life in the old lane

Wow! 2020 was some year. I am so ready for 2021.

I would normally go down to the pier and watch the sun come up on New Year’s morning. This wasn’t the same. The sun did try to come up. But the clouds/rain won. But, that’s Sunrise 1 of 365 for 2021.

Last year on January 1st, I wrote: 

“Anyone besides me sort of freaked out by the Year 2020?As I recall that was a couple of spaces in hexadecimal. Year SPACE SPACE.  Year BLANK BLANK. Yeah, right.”

Little did I know. Little did I know.

Gratitude

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Grateful for pears, Vermont cheddar, and coffee. A fine New Year’s Day snack.

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Worked some today. Plotting out next weeks reporting challenges. Also, with luck, next week gets me Covid vaccine #2.

The total ass wing of the Republican party gets another chance to derail democracy in the US on January 6. They will fail. But, use up lots of energy that could be better spent getting COVID under control. We all sort of hoped that the Creep-in-Chief would stay down in Florida and set up his “government in exile”. But for no apparent reason he came back to DC. Please, just let the man be gone.

Mālama Pono

Here it is again. Carlton’s perfect New Year’s Eve. Except in later years, the book was replaced by his Kindle. 

This has been a really crappy year. But, it could have worse. And 2021 doesn’t show much promise in the early days of the year. But, remember…

• • 65,000,000 BC – that was most likely the worst. Your giant asteroid that wiped out 75% of life on the planet including every single dinosaur. That had to be Worst. Year. Ever. For dinosaurs at least.
  • 1348 – The Plague in Europe. 1/3 of the population dies. This one gets my vote.
  • 1492 – That wasn’t a very good year for the existing population of the Americas.
  • 1837 – The Panic (financial) of 1837. This was a US thing. And, I know it would get Carlton’s vote for worst year ever. But, he wouldn’t have been a happy camper in 2020. 

Gratitude

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Grateful for the strange blessings of 2020. I discovered that I have a much greater ability to “accept those things that I can not change” than I ever imagined. Over the years, I have spent a lot of energy tilting at windmills. Next, I need to work on “and the wisdom to know the difference”. This would be the AA Serenity Prayer – lifted from Reinhold Niebuhr

God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can, and
Wisdom to know the difference.

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No new Covid cases today and our most vulnerable people were vaccinated yesterday. Plus some of the staff. That might start heading us in the correct direction. Next Year. 

Mālama Pono 

Carlton didn’t do Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Birthdays etc. But, he did remember anniversaries. And, December 30 is the day that he considered our anniversary. 42 years ago. They were fine years. I wouldn’t change a single thing. 

Busy today. But not crazy. At my hospital at least the supply of Covid vaccine seems to be keeping up with demand. And, my job is easier when the crowds and lines aren’t too long. 

300 Pfizer vaccines arrived at The Asylum this morning. Experience indicates that 375 or so vaccines can actually be drawn. The health care and assisted living residents and staff got first crack and then they prioritized any remaining vaccine to the staff.

Gratitude

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Grateful for all the years I had with Mr C. He provided me with stability and I provided him with adventure. He still provides stability.

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Mālama Pono
 

This picture of Carlton always amuses me. It is from his college yearbook and he is tagged “the best lover”. Now, this was for all intents and purposes a men’s college. They all either were or pretended to be 100% hetero. So how did that work??? Best Lover? Says who?

I just needed a little diversion from data wrangling. Looking for a picture for the blog was my diversion.

Gratitude

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Grateful for a rumor today. Rumor has it that the residents will be offered the Covid vaccine tomorrow. It’s a rumor but one that makes everyone happy.

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Just work today. At my desk. From my comfy chair. It’s lonely but convenient to work from home. More shots tomorrow. Then I think there is another rest period. 

No news on our Asylum covid cases yet today. 

Mālama Pono

I decided that my grocery store orchid would like to get blasted by the humidifier today.  He made two flower stalks. Hope that blooms happen. I promised Orchie that I would repot him. He shouldn’t have been contained in his tiny grocery store pot for 3 years. But, I am afraid to repot him right now. First bloom. Then repot.

My hospital started giving Covid vaccinations again today. Moderna this time. It seems to be going smoothly. But what do I know? I am just watching the data come in. I miss being in the arena.

Gratitude

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Grateful for a little time outside today. friluftsliv

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The Asylum is not too forthcoming about our COVID situation at this instant. We have one new case. I know the woman. Her husband had COVID and she was quarantined with him. Not surprising and I feel confident that she will be OK. Her husband is fine. But now quarantined with her. Will Zoom with her  later today to be sure she is OK. Or as OK as she can be.

The number of COVID cases on our skilled nursing floor dropped by 3. BUT, 2 people died. So one assumes that they were taken by COVID. Hopefully, one person recovered.

It is grim.
Mālama Pono

If I were any lazier, I would be dead. Well, I did wash (the inside)  of my windows. First time in 5+ years. Carlton washed the windows in our family. But, I had watched him do it often enough that I didn’t have to watch a YouTube video on “How to wash a window.” That didn’t take long because I only have 3 windows. 

Gratitude

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Grateful for one lazy day, even more grateful that tomorrow I will spring back into action working on Covid vaccinations.

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Yes, Mac&Cheese. The 21st-century version of the “blue box” stuff we ate in the 1950s.  The Asylum tried really hard to make Christmas “better” for us old incarcerated people. They planned a very elegant menu:

This meal would arrive in green plastic boxes. In a very festive holiday plastic bag. Well, being the philistine that I am, I suggested that mac&cheese would better suit the current situation. (I actually ordered the soup, salad and berries. Duck Breast in a plastic box wasn’t working for me. And, the salad was outstanding.) 

