Dwarf Planet in Purple

Which is mostly church stuff, the last couple of weeks. We trustees, the lone five of us, have spent lots of time down "in the weeds," to manage the details of things that a church administrator should be doing (except we don't have one) or a volunteer committee should be handling (except volunteers are in short supply). I am assistant secretary on top of being a trustee, and it's hard to take notes AND participate meaningfully in a discussion. I grew up with the journalistic paradigm of sitting in a corner and writing everything down and not saying anything until it's time to ask questions at the end of the meeting.

We're dealing with so many different things that it's like watching the guy spinning plates on top of sticks on The Ed Sullivan Show. We talk about finding a temporary alternate worship site and what to do about the busted Internet/phone system in the RE Building and what should we do about the small private school that leases our space, and then church members who are not on the Board press us to repeat our explanation about why we didn't approve the mortgage, when are we going to fix the deck (with what money?), why can't we use our building when the school is using it (because the school is mostly using outdoor pavilions as classrooms).

And on and on and on, until I want to start screaming: Do we even want to be together as a congregation anymore? Do people want to do more than just tune into Zoom or Facebook Live once a week? We used to have lots of different activities, but nobody seems to be starting them up again as the pandemic recedes. So many of us are getting old. We don't even have children's religious education stuff anymore, because virtually no one in the congregation has young kids.

I just wish we would settle on the big picture so that we could fill in the details, instead of just running on a treadmill of endless details. We're rather like the five blind men who examined an elephant and came to different conclusions. (Sorry if I'm mixing metaphors and tales here, but I'm tired.)

Since last Thursday (or Wednesday night here) I have been intensely following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I have no Ukrainian ancestry, but several of my friends do. Plus, Lithuania is one of those Baltic states that Putin would probably love to scoop back up in his insane quest to re-create the Soviet Union. Heck, he'd probably prefer Lithuania over Latvia or Estonia because he could just steamroller through Lithuania to get to the Kaliningrad exclave.

So, yeah, Ukraine's problem makes me worry about Lithuania's future.

R. is SO convinced that Russia will take over Lithuania within a year. He keeps telling me I should have gone to visit already, but it's too late now. He never tells me where he got this information, though -- he falls back on his past work in defense contracting. Whatever. I like to know *sources*.

Anyhow, back to mainlining CNN's live coverage....

Hey, it's about time. Five things make a post.

1. Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of my dear mother's passing. I remember my parents' 25th wedding anniversary -- red roses, silver-colored gifts, firecrackers and Roman candles. There are no such general symbols for a death anniversary. I volunteered to light the chalice during yesterday's Sunday service (on Zoom). It seemed the best way to honor her.

2. Saturday I ventured out to the local town cinema -- first time to a movie theater in almost two years! -- to see the new West Side Story on the wide screen. It was every bit a visual feast as you would expect from the pairing of one of the all-time great director-cinematographer teams, plus the music was exquisite. I have loved this music since I danced to "I Feel Pretty" in my preschool ballet class. No matter what you might think of the plot or the general artificiality of a movie (or staged) musical, you have to admit that the music is some of the most sublime ever written. I'm so sorry this film is now considered a "box-office bomb."

3. I have been spending money like crazy. New eyeglasses (first since the summer of 2013), vet exam and blood/urine tests for Julia (who is now a senior kitty), new muffler and tailpipe for the noisy car. Whew. Hard come, easy go.

4. I am SO. INCREDIBLY. TIRED. of this covid-19 pandemic. None of the organizations to which I belong can meet in person this month because of the omicron surge. Atlantia is "shut down" until January 21; Storvik is taking the entire month of January off. Church is soldiering on with Zoom meetings. Same with Toastmasters. People are fed up with virtual this and online that. My local science writers' group had its second online holiday gala last month and attendance was barely two dozen instead of the usual 150 or so. No wonder people drive like entitled maniacs and treat strangers so poorly when they do manage to leave their hidey-holes. We are all losing social capital.

5. Just now, as I was writing the above, I heard a crash in the condo. The little wooden shelf in the dining room fell off the wall. It's the little wooden shelf I gave Mom for her 75th birthday. Is it a sign??

Over and out....

So much going on despite the pandemic.

