My nextdoor neighbor, Brian, is a school music teach and band director. The last time he saw his “kids” was when they said good bye for spring break. Then schools began to close, so they have had online classes but as you can imagine, band class isn’t quite the same and since Brian is changing schools this fall, he felt a little bad about not seeing them again.
The kids apparently felt badly as well because on Monday, the brass section, along with a drummer, showed up in the front yard and serenaded him for about 15 minutes. It was a big surprise to Brian; the kids had set it up with his wife, Sarah. By the end of the performance, quite an audience has gathered, on both sides of Lyndale.
I know that other entertainments and festivities are happening in people’s front yards. A young friend of mine had a drive-by college graduation and Tuey, a juggler that I like, has also been doing his show on front sidewalks during shelter-in-place.
I think this is a great way to celebrate even while social distancing.
For the first twelve years of her life, her birthday was a holiday. No school or parents working on her day. Her day. Then in 1971, Memorial Day became one of the “Monday holidays” which means that her birthday only lands on a holiday every seven or eight years. This year, when it falls almost a full week before her birthday, is one that she particularly dislikes. Even after five decades, she still takes this personally.
It never bothered me as a kid that she had her birthday on a holiday. My folks didn’t actually make a bigger deal about it because of the holiday and I still got to go to the pool (in Missouri, the public pools
usually opened on Memorial Day). I still got the dinner of my choice and a birthday cake with lots of frosting. All good, even with no holiday in sight.
My birthday is in August. There are only two months during the year that don’t have big, recognized holidays in them. August is one of them. June is the other, but I always thought June redeemed itself by having the end of school. And, of course, since I moved to Minnesota, I have always counted the State Fair as a holiday, thereby making August one of the best holiday months.
Even though we won’t be having the Great Minnesota Get Together this year, I don’t hold August responsible for that. But my sister probably would.
If you could move your birthday to a holiday, which holiday would you choose? And why?
I saw a news story about a high-speed chase in the Seattle yesterday. The owner of the car struck two vehicles before he headed onto the interstate, where he hit speeds as high as 109 mph. At one point he drove on a popular pedestrian trail (luckily nobody was on the trail right then). The police ended up throwing down spikes to end the chase.
During the chase, one officer thought he saw a dog in the driver’s seat and this was confirmed when they finally got the car stopped. A “sweet” pit bull was in the driver’s seat and the car owner was steering from the passenger seat. The news story didn’t say who was controlling the gas pedal. The owner of the car said he was “trying to teach the dog to drive.” The charges filed against him include DUI, reckless driving, hit-and-run and felony eluding.
Personally I would rather teach my dog something a little more useful – like changing the sheets on my bed every Saturday or how to mop the kitchen floor.
Nimue has always been fascinated by trickling water; I understand from other kitty owners that this is something she has in common with other cats. Up until her surgery last week, I never let her drink from the faucet like this, but between the cone of shame and her banishment to the dog kennel, I was feeling sorry for her yesterday morning. I know this is probably a bad precedent to set and she’ll want to drink from the faucet forever!
Why do kitties like to drink from the faucet? All ideas (silly or not) entertained!
For years I’ve had way more library books checked out than even I can read before they are due; I spend way too much time (at least what most people think is way too much time) curating what I have checked out, what’s on hold, what’s in transit. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned that I have my 16-digit library card number memorized. I never thought any of this would ever come in handy – looks like covid-19 is making me re-think this assumption.
By the end of last night, I am caught up. I have read ALL the library books that I had checked out at the time the libraries closed up, plus a couple more that have arrived since my local library started allowing curbside pick-up. I’m not in any danger of running out of things to read… plenty of online stuff and a good number of books that I’ve accumulated over the years but never read. But it’s a nice feeling to be all caught up with the library. I’m pretty sure that as soon as shelter-in-place is over, I’ll be back to my old habits!
Here are a few that I’ve read:
His Majesty’s Dragon (Naomi Novik). 5 stars. Read this (again) for Blevins. Bit of revisionist history of the era of the Napoleanic wars with dragons thrown into the mix. First of the Temeraire series.
The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls (Julie Schumacher) 5 stars. This is the same author who wrote Dear Committee Members and The Shakespeare Requirements. It’s a young-adult fiction but a good read and very well written. Four girls thrown together over the summer to discuss their school required reading list.
Natural History of Dragons (Marie Brennan). 5 stars. Bit of very fun fiction from the viewpoint of a female “dragonologist” at a time when women were supposed to be staying home and knitting.
Murder on the Orient Express (Agatha Christie). 5 stars. Read this again (read all of AC in high school) to refresh my memory on which of the two movies was the most loyal to the book. Although I am normally irritated by mystery writers who don’t give you all the clues, since I already know who the murderers are in all her books, I was able to let it go and just enjoy her writing. (And the 1972 movie was much closer to the book!)
The Crypt Thief (Mark Pryor). 4 stars. Found this when I was looking up the video on the French cemetery that was discussed on the Trail in February. Murder mystery involving the Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.
