Saturday April 25
Still wrestling with GoFundMe, trying to take the Episcopal Church Treasurer's name off as the beneficiary. Finally gave up.
We met Liz and her old friend Bill Strohmeier at the Lake Taghanic State Park. It was a beautiful day and there was a nice easy path along the lake where I was able to hobble a mile. Willie was happily surprised to find Bill, an actual smart funny practicing Catholic. Liz and Geoff have known Bill and his wife Ann since the seventies or earlier. They have lived in the city for fifty years and now they, too, have emigrated to our County, Bill with more enthusiasm than Ann. Other people were in the park sitting in the sun but at safe distances from each other. It was nice to see human faces.
Cooked a small round roast for dinner and then we watched the Liz Taylor- Richard Burton much maligned and scandal laden Cleopatra. First two hours were focused on Rex Harrison's Caesar, which is pretty great. Watching the last part tomorrow, when Richard Burton and Liz Taylor's Great Romance was born.
Sunday April 26
I bought the electric pulse massager at Jill’s recommendation and am now hooked up to it, with my shoulders being rapped and buzzed for 80 minutes. Michael glued sticky pads to my shoulders that are attached to wires plugged into a handheld remote. A brochure showed an exotic acupuncture body map with hundreds of spots on various parts coded to the problems associated with them. Or you could just hit “shoulders” on the remote, which I did. It was very thumpy.
I spent most of the day doing grocery lists, making fruit compote, and cooking stock, and white beans for tonight's soup. Low on food and have to brave grocery store tomorrow.
Watched St Patrick’s mass with ADHD Cardinal Dolan, whose beanie kept slipping. Good homily but they compensated for lack of huge congregation with a baritone blasting chants to close to the mic.
The soup, with beans and sausage, was good.
Watched last two hours of Cleopatra. Unlike part one, the second half was endless, with a sloppy, weepy Richard Burton playing a drunk Mark Anthony. Very happy when he and his bride ended it all. Yuck!
Monday April 27
Absolutely stupid morning. Did talk to Sarah for about an hour. She’s on medical leave, has a shrink who wants her to write a diary from the perspective of her angry inner child. To do this, Sarah has to peel off her angry outer child. I suggested she just write her daily routine, like I'm doing, and see what emerges. Although, I'm not sure if what I'm doing here serves any inner purpose. The point at the beginning was to stay focused on the present, given my uncertain future. But the present is coughing up many insights, just a lot of recipes.
Almost out of basic foods. Michael and I had an argument about who would do the grocery shopping. He doesn’t want me to go into the store but we share the same risks, and because I need to stock up I thought we should both go in and reduce the time we spend inside. Fortunately I found that I could buy groceries from ShopRite online and pick them up tonight. Still had eggs and tortillas so I made scrambled egg and green chili tacos for lunch.
Roasted a pork loin with a marinade made from a weird natural cola syrup that Willie had bought. It was disgusting to drink in seltzer, but made a great glaze for the pork.
Picked up groceries at eight. Many ingredients were missing but most of the necessary ones were there.
Watched John Oliver and a Larry Sanders.
Tuesday April 28
Woke up at seven obsessed with the missing grocery items, so I drove to Hannaford, arriving at the end of the senior hour. The parking lot was still pretty full but, in the store few customers were in the aisles, and I was only one in line when I checked out. The staff was also restocking for the rest of the day and I got everything I wanted, including clementines, Bounty paper towels, and Hagen das dolce de leche ice cream for Willie (and me!).
Walked down to the pond where the young frogs were in full harmony. At home, I put together red chili sauce and roast peppers and tomatoes. Now waiting for my chicken and looking out at the evening spring meadow.
I have loved my life, unfortunately including my mistakes and failures. I adore my kids, but I’ve been a totally ladeda mother. It has certainly hurt Jill. Not sure of the effect on my sons. The upside is that they are all kind, smart, funny, tough adults.
Watched Better Call Saul and Stephen Colbert, but I’m tired of streaming. Feel like reading.
Wednesday April 29
Richard-ex sent me a book about Winston Churchill during the Blitz: Erik Larson’s The Splendid and the Vile. Also Dorothy Day's autobiography arrived, which I had ordered, and Stephen King's On Writing was mysteriously delivered. No sender attribution. Many bathtub books!