TOASTMASTERS: At our last meeting (May 5) it was my turn to lead the Table Topics. Since it was the 60th anniversary of Alan Shepard's historic suborbital flight, I didn't think twice about the theme. I just had to make the questions a bit wordier than "normal" because I wasn't sure how much the members of my audience might know about the Mercury program. Here are my questions:

1. Alan Shepard was born in the small town of Derry, NH. Around the time that he became the first U.S. astronaut in space, some people in Derry wanted to rename the town “Spacetown” to honor Shepard. My question to you is: If you were to change the name of a community where you’ve lived, either now or where you grew up or where you lived sometime in the past, what would you change it to and why?

2. Sometimes Alan Shepard liked to pull off stunts that were not quite allowed, like buzzing the Bay Bridge and Ocean City while stationed at Pax River and hitting two golf balls on the lunar surface. My question to you is: Have you ever done something that you weren’t supposed to do, but you did it anyway and nothing bad happened as a result?

3. NASA carefully managed the public image of the original Mercury Seven astronauts, including Alan Shepard. The astronauts also had an exclusive contract with Life magazine for access to their private lives and home lives, to make them seem like nice, proper All-American heroes. My question is: Should today’s celebrities keep as tight a lid on their private lives as the NASA astronauts did?

4. In the not too distant future, ordinary people might be able to go into space as “space tourists.” Some of these space tourists might be treated to a suborbital ride, something like Alan Shepard’s, that takes people up into space for a few minutes of weightlessness and then splashes down in the ocean. My question is: If money were no object, would you go on a short space trip like that? Why or why not?

CHURCH: I've been recruited to join the board of trustees once again. I served as a trustee back in the 2010-2011 (I think) church year, but that was to fill the last year of an unexpired term after somebody had resigned. Now it looks as if I'm in for a full three-year term. I'm a bit nervous about it, but 22 years after signing the congregational membership book, I really *should* do my part to keep the church running.

SCA: I worked on a linen camicia (Italian underdress) and entered it in the Virtual Highland River Melees competition for Italian undergarments. It wasn't quite finished, but mine was declared one of three winners and I'm getting a small gift in the mail (a goblet cover, I believe). I am also trying to get back into inkle weaving, although my early attempts don't look that polished. I really want to learn Baltic-style weaving, which is more complicated, so I really need to nail the basics before pushing into advanced topics.

HOME LIFE: The boy toy got his second Pfizer shot on May 4th, and after a day of feeling achy all over, he's recovered. To celebrate, we day-tripped to Winterthur on Friday. Lovely place indeed, and the gardens were at Peak Azalea. Before going to the mansion, we had lunch at a place called Johnnie's Dog House and Chicken Shack, which turned out to be right across the (wide and busy) street from the First Unitarian Church of Wilmington. The clouds started to roll in during our trip, but the rain held off until the drive home.

(Yeah, I know I don't usually make two posts in one day anymore, but I thought this one deserved its own entry.)

Today I got my first covid-19 vaccine!!! I have been eligible for only a week and I have my first of the two Pfizer shots. Whew!

Thanks to the state vaccine portal, I went to Six Flags America to get vaccinated. I thought everything was pretty well organized, although I was amazed at the vast quantity of the orange traffic cones used to snake cars around the parking lots. (So glad I did not have to pay $25 for the privilege of viewing the parking lots. Gaaaah, theme parks are SO expensive these days.) As CNN's Sanjay Gupta observed when getting one of the very first Pfizer shots on live TV, the vaccine is administered through such a fine-gauge needle that it hurts less than the annual flu shot. If I didn't watch out of the corner of my eye, I wouldn't have even noticed the shot!

Twelve hours later, I seem to be having no reaction whatsoever. I'm getting tired, but that's due to the hour, not the vaccine.

I dedicate this vaccine to Master Liam St. Liam, who would have turned 62 tomorrow if not for this plague, and for other friends who have lost family members.

Over and out.

So ... what have I been doing with the rest of my life, the part that isn't constantly doomscrolling about politics?

(Doomscrolling ... another word that has entered the language in the past year or so.)

The boy toy and I are still in good health. Although neither of us has been tested for covid-19, I don't think we have it. Certainly we have had no symptoms. I have had a dry morning cough for years, long before the pandemic started, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is an early marker of heart failure, compounded by years of exposure to second-hand smoke. I am my mother's daughter.

(On both sides of my family, I have many more male relatives than female relatives. My mother's only sister drank herself to death at age 60. I'm 61.)

Julia the cat is in good health, too, although I should probably take her for a checkup, as she is getting up there in years.

