More thoughts in the time of COVID-19
The sun now blazes in my east facing window before 0600. There are fewer than twenty days to Summer.
Can anyone explain to me why the autumn equinox is the beginning of autumn, and the winter solstice is the beginning of winter, and the spring equinox is the beginning of spring, but the summer solstice is mid-summer?
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Saturday I watched the Dragon launch with Mark. It was a grabber. I was back in the 60s watching the first space flight launches. The tight throat. The rapid heartbeat. The urge to cry. They were all there … again.
I still don’t know why NASA chose to stop space flights. Money? To me that’s a lame excuse.
Then sunday the Dragon capsule docked with the space station. More memory reactions. I wonder how long and how many launches it will take for this to become ho-hum again?
Thank you, Mr. Musk, for spending your billions on this. The future calls.
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Also on saturday we had thunder and rain. I didn’t see any lightning, but the main part of the storm was southwest of us, on the other side of the Eddy Mountains.
The rain was welcome. It was gentle enough that it was mostly absorbed and the plants are doing well. The Michael iris, the rugosa rose, and the true geranium are all putting on quite a show. And the potatoes are displaying eagerness.
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I am embarrassed to admit that I was pretty stupid about a computer situation last monday. I’ve told you about “losing” 30 years worth of genealogy research when my old computer died. Did I also tell you I was told about a local who is able to retrieve data off dead hard drives? Well, his name is Jim and he lives not too far away in Edgewood. I took my dead hard drive to him a week or so ago. I went to collect it and the recovered data last monday. He had asked me to bring a thumb drive with a lot of memory so I had one with 120GB in hand when I arrived. He took it into his office, leaving me alone with his wife in their living room.
I have no idea what I was thinking, but whatever it was I was WRONG. I was prepared to wait 30 minutes or so. WRONG!
His wife and I chatted inanely until she offered to show me her yard and garden. When we went back to the living room, Jim told me the download was about 20% done. It had been an hour.
Are you laughing at me yet?
I had planned on going to the library, with my hard drive and thumb drive in hand (the local library had once been a bank and they had redone the drive through window to be the means of getting books). So, I told Jim and wife I was going to the library and would be back in an hour or so.
My library appointment (yes, we now are required to make appointments to pick up our books) was at noon, so I pulled into the parking lot at the library and took a nap. At noon I got my books (more about them later) and went back to Jim’s. It was now three hours since I had first been there and the download was just around 50% done. I said I’d go sit in the car and read.
It took me about five minutes to realize what I was doing … being really dumb. So I went back to the house and made arrangements to go back after my stuff today … which I will do after I get this blog posted.
I am still feeling embarrassed and very foolish. At least I hadn’t taken a bedroll, toiletries, and a change of clothes with me.
I am so grateful to them. They are two of the most kind and courteous people I have met lately. I’m not sure I am brave enough to tell them this and try to make amends. But I will be looking for ways to pay the kindness forward.
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Now an addition to last week’s long story …
I told you about sharing a grandmother story with the author of the PERN books. Well, she did it again a bit later when she had an older woman admonish a younger one … “Beggars can’t be choosers” which was a favorite of my Nana’s.
And later when the maxim was “Trouble finds work for idle hands.” My Grandma Tyler would have said “Idle hands are the devil’s playground.”
I’m sure Ms. McCaffrey and I could have enjoyed a tea together. After all, we had grandmothers in common.
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The affair in Minneapolis, which has caused events all over the world, came to Mt Shasta yesterday evening. There was a gathering downtown at 6 o’clock. I had thought to go, in spite of concern over masks and social distancing. I had spoken to a neighbor about going and she too was concerned about masks etc. (we are both retired RNs). Then, when it was time to leave, there was no vehicle available to me.
I have believed that sometimes we are pushed in a direction we hadn’t anticipated, and so when there was no transportation, my head said “You are not supposed to be there.”
It turned out to be a big gathering for our small town. Very few of those present were wearing masks and distancing was essentially non-existent. It was peaceful, and meaningful to some I know who were there. But I wasn’t supposed to be there.
Maybe next time.
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Weather has been warmer and dry for several days so there is more clean-up to be done in the courtyard.
I will bring home my USB with my data later this morning, so the rest of today will be exciting.
I have three books waiting to be read (I’ve already read one of those I picked up monday).
Life remains good … and I’m still here.
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Day 82 of lockdown … and some ending notes …
Some people thrive on their own company. It gives the freedom of not having to worry about other people in terms of their needs or judgements … Being alone need not mean being lonely … and Bad times never last.
So … ‘til next week …