germano

earth day

and now i am devastated.  i spent so much time getting this earth day walk down memory lane just right that i completely missed my first brasstown party meeting!  and i spent so much time practicing zoom yesterday, and tuning in only to realize i was 24 hours early, i was sooo looking forward to it!  i have been alone in this house for 37 days and now i don’t know how long i’ll have to wait for another one—it took me so long just to get included as it is...

i am truly devastated. i guess it all must be wearing on me more than i’m aware because missing the meeting, even though it was just a meeting of some people i don’t see very often, most of whom i really don’t know very well,  but missing it feels like everything.  it feels like...what’s the point?

i am bereft. truly.

...only now it is a couple of hours later and i’ve had conversations with margaret, and nettie, and julie (and even a heart from franklin!) and it’s better.  doesn’t take a lot but it does take some. and i was very conscious that this is not the time for full on dramatics, any more than it is for emotional supression.

yesterday spent working on the kitchen

and then whole wheat pasta with cauliflower sauce for yesterday’s food.

short phone with daren in the evening: g not doing well, again. it doesn’t sound good, which i don’t say to her (but she already knows.)  karen’s in the moment not a concert at 7.

continuing little orders via amazon:

i sprang for the materials to convert the front panel under the sink into a tip out drawer for sponges, brushes, etc. like this, and texted mike just to remind him not to forget me; hoping i can ask him to install this tip out thing (for extra $) whenever he comes back to fix the things that got caught undone when we isolated...whenever that may be; it’s been a month so far. haven’t heard back yet.

meanwhile, i am (foolishly?) hopeful that the 5shelf unit for the pantry actually will arrive on saturday! then i would have seven full pantry shelves, and one whole order to return for credit...much more affordable.

i’m beginning to see the place take shape, one thing by another one thing.  a pile for i’ll toss this, a pile for i still like this, and as little as possible actually set out in the new kitchen..

a stormy day

spent the first half if it monitoring the thunderstorms/tornadoes rolling across from the gulf to the space coast; none actually came here. jeff huffman broadcasting alone, live from his home via facebook watch on my fire tv.

o brave new world,  it seems the weather broadcasters have taken the hero medals that used to be for broadcast journalists.

clear in the late afternoon. chicken stew with mashed potatoes and limas for food.

i do anything

trying to decide which will work better, posting at the end of the day or first thing in the morning as i do with my proof of life on fb. the latter i think, with perhaps a later wrap-up. it’s a work in progress...

so, today:  had my coffee and remembered to bake some cinnamon rolls before i slept last night, so one of those.  the plan today is to put together the pantry now that the shelves have arrived, but we shall see. i’d like to get the remaining kitchen boxes at least stowed some way, but ditto. and i still need to decide if i need to order another narrow cart for beside the refrigerator, or will i have (more than) enough as is.  and then clean out the former pantry kitchen cupboard for repainting inside and redistribution...

i can, after all, do anything i want. or not.

next: unload the laundry cart and see if it will fit next to the frig, for a spice cart, and, if so, order another one.

as a matter of fact, now that i’m using those laundry balls? i probably don’t even need a laundry cart!

but i decided that i do need one, to store my cleaning supplies, and it’s on sale at amazon for 16 bucks! so i ordered one. i don’t want to have anything liquid or food oriented in my kitchen cupboards anymore, except for a very few opened bottles and jars, like peanut butter or cooking oil, etc.  i pulled so much unopened stuff out of my one kitchen pantry cabinet to transfer into my new hall pantry, i don’t even know how long it may have been in there!  gonna scrub the whole thing down with bleach, maybe repaint it with killz, even, and put down contac paper shelf liners before i put anything back in there... but that’s part of the next pass.

hey! i got everything i wanted done, except for stowing the kitchen boxes!

wondering about the caulking on the new backsplash...

the rest of the afternoon i knit on a hat

and listened to an audiobook in the living room.  food was the tail end of the egg salad, bread, and chips, an apple and milk.

and that, as they say, was that.

new world order

well, here it is five years later.

blogs have all but died and, recently, revived again.  as i show, we’ve now been in quarantine a month, and i haven’t been out of the house for 33 days.  akma says he hasn’t enough events to keep a journal and then proceeds to record one every day on his old blog, so i thought i might do the same here, if only in hopes of not going mad.

first, nothing really has changed from my pre-quarantine life but, somehow, it feels like a total standstill.  i’m hoping recording each day will get me to do something besides audiobooks, and knitting. and buying more food for the pantry online...

to catch up: i retired from teaching nearly a year ago, thank god. finances are currently stable, albeit we are at the beginning of what will likely be a great recession, even depression.  i spent every second i could of the previous decade in brasstown, but won’t be doing that much anymore now that i don’t have anywhere to escape from (is how i put it.). the result of this that my house almost completely fell apart and no longer looks like that picture up in the masthead.  i’m working on that in a multi-year declutter/restoration, and will replace the masthead picture when it gets to the point i can.