At noon I phoned into the Columbia County Democrat Committee officer's call, which I previously usually skipped because the calls were at 10 on Wednesday. Since they've been rescheduled for noon, I have no excuse except that, as secretary, I have no real active role as an officer except for note taking. The call was mostly about the canceled primary, which is causing all kinds of grief among the Bernie supporters. And I think is was a stupid move by the Biden Centrist Democrats, because it will alienate a bunch of progressives. This is a very problematic election anyway. Most of us who normally work as polling inspectors are old and/or have conditions that the virus loves to accentuate, so when the BOE sent out a survey to former inspectors asking who would be working at the polls this year, no one was.
Worked again on food lists. Checked the GoFundMe campaign: $8500 so far. I was sent a message off the site from a woman who represented the non-profit that had given the Army a $15,000 grant. She suggested that the Recovery Kitchen apply for the same amount. I forwarded it to Carole Clark, the RK organizer, along with the grant application that I had edited for Darcy. I keep suggesting that Carole contact Darcy, but she doesn’t. I suspect control issues.
Made a sauce for chicken thighs tonight by mixing flour with dried sumac, Zataar (thyme), smoked paprika, cumin, and turmeric. Dredged the chicken in it, fried the thighs, and took them out of the pan. Sautéed onions and preserved lemon, added rest of flour, the stock, red chili sauce, and Willie's weird cola. Put chicken back in and cooked till it was done. Great.
Eavesdropped on one of Willie's odd phone calls with a former seminarian or a person from one of the parishes where he had been stationed. Couldn't tell who it was. In these phone calls, he advises, teases, provides relevant Catholic doctrine, refers to Dante or Aquinas, imitates the accents and quotes local religious eccentrics, and, in general, provides spiritual guidance with a gusty humor that his father used to promote WASPy behavior. Amazing gift.
No streaming tonight. We’re all burned out on it. Reading books. I’m doing a Carl Hiaasen (although electronic – on my Kindle),
Thursday April 30
Worked on research for the virus this morning for presentation at the Executive Committee meeting tonight. Covid virus could still be ticking up in our county but we haven’t been testing much. Only13 deaths.
Wrote interview questions for the two chefs who are cooking for the Recovery Kitchen. Got a nice response from Jaime, enough to start the press release I'm writing for it.
Both projects kept me busy into late afternoon when Willie and I did some gaming on our good adventure Life is Strange.
Ordered pizza from Baba Louis before virtual Exec Committee meeting. It went OK until the end. We covered how we would or wouldn't deal with the progressive anger over the canceled primary. I gave current statistics on the virus and Sarah described how the county government was handing it. Then Pam Kline gave a presentation on the Recovery Kitchen. I followed with praise for her and Carole and the chefs. Then I gave a plug for the Salvation Army ("Don't forget them. They've been handing out lunches for years and the demand is increasing"). Brenda Gevertz our new second vice chair, then pulled out the old accusations against the Army for being anti-Semitic and homophobic. Attacking my beloved army is like going after a kid. "That's crap." Maybe not entirely diplomatic or convincing.
After the meeting I wrote a very measured email to her (without any scatological references), providing her with Army policy statements on tolerance and stressing that our local center was independent, that the staff and volunteers had no religious affiliation with the national organization, and I had never seen any evidence of intolerance at all. On the contrary, these were the best people I had every worked with. She responded by accusing me of homophobia and anti-Semitism, quoted the army mission statement of following Jesus evangelically, and finished by saying how this hurt Muslims and Jews. Somehow, not only Muslims and Jews, but also her brother had been damaged by their policy, although she didn't provide any details. I then sent what I consider a very calm response to her nonsequitor, and watched Stephen Colbert and Larry Sanders to quiet down the agitation and stop the grrrr sound coming out of my mouth.
Friday May 1
Woke up at three in the morning to draft the article for the Recovery Kitchen. Spent the early part of the day completing it and sent it out to Pam, Carole, and the two chefs for review. Bizarrely I had referred to Carole Clark, the founder of this amazing venture, as Carole Edwards, in my post midnight draft. I have no idea where “Edwards” came from. Certainly not from autocorrect. Very bizarre.
Also worked on Food Pantry list updates for Food Pantries. Enjoying this work.
Watched a Tai Chi sitting video that I accidentally tapped into. Very soothing. Sent the link to Jill, who responded with an underlying email irritation that she had sent me a sitting Tai chi link before. Sigh.
Supervised Willie's cauliflower Parmesan, which turned out to be really tasty.
Watched the Heist at night. Michael and I engaged but Will doesn’t want to watch more of it. I’ve got three books going: Eric Larson’s Splendid and Vile (hardback from Richard), Dorothy Day’s autobiography (paperback for bathtub), and the next Cadfael mystery (Kindle in bed).
I wish I’d get a hear from the radiation department to get started with the next round of treatments. Getting nervous.
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