However, what should arrive at my door on Xmas morning but 2 containers of instant Mac&Cheese with a note from the Director of Dining Services saying that Mac&Cheese would be on the menu soon.  How fun is that?

Our fearless leader called every resident on Xmas day to be sure we were OK. Most, but not all of us, either were OK or said we were.  I was fine. I am still fine. Everything is fine.

The real question is: Will the country survive the last 24 days of Trump’s Reign of Terror?

Mālama Pono

looking for the light – 60 seconds.

Haven’t used Final Cut since the end of September. At my age, one can not let any skill go unused. The brain or body forgets in a heartbeat. This worries me greatly about all of the old people who have been locked up for the last 300 days.

Any how I spent September making a TV show, October was processing flu shot data, November was devoted to playing with ZigBee devices, and December has been processing Covid vaccine data. Somewhere along the line I had my GoPro record Alexa’s coffee-making ability. Not my favorite French Press Kona Peaberry to be savored, but just raw caffeine to get the day started. Alexa turns on the kitchen lights, turns on the coffee pot, and 15 minutes later turns off the coffee pot.

Gratitude

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Grateful to still be alive after 300 days of this shit.

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This is not suitable weather for me. Not even close. About 40 degrees too chill. But in the spirit of friluftsliv I went outside and walked briskly around for 33 minutes. Yes, I was counting.

Mālama Pono

I know, I could have worked harder and made the pictures look just alike. But you get the idea. 

Carlton volunteered on the 2nd floor of The Asylum for about 5 years or so long ago when it first opened. And, one Xmas he dragged me down to sing Christmas carols. I told him “I am not a Christian. I don’t do Christmas carols.” He assured me that just helping out and singing harmony wouldn’t sentence me to a future in heaven. And, that was when I discovered that Episcopalian Asylums have booze.

As you can see I still have the jacket. I made it in the fall of 1993. Out of Carlton’s old silk ties. I made it very heavy which was a mistake because 1993 was the last winter we spent in the cold cold north. Until this year. So, it seemed like a good time to revisit the jacket and the photo.

Gratitude

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Grateful for a delightful day. And dear friends. Also warm memories of “better” days. But is any day really “better” than the only day we have. Today.

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It was way too cold and windy for friluftsliv. So, I did yoga instead. Had an out-of-bounds coffee and cake meet up with my Asylum Sisters this morning. A finest solitary lunch of Cobb salad and cookies. And then a glorious nap in my comfy chair with my heating pad. Looking forward to soup and cookies for dinner.

And, it’s Aloha Friday, no work ’til Monday. Because Virginia accepted my Covid vaccine records. Shots start again on Monday. But until then, I am a lady of much leisure.

Mālama Pono

Every year I go into an Origami making frenzy around holiday time. This year I got off to a late start. Like 10:30AM on Covid Xmas Eve. Making origami is very restful for me. As long as I am making a model that I know really well. 

Gratitude

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Glad that the big old rainstorm going on outside is a rainstorm and not a blizzard. Snow would not impact my life since I am not allowed to go anywhere. But, I think that most everyone everywhere is at their meltdown point.

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And No New Covid Cases Today. Which most likely means that no one got tested.
Mālama Pono

Our fearless director is explaining that he has a real manly dog at home. One of the many things we miss around here is all the therapy dogs that used to come around.  I guess his “purse dog” is a substitute.

Most excellent friluftsliv today. Got in a 3 mile walk outside. Good thing too. Evil rainy weather is forcast for tomorrow.

Gratitude

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Grateful for origami paper from Japan by way of Honolulu and the granddaughter.

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This is not good.

Mālama Pono

At 3:15 this afternoon, I submitted the first set of data to the IT gods and quickly logged off of my hospital account. I want to enjoy the feeling that it is done for a little bit before someone complains about the quality of the data. Don’t worry. There will be complaints. Then it starts over again on the 28th.

friluftsliv had fallen by the wayside due to work and really shitty weather. By 3:30 I was all bundled up and racing around the buildings. Did pause to admire the sun lighting up the clouds.

Gratitude

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Grateful for a little respite in the data storm. I appreciate not having anything to do tonight.

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This is what going to work looks like as 2020 heads to the finish line. Forbin the Computer runs the show. The iPad is sometimes a 2nd or 3rd monitor and sometimes it is just a big iPad. The external monitor has to connect to Forbin via a wire, so, when I use it, I am more or less confined to “my office”.  Damn, I love toys!

GOOD NEWS: No new cases of COVID in the house today.

Mālama Pono

And here, once again is the traditional Solstice greeting that Carlton and I used for years. Even decades.

Wishing everyone the best of the festive season – no matter what it’s called at your house. In pagan traditions, the solstice is a time to put away the things of the old year and look forward to the new. One observance of the solstice involves extinguishing all the fires in your home before midnight on the eve of the solstice and lighting a new fire the next day. This probably won’t be quite as symbolic if you have central heating. Or if you are in Hawai’i. Which is where I should be.

The winter solstice falls on December 21 – the word solstice means “sun stopping.” The winter solstice is the day on which the sun reaches as far south of the equator as it gets, and is as such the shortest and darkest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. The solstice marks the rebirth of light for the coming spring.

The winter solstice also marks, among other things, the druid festival of Alban Arthuan – a time for bestowing gifts upon those less fortunate than ourselves. Out of this observance has grown the more popular tradition of gift-giving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, maxed-out credit cards and 70% off sales. May the goddess be with you during this season – but don’t blame her if you get fruitcake again. 

Carlton and I did not celebrate Xmas. But, we did observe the solstice. Summer and Winter.

Gratitude

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I am grateful for that which I have.
I am not sorrowful for that which I do not.
I have more than others, less than some,
I am blessed with what is mine.

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But this is a Solstice like none other.  Be safe dear friends. Be safe.