 again because it’s easier to take up old habits. (The kids are quite comfortable with having Wednesday become Pizza night again. Sadly, Market Basket hasn’t been getting in any “supreme” pizzas recently, so we’ve been adding stuff to plain cheese rising crust frozen pizzas. The first time I got carried away and put so much on it the crust couldn’t cook!) So far we are simply calling it CTCW Wednesdays, although Maryalyce calls it Tchipakkan’s show, and I keep thinking of it as the New Normal- (or the new and not much improved normal). The topics are pretty much the same- I’m tapping CTCW speakers as guests, and aiming at divination, healing, folklore, supernatural stuff. We are trying to figure out how to put them up on Youtube. Thor is going to try to caption them for the deaf for us. We’re also trying to figure out how to store them since taking visuals of everyone who’s watching at the same time uses up a LOT of space whether in the cloud or on a computer.
Since it’s Zoom it records/ shares video as well as audio, which makes me feel rather insecure. I did catch one suggestion while watching John Stewart talk to Stephen Colbert and he told him- don’t look at the image of me, look at the camera on your computer, and that makes it look like you’re looking at the audience, not off to the side. I tried that, and especially as my computer camera is about 6 inches over my head, that gets my eyes to open a bit more, which makes me look better. I’ve noticed we see a LOT of ceilings (and top halves of faces), because I think most people are on laptops or tablets on tables in front of them. Or maybe the ceilings are just cleaner than the living rooms; I know mine shows more mess than I’d like.
The theory is that if we post 20 sample classes and panels, that will let people know what Changing Times- Changing Worlds is about and they’ll want to come to the conference in November. It will also give us practice at working with Zoom. In many ways I am really looking forward to setting up some panels on the show, in others, I’m wondering if I can make it work.
Sometime this summer I’ll probably be doing a show on the Petite Lenormand cards. A while ago I got a deck of what I thought was Tarot cards in the Art Nouveau style. Turns out they weren’t Tarot, but from a different system, aimed at fortune telling without a lot of the esoteric symbology of the Tarot. It’s got more basic symbols: Key, Heart, Birds, Fish, Child, Mountain, Clouds, Fox, etc. I have become fascinated with the new system, and have ordered another deck that’s smaller. This one has old associations with a game where you lay the whole 36 card deck out and then use dice to play a game something like Snakes and Ladders, where ‘wait a turn’, ‘go back,’ ‘give the other player something’, etc. are based on the card you land on. The original decks were much smaller, and a layout in these Tarot sized cards is difficult. The symbols are also combined with the suits with numbers or court cards, which are also included in the divination system, so it sounds great. Apparently it has burst onto the American occult community recently, and “more Lenormand cards have been produced in the last five years than the previous 200”, so I am NOT ahead of the fashion at all.
What with the thunder storms I’m going to cut this short. I will say I am not watching the 10th season of MASH, and I’ve read several really good books on this and other pandemics. I am now diverting into the fortune telling cards- lighter reading.
I’d love to hear how everyone else is doing.
Tchipakkan/ Virginia
“There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.”― J. R. R. Tolkien
Food and Fun Holidays coming up
W 8 Milk Chocolate with Almonds Day, Blueberry Day, Ice cream Sundae Day, Freezer Pop Day, Video Games Day
Th 9 Sugar Cookie Day, Fashion Day, Rock and Roll Day
F 10 Pina Colada Day, Hot Dog Night, Teddy Bear’s Picnic Day,
S 11 Blueberry Muffin, Slurpee, Ranier Cherries, Mojito Day, Pet Photo Day
S 12 Pecan Pie Day, Different colored eyes Day, “Luckiest Day of the Year”
M 13 French Fries Day, Bean and Frank Day, Embrace your Geekness Day
T 14 Mac and Cheese Day, World Kabab Day, Grand Marnier Day, Nude Day
W 15 Tapioca Pudding Day, Gummi Worm Day, Be a Dork Day, St. Swithin’s Day
St Swithin’s Day, if it does rain
Full forty days, it will remain
St Swithin’s Day, if it be fair
For forty days, twill rain no more
Tchipakkan 