I know you’re worried that I’m going to review every book I’ve read in the last 2 months, but I’ll stop here (except to say no need to read Fooled by Randomness (Taleb) or Wreck the Halls (Graves). Only 2 stars each.
What’s the latest book you’ve finished “in place”?
One of the lawns along my walking route got an aerated overnight. As we walked by, I was struck how all the little sod pellets looked like goose droppings, although more brown than greenish.
There aren’t all that many geese where I grew up (suburbs of St. Louis) so I could not have made this comparison until after I moved here. If I hadn’t come to Minnesota, I probably wouldn’t know be a single parent. I don’t know if I would have finished my college degree. And I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t know what hot dish is.
Imagine you are still living in the city of your birth. Tell me how your life would be different.
This was one of the poems last week on Writer’s Almanac.
The Cross of Snow
In the long, sleepless watches of the night,
A gentle face—the face of one long dead—
Looks at me from the wall, where round its head
The night-lamp casts a halo of pale light.
Here in this room she died; and soul more white
Never through martyrdom of fire was led
To its repose; nor can in books be read
The legend of a life more benedight.
There is a mountain in the distant West
That, sun-defying, in its deep ravines
Displays a cross of snow upon its side.
Such is the cross I wear upon my breast
These eighteen years, through all the changing scenes
And seasons, changeless since the day she died.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Although I’ve never been a huge Longellow fan, I had been thinking of Rhiannon right before I clicked on the site, so this poem really spoke to me.
Of course, I had to look up “benedight” (it means blessed) and that led me down a rabbit hole where I eventually found this spoken version on YouTube.
The poem is read by Jean Aked, but I found it a little off, partly because it’s a woman’s voice narrating a poem from the point of view of an older man, but also because of her English accent; Longfellow was such a quintessential American poet.
Several years ago I might not have really noticed this, but listening to lots of audiobook has made me a bit of a voice “connoisseur”. There are quite a few book narrators whose voices I recognize when I hear them and I have favorites: Simon Vance, Robert Bathurst, Jayne Entwhistle. I usually like it when authors narrate their own books (like Bill Bryson) because they bring a special nuance to their own material. Occasionally I don’t like a narrator at all, which can actually sour an audio book for me. One of the most prolific audio book narrators is George Guidall. Unfortunately, the very first audio book that I heard him narrate was something I just couldn’t stand. So even after several years, every time I hear his voice it takes me right back to that dreadful book and I have to really concentrate to get past my negative feelings. But he is a very good narrator so I continue to try to get past this.
All this leads me back to the Longfellow poem. I’ve heard two narrators read it now and I think I’ll stick with the Garrison Keillor version!
It’s the story of your life. Who would you like to narrate it?
Today I had my quarterly performance evaluation. It went fine. I want to improve my competence in writing treatment plans incorporating language specific to Psychosocial Rehabilitation, a new emphasis in our State Human Services Department. I continue to work on it.
Our current Republican governor thought it a great idea to have all State employees evaluate themselves every three months and set quarterly goals. Well, that can probably work for me and many other State employees. I wonder, though, how the snow plow operators set quarterly goals? I suppose in the off season they are mowing ditches and filling pot holes. How do you quantify improvements on snow removal? What a nuisance for them, though!
What goals would you suggest snow plow operators strive toward? Tell about your work evaluations.
KELT 9-B seems an innocuous-enough name for an exoplanet. It was discovered in 2017 and is apparently an “ultra-hot Jupiter” – huge gas giants hotter than anything in our solar system. In fact, some of the new data coming in suggests that it is three times larger than our Jupiter and approximately 7,800 degrees Fahrenheit on its surface. So hot in fact, that hydrogen atoms are shredded by the heat during the daytime and can only re-form until they appear on the dark side of the planet; KELT 9-B is tidally locked to its star, so the hot side always faces its sun.
It’s amazing to me that we can figure this stuff out since we can’t just look it up on the internet. All the data on KELT 9-B has come from two robotic telescopes in the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope project, one telescope in South Africa and the other in southern Arizona. And of course, it makes me wonder how a planet like KELT 9-B comes into existence. And can it survive its own heat?
I saw an article about the taboos of tattoos on bbc.com yesterday. We all know that tattoos are much more prevalent – almost a fashion statement these days – among the younger generations, but there is still a lingering social taboo against them. Apparently it is legal in the US (and the UK) for companies to have a “no tattoo” policy. Never occurred to me that a company would even have such a policy, much less that it would be legal!
YA has a few piercings and two tattoos. I’m not crazy about her tattoos (some style choices, some money issues) and just a few days ago we had a discussion about still being careful about tattoos and piercings until you know the acceptance level of a possible employer.
For quite a few years, I’ve fantasized about getting tattooed myself. Small, on my wrist (toward the inside), multi-colored hibiscus flower with YA’s name, in her handwriting. She knows about this plan and every now and then tries to encourage me. My guess is it will probably never happen, but you never know. I know it won’t be a problem here at my company but I might have to wait until Nonny is gone!
Knowing you could get rid of it tomorrow if you don’t like it, tell me about the tattoo you would get.