i am now entirely ipad- (phone-, watch-)based. facebook is my lifeline to community; i continue to know no one within around 600 miles...

so, for today:

i overslept badly. very badly. posted my proof of life picture (the one at the top of this post), received the amazon delivery of my pantry shelves—currently cooling its jets in the quarantine space (i.e. the front porch) made coffee and english muffins, and settled in for saturday audiobooks and knitting.

but i ended up resurrecting old blogs and photos of work all morning.

 egg salad sandwich lunch, fresh delivery in the late afternoon.

oh yeah.  it’s month three (two, here) of the novel coronavirus19 2020 worldwide pandemic.

still no wifi for ipads

just phones. still.  and my last post is trapped in the publishing netherworld, maybe it will post itself when i get to a real place.  i'll take a picture again in case it doesn't.

that's dana up there now.  mary ellen's blonde head in the lower left.

so here we are at USF.  performance is about to start, i think. puppets.  

Katie (kd?) adams.  shadow puppets.

oh god, happy voice...

meanwhile, diana osted this gif this morning, do gifs work here?

no.  the camera flashes, is all. oh well.

god, this is not one of the better performances.  two yesrs ago we had a great rgami storyteller and  brought her to my school where they lved her. last year was okay, but no really applicable to my curriculum.  this year.... not so much...

i think my kids would tear this woman up.

oh well, i really nly come for dana anyway. and if i sit here all day i get inservice points.

the thing is, quality is key.  this ain't quality.

so...here i am

what's to talk about... i have to ffure out about the heloc today, over at the credit union.  i think i should just go ahead and get the roof done before november, or at least get the cash in place, but we'll se...

i have tomorrow in the classrom go get prepared, and friday and Monday afternoons..... i'm really trying to take thngs easy and whever i get an anxietymaking thought to just release it. i'm old. no more strivng; it wll work out.

i need to shop for my swap ackage. thought i'd look at cacciatore, see if they have some great indigenous kitcheny things. and some coffee beans, maybe from naviera...?

i think this is the first year i haven't brought knitting. a mistake.

i feel sorry for the new peop,e, they must think this is it.  

okay, i went out in the lobby, couldn't stand it anymore.  i w  as not alone.

actually, that's after they took a break, whereupon i went back in

i don't think i've seen more than half a dozen familiar faces.  that much new hiring?  at least i guess that's good for my senority, whatever that's worth.  ten years. sigh.

back agIn...

 with haea. i'm thking maybe i won't join this year, the price has gone up and i really don't participate. they just had haea members all stand jst as i was writing that, must have been listening.  oh, an we're supposed to include it in our evaluations, i guess i should just pony up.

now dana.  this is really the only thing i come to these for.

they combined art and msic at desoto??

28 new hires this year!  225 total; 136 elementary, 36 middle, 54 high

elementary prioryity exhibitions: young@art, faf

budget:

no elementary budget increase approvedqqq

back in the sadle...

at professional study day at usf. all day.  wally, the arts dean when i was here and the arts dean still, announces they're finally partnering with mass com to offer digital and design, which i was asking for when i was here.  i was here some 25 years ago.

it's going to be that kind of day.

this hall wasn't here then, or not in this form.  still no universal wifi  don't think, let me check.

well, pRtially, anyway. i wonder what i can get...

it has begun

autumn comes

and a week from tonight we'll all be back in the real world.

gonna hafta work on that real world stuff.  make it realer....

finished deedle!

so successful, i don't even want to block it!

i spread it across me and immediately swarmed the bees! stung me on the toe!

stretches out as 54" across.

end of summer...

is coming. i still have another ten days, but the shawl is (nearly--the light failed before i could finish that last little corner) finished.

i've sourced and started my next project, at last a fair isle cardigan in about one-third shetland and as many colors as i can fit into this (to me) unfamiliar color pallette.

lot's to study first, i think.

what's left in these last ten days, then, is working on a coiffure and details for her, and processing and spinning my fleece! saving the cats for winter, i suppose.

i hit the wall

took nearly four weeks, but i've finally hit the wall on flow. went into town today to wander around, see what i've missed.  sleep schedule all out of whack, too much food bought iin boredom, i'm taking a day off--i still have two weeks+ left!

three

finally got out, spending money. can't seem to find a pot to bake the bread in!  stopped for lunch--blue mountain was closed, but brothers bacon cheeseburger with homemade chips turned out to be the same!

two

lfabulous rainy day.

first loaf.

eaten at lunch with avocado/rotel. othewise, reading jack finney and the everpresent nap...