Category: Blitherings

The Burn Begins

It’s January 14, 6:30 in the evening.  At 5 pm a brush fire started 3 miles from our house.  It was 87F this afternoon, with more heat to come, and winds 30-50 mph.  The wind is pushing it in our direction.  There is a 4-6 lane freeway between the fire site and our house, and multiples of houses.  All it takes is a few sparks blown on the wind, and all hell can break loose.

I am not happy.  No rain except a shower in 4 months.  Global warming, of course, does not exist, and all this is “weather”. Here is the twitter link:  https://twitter.com/VCFD+

New Year Stuff

I am going to hold off on political commentary.  Instead, it seems that this New Year has brought about a couple of changes.  Two are chosen, one is a necessity.

First of all, I added a new set of colors on my watercolor palette.  It’s kind of fun as it mixes things up –  you can get too comfortable with colors you use every day.  I like to shake things up a bit when I get too cosy, so I added things like verrditer blue and returned a least favorite color, viridian, to my palette.  Other colors, too, which I cannot recall right at the moment, but it seems this new palette will get me some brighter colors.  Here is a painting I did with these new ones:

Next, I moved my sewing around.  I had bought a sewing cabinet several months ago, thinking it would work in the studio.  Nope!  Too crowded and claustrophobic.  I closed it up and moved back out to the dining room.  However patient my husband is, the clutter got to me far more than it got to him.  As a result, earlier this month I moved a book case from the bedroom into the studio and placed the cabinet where the book case was.  And, it works!  Yes, I do have to close things down and adjust to having things in different places, but it does the job, and the dining area is not a disaster.

Finally, my computer crapped out on me 2 times this morning.  The first time it froze watching a YouTube video.  Rebooted.  Then, after walking away from my computer for 10 minutes, the monitors were black and nothing would reactivate them except another reboot.  Off to Costco to get a prefabricated Windows computer.  It works great.   Now I have some software installed on the new computer and using it to write this blurb.  Meanwhile, I am copying files, which will take hours, from the old computer to an external hard drive so I can put them on the new critter.  It will take a bit of time to get all cosy again, but c’est la vie.

So there you are.  New Year, new activities.

“But What if We Didn’t?” – Why Enmity and Outrage is the New Normal

I came across this posting via Jim Grey’s Recommended Reading column for today.   He linked to John Scalzi’s post entitled “But What if We Didn’t?” – and that has cleared the confusion as to why the American Congress has gone from attempting to work together to tearing each other apart.

When Ronald Reagan was President, he and Tip O’Neillc ould get along.

Now?

I will leave you to ponder what Scalzi writes – and strongly suggest you Scalzi’s post in its entirety by clicking on the link above or anywhere on the quotation below:

I have a theory about the Republican Party, and it is that around the time Newt Gingrich became the head of its brain trust, the GOP added a fourth functioning principle to its previous tripod of “Southern Strategy to corner the racist vote,” “Abortion to corner the Evangelical vote” and “Tax cuts to corner the capitalist vote (and money).” The fourth principle was not about kettling and controlling a voting bloc, but rather a principle to maximize its power and to motivate the voting blocs beyond whatever the GOP could offer them politically.

That fourth principle, to put it in its shortest and bluntest form, is:

“But what if we… didn’t?”

Somewhat more broadly, the Republicans recognized there was a suite of political conventions and traditions that were designed to make it easier for things to get done, and that this suite of conventions and traditions were exploitable by denial. While people in both parties (and the parties themselves) would occasionally use this exploit, it was not done systematically.

 

Reflections

The end of the year is here, and a strange year it has been. For me, it has not been a big change in the life I have been living since I retired, but if I were still working, it would have been a big change indeed. For so many others, the world just turned upside down, and not just in the US, but globally.

I feel like I am living in a bubble, but now, the walls are beginning to tighten closer to home. A few people I know have died, some from the virus, some from other issues, but the isolation necessary to keep from becoming infected means not being able to say goodbye or to spend time with others, or even help out if needed.  I am of an age where my peers do die, which is just normal, but it is also sad when connections other than a Zoom or a text are not available.

I miss a good cup of coffee and chit-chat at Peet’s!  I miss looking people straight in the eye and laughing or getting a hug.

As a result of needing to limit contact with the outside world, a trip to the market is like a major outing.  People to talk to!  I had my teeth cleaned a couple of weeks ago and it was like a spa day.  Yacking with my sister and brother, especially this time of the year, brings back memories from days of yore.  Just reading about the thrill of a vaccine – at last – for the Covid-19 virus and the reactions of parents in the 1950s to the polio vaccine is reliving history – so many things to be glad for because of research and science.  Little things, big things – our lives are simple, complex, unpredictable, repetitive and dull – but all of these are the fabric of how we define ourselves and our world view.  And, we need to find time to think, reflect, be grateful for those around us and our own individual selves.  Connections all.

For some reason, while not the dreary parts of Hamlet’s soliloquy, I keep returning to the words:

What piece of work is a man, how noble in reason,
how infinite in faculties, in form and moving,
how express and admirable in action, how like an angel in apprehension,
how like a god!

And that is where my world lies – amorphous, strange, exhilarating, unknown – a fragility to be cherished in the here and now.

Back to Prison We Must Go!

Sung to the tune of London Bridge is Falling Down:

Back to prison we must go!  We must go! 
Back to prison we must go, oh dreaded Covid!

As of this writing, 85% of California will be back on lock down. More than 50% of the state’s population is in my neck of the woods, specifically Southern California, and it begins at midnight tonight.

Regulations are designed to reduce the spread of Covid-19 as well to prevent a lack of ICU and hospital beds occurring.

I don’t find our restrictions so draconian as other places, nor are they as restrictive as when the first lock down began last spring. These are restrictions we can live with as we are not changing our lifestyles all that much. The only difference we have is a lack of family gatherings or a beer or coffee with friends. That makes it socially . . . isolated.  Social isolation helps and hurts, as we all know.

California state mandates have fine details, which should be read, to get more informed information about the okay and not-okay. For instance, the newspapers are saying that households cannot mingle, but the state website, when I type in my county, states:

Small private gatherings

Are allowed outdoors only with modifications
– Masks and physical distancing required
– No more than 3 separate households attend (including the host’s)
– Gatherings should be 2 hours or less
– Those with symptoms must not attend
– Those at high risk of severe illness strongly encouraged not to attend
– Singing, shouting, chanting, cheering, or exercising strongly discouraged

See guidance for gatherings and holidays.

So, we could have a family Christmas gathering within specific parameters; however, I expect if we have one, it will be very, very small.

What I do not understand, and I would think this way even if I was much younger, is a failure to realize that this is not about me, but about us, meaning the good of everyone.  I wonder if this is a characteristic of the American culture, this rugged individualism and selfishness.  Do other countries experience this defiance of the collective for individual “rights” which endanger every other person?  I expect so, but it seems that a failure to show consideration for others is more and more in the public eye, from the self-aggrandizement of “leaders” to ICU nurses bragging about flaunting safety outside the workplace.

Whatever the situation, we – my household and extended family – will embrace these restrictions for our own good and the good of others.  If we stay healthy, we help others stay healthy.