We still haven't heard whether we will be getting Stove #3, so at some point I'll have to decide whether to pay to have Stove #2 repaired. But we are still eating well around here. On Sunday I baked a tourtiere -- French Canadian meat pie -- from the late Alex Trebek's recipe. I have no shortage of tourtiere recipes in my French Canadian cookbook -- it's one of those things that each family makes slightly differently. But Alex's recipe tasted awesome, and I'll certainly make it again.

On Thursday the 14th, the boy toy and I dared to travel to Delaware for a few hours. It was the first time I'd set foot outside Maryland since the last week of December 2019. We drove on I-95 as far as a certain rest stop so I could take the obligatory tourist photo.



Next, we drove around the University of Delaware campus, which reminded me somewhat of the campuses of the University of Maryland and UMass-Amherst. The opposite thing but the same thing, as one of my past housemates would have said. We ate lunch at a socially distanced Irish pub in Middletown before heading home.

Church is ... church. We have our Zoom-based services every Sunday morning. We are asking the UUA to consider us for a developmental ministry, in which we would spend several years trying to fix our problems.

The SCA is plugging along in virtual space. On the 9th we had Kingdom Twelfth Night; I need to finish writing that up for my "Lady Patricia of Trakai" blog. This coming weekend we have another "needles and fiber" weekend where we challenge each other to get a sewing or fiber-arts project done. Their Majesties will also hold a virtual court, streaming on YouTube.

Toastmasters is ... Toastmasters. Our local club has meetings on the same nights of the week as we did in the Before Times, and most of us have adapted pretty well to the Zoom life, I'd say.

All in all, I feel about as busy as I did before the pandemic. I'm just not burning as much gasoline to get there.

And I am THRILLED that we are down to the last 24 hours of the orange cheeto's administration! It's the Final Countdown!

Over and out.

Tonight is the longest night, with the winter solstice occurring early tomorrow morning. My church had a solstice-themed lay-led service this morning, and also this evening. I attended both, via Zoom of course. The evening ritual was up against the monthly barony meeting, but after all the stress our congregation has been through during the past six weeks or so, I thought I should support that community. The Storvik meeting was over by the time the ritual ended -- oh, well, next month.

I am still on Stove #2. Apparently the current owner of Stove #3 isn't as far along with his kitchen renovations as the maintenance guy previously thought. The boy toy will make another inquiry when he goes to drop off a gift basket for the maintenance guy. We don't normally give him stuff, but he has been SO helpful to us this year with all our issues -- the Thanksgiving 2019 leak from upstairs, the January 2020 leak from upstairs, installation of the $25 dishwasher, the disintegrating bathroom-sink plumbing, the disposal of Stove #1, the break-in at our building's common storage area, the attempts to fix Stove #2, the meltdown of the building's hot-water system, etc. Plus, he lives *in* this building, so he is our neighbor.

Speaking of neighbors, I scored another bargain from a different neighbor, the one who is an archer for Bright Hills. She posted on Facebook that she and her husband were looking to rehome their 55-inch Panasonic plasma TV. I messaged her and asked her what she would take for an offer, like $100, and we agreed to that. When the boy toy and I walked over to pick it up, however, she told me that her husband didn't want her to take any money for the 10-year-old TV. I couldn't see doing THAT -- she already gave me $50 worth of dry cat food a couple of months ago, and I know she is getting a new catalytic converter for her aging Pontiac, and those suckers are expensive. I had five $20 bills with me, so I gave her $40 and she accepted. The TV works fine and is a *lot* larger than the flat-screen TV we had been using in the living room, which is probably about a 32-inch model. So we put the 55-inch set in the living room, moved the newer small TV from the living room to the bedroom, and put the older bedroom TV (which is also a 32-incher, more or less) in the spare room in case one of us gets covid-19 and has to isolate. Dances with TVs!

Another reason why I jumped on the new TV: I had a rear bearing replaced on my car, and the work plus the "winter package" (oil change and other routine maintenance) came to only $300. For some reason I had convinced myself that the job would cost $800 to $1000. Maybe I was misremembering something I'd read on Facebook (like the cost of replacing multiple bearings on a truck or SUV). Anyhow, I was relieved.

Finally ... earlier this month, I had been looking forward to my annual science writers' holiday party, which of course was going to be virtual. I realized that nobody's going to care what I wear, for all that will show up on screen are my head and shoulders. So I got my first professional haircut in two years -- yes! -- and then, on the day of the party, I dyed my hair a Color Not Found in Nature! Specifically, a semi-permanent ruby color designed for non-bleached hair (my hair is way too fine and limp for bleaching).



