More thoughts in the time of COVID-19 …
First, the weather report …
Wednesday … early morning snow with no accumulation.
Thursday … the same but with late afternoon and evening overcast.
Friday … sun, need boots with grippers for only a very short stretch on the way to the chicken house.
Saturday … sunshine and pie for breakfast and no need for boots with grippers.
Sunday … saw this on the web and had to share …
There are thousands of wildflower species in the United States alone. Many of the ones we see have come from somewhere else not unlike most of us who now call this land home. They are intrepid immigrants seeking a hospitable home to set down roots. Like all of life, they grow, flower, and disappear into memory. One underrated quality of wildflowers is their persistence. They are, like the season of spring, a sign of rebirth, of the resilience of nature. They are precarious, easily plucked, and yet in their aggregate they provide a sense of seasonal stability.
Monday … to town for chicken feed and lunch with friends.
Tuesday … Mark’s birthday, sun, nip in the air but welcome heat from the solarium
Today (so far) … bright sun
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Tyler’s birthday dinner last wednesday was at a local Mexican restaurant of his choice, Casa Ramos. Just the family and a couple of his friends. He had requested that, rather than gifts, donations be made to the local humane society where he works. He set a goal of $200 and raised over $300. As he said … every little bit helps.
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The Senior Luncheons sponsored by Weed Local Resources groups, cancelled last year by COVID, is gearing up to resume.
In addition, the HiLo (which I have mentioned multiple times) has opened for indoor eating again, but with restrictions, … of course. To celebrate the return of fewer restrictions, my lunch buddies (Mary and Darlene) and I did lunch on our own last monday.
The HiLo does splendid omelets and Mary swears by the steak with biscuits and gravy.
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Johnson & Johnson vaccine seems to be far and away the choice of many. The local Rite Aid doesn’t require (or even allow) appointments which means you have to walk in and ask if they have vaccine and what kind they have. So, whenever I go to town I check. This week they had vaccines but no Johnson and Johnson.
I’ll keep checking. When it is my time, they’ll say “yes”.
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Last week I started a new series of mysteries, this time by the mother and son team who call themselves Charles Todd. This first in the series is titled Trial by Will … ambiguous title. However, the really interesting thing is that the last few mysteries I’ve read (each by different authors, each suggested by different book reviews, and each published at widely spaced times by different publishers) have dealt with shell shock during and following the Great War, WW I.
Just as a pandemic destruction of the then current society seems to have been a nearly universal collection of thoughts about civilization in books by various authors, all written and published twenty or thirty years ago, the thoughts in my current reading seem to be centered post 1916. That means they deal with how “shell shock” (i.e. PTSD) was handled and one fact that we never learned in history lessons came to light. During that war there were field executions for things like cowardice, desertion, refusal to follow orders to advance out of the trenches into predictable shooting galleries without adequate cover, complaints about beatings from senior officers, etc. Who knows how many since they were held often without trials, (due to being seen as essential and ordered performed by unit mates or subordinates of the condemned as a means of control by “example” in order to prevent mutiny) and were often, if not mostly, noted on death certificates as simply “Died in service”. Somehow most of the pertinent records were lost, probably in the trenches, or at least that would appear to be the official position.
I have no idea what has led me to these books, but the message is coming through very clearly … at least to me.
Humans would seem to be made with an inborn need to destroy themselves and all around them.
I wonder what the next theme to show up on my haphazard reading list will be?
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On a lighter note, since I still have trouble taking care of my toenails and haven’t seen a professional since before the winter holidays, I have an appointment for a treat … a pedicure and even a manicure since I’ll already be there.
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To end the week, here is a definition for some thought …
ambedo … a kind of melancholic trance in which you become completely absorbed in vivid sensory detail – raindrops skittering down a window, tall trees in a wind, cream in your coffee — soaking in the experience of being alive; an act done for no discernable reason, purely for its own sake
… or as was said by Bob Marley … some people get wet, some people feel the rain.
This week may you have one or two (or even more) ambedo moments.
So ‘til next week …