I think it looks right purty, don't you? I wouldn't have done this if I had a job interview or professional presentation coming up, but since nobody is hiring me for anything, and I didn't do any of the fancy punk 1980s hairstyles when I was in my 20s because I wanted to be all grown up and professional back then, well, what do I have to lose?

First of all: Happy Birthday, wookiemonster!!!

The year 2020 is rapidly going away, or at least the parts of the year that spice up life. The SCA's governing board made it official today: no in-person events in North America until next February. That relieves some of the stress associated with uncertainty. Also, it heads off any possible problems with people flocking from state to state in search of that one event that didn't get canceled. And virtual events are perfectly permissible, so we in Atlantia will have an online "Pennsic in Your Backyard" weekend in August and another virtual University of Atlantia in September.

But still. This is a long, long time for an organization that relies so heavily on interpersonal social events to pause those events. How will this affect membership numbers? Obviously people like me are hardcore diehards, but what about the people who usually attend events once or twice a year and don't have time for a lot of the activities that happen between events?

So, no SCA events for the rest of 2020, and Chessiecon (which didn't happen in 2019 because the hotel's management imploded) is apparently going online only, though this hasn't been widely publicized yet. And no Christmas pageant by the Washington Revels because the group would have had to start rehearsing a couple of months ago. The huge Toastmasters international convention will be virtual, not that I could have afforded to go to Paris, even though I have a valid passport.

Right now the only thing still "on, as normal" is Philcon, and I wonder how long that's going to stay that way. I know that it's a pretty small and cozy convention these days, and the urge to memorialize the late Hugh Casey (a pillar of the Philcon community) will be great. But, despite the name, Philadelphia's SF con happens in Cherry Hill, NJ, and both Maryland (where I live) and Virginia (where R. lives) are both on New Jersey's list of travel restrictions. So we would have to self-quarantine for two weeks to attend a two-day convention. Uh, I don't see THAT happening....

Hard to believe it's July 20 again. It's the 51st anniversary of the Apollo 11 moonwalk. Last year on this date I drove to far northern Delaware for the 60th birthday party of one of my high school classmates. The temperature was dangerously hot then, and we're in another "heat dome" this week. Ugh.

Now we're moving into October plague cancellations, from Capclave (gone virtual, actually) to the Marine Corps Marathon (canceled outright). Still wondering when the Maryland Renaissance Festival is going to pull the plug, although rumor has it that August 3 is the festival's go/no-go decision date.

To be honest, I haven't attended Capclave since 2004 -- often it conflicts with other events, either SCA or church-related, and I don't find the programming topics enticing. The last time I went, I felt as if I was paying $60 for some stale potato chips in the "con suite," which wasn't a suite, just another windowless conference room.

The SCA keeps on keeping on, with "virtual activities" -- see https://virtual.atlantia.sca.org. This past weekend we had another "Revenge of the Stitch" non-competition, with folks gently encouraging each other to get some sewing and weaving projects done. I made good progress on the sleeves for my German dress, although I didn't finish them. I have a hankering to try my hand at weaving again, but I still have those sleeves to finish, and I'm knitting a mundane cowl for the boy toy (for winter wear).

Yep, the summer heat and humidity are here, big time.

This was possibly the quietest Fourth of July weekend I've had in a long, long time. Because of the pandemic, my neighbor-friend T.V.P. did not have her usual blowout birthday-solstice-Fourth party, complete with the public fireworks display over the lake. My town did not have its municipal fireworks display this year. The boy toy and I watched the coverage of several major cities' fireworks on CNN.

Earlier in the day yesterday, I finally got to see Hamilton on Disney+ (courtesy of the boy toy's parents -- they subscribe on one device, and the subscription says "up to four devices," so they sent him the code). OMG. SO EXCELLENT. Of course I've listened to the soundtrack in bits and pieces over the years, and I've read the Ron Chernow biography on which the show is based, but somehow it all came together when I could see the action and could tell who was singing when. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Lin-Manuel Miranda is his generation's Shakespeare.

(I know some people don't like rap music, but I can take it in reasonable doses, and I don't find the speed of the lyrics any worse than listening to well-performed Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.)

On Friday I watched the YouTube video of the Lithuanian folk dance festival from 2016. The festival was *supposed* to be TODAY in Philadelphia, but because of the pandemic it has been postponed to August 2021. Smack dab in the middle of Pennsic, which of course has been postponed from this year too.

Le sigh. The whole year is being postponed. EXCEPT for the election. We MUST have the election.