Saturday August 15
Woke up late, eavesdropping on Michael’s Zoom library board meeting.
Geoff and Kim coming this evening but only staying overnight.
Played with ancestry.com most of the morning, searching for my witch great great great etc. grandmother to balance out Andrew Elliott, my great great great etc. grandfather, one of the Salem judges who hanged them and later apologized. This is all recorded, so that lineage is sound. I wonder if his experience had a long-term effect on his descendants and what that would be. Guilt? For my witch, I'm looking at Sarah Bridges, who married Benjamin Patch—a confirmed ancestor. Sarah, however, has weak connections to me. A Sarah Bridges had been accused and exonerated but her records showed she married a Preston, and Preston didn't die before my Sarah Bridges married Benjamin. Still, if she had been an accused witch, she might have left Preston or he could have kicked her out. No grave for Sarah Patch either. There are so many marriages between widows and widows, so many offspring and half offspring with different names that it’s very difficult to a the direct line. Silly hobby.
Worked on diary in the afternoon.
Made chicken breasts, garden beans, for dinner. Geoff and Kim arrived at ten. Talked for a little bit about the school situation and covid. Kim's job herding 27 parent groups in a Queens district through this debacle is very tough.
Sunday August 16
I didn't see much of my Geoff and Kim. They are burned out from quarantine with their kids and Kim's job, so were holed up in the little house for most of their visit. Geoff talked to me while I was weeding the herb garden on the tractor scoot unhappy about problems with the two older sons. I gather it involves them not helping much, They need to get jobs, get married, and leave home. May we get a vaccine soon! They took off in the afternoon
Liz and Geoff Leckie coming tonight for dinner. Made caponata using one of my first Rosa Bianca eggplants and the beautiful bullet shaped cherry tomatoes streaked with red and green. Michael grilled pork chops. Made panna cotta for desert. We ate on the deck till it got dark. It was so good to be cooking for friends and actually nice just to have Liz and Geoff by themselves. I don’t think we’ve ever had them over without some combination of Willie, Ann, Richard Wallace and Stuart. Being forced to socialize with small groups is one of the covid advantages.
Monday August 17
Fitful sleep last night trying to grab some between leg cramps and twitches.
Idle computer dawdling. While browsing I opened a YouTube video of a discussion between Pema Chodron and father Gregory Boyle, the founder of Homeboy Industries. He was inspired by Dorothy Day, and I’m struck again by the coincidental discovery of like-minded writers or thinkers since my mind has been opened to her. I glanced out the window and saw smoke. Went downstairs and Michael found that some wood in a steel bowl on the deck had caught on fire. It was very mysterious. I suggested that the hot sun reflecting off the steel surface had generated enough heat to set it off, but Michael didn't think that was the cause.
Was too knocked out to cook much, so I whipped up a frittata using yesterday’s caponata. Not bad and enough for lunch tomorrow.
Alternated between Parks and Rec (have to finish the current season before Willie gets here tomorrow). and the first night of the DNC Convention. It's an odd zoom contraption constructed using speeches from living rooms and videos shot before hand in an attempt to be celebratory. I was most interested in Cuomo’s speech (fine and sounded like one of his briefings) and Michelle Obama's, who was incredible and would be elected President in a heartbeat. Ah well. I can understand why she doesn’t want to return to the snake pit that she lived in for eight years.
Tuesday August 18
Went to the supermarket this morning with very tough arthritis after another fitful sleep.
Worked on the Recovery Kitchen spreadsheet projections and sent them off to Carole who didn’t understand them.
Willie and his half sister Rebecca arrived at four thirty. I realized I had only seen her once since she was ten and that was looking over Willie’s shoulder on Face Time. She's a beautiful young woman, funny and smart.
On the deck I peeled apples from Dave’s property for apple butter. They are tiny and it was an arduous task. Hope there are enough for more than one jar. I put them in the slow cooker at eight for ten hours.
We ate hot dogs on the deck and I probably talked too much, telling Rebecca stories about her father and grandparents. They have decided not to do an intervention with Richard. He really needs to write. Rebecca says he’s blaming the quarantine for not being able to come up with ideas, but I had been concerned that after the Disney book he might become discouraged. His experience as a child in Disneyland, walking its Main Street, was the primal foundation of his interest in American history. I had been worried that once he told its story that he might become blocked against further ideas. It seems to be happening,
Didn’t watch day two of the convention. Watched Parks and Recs instead. Everything to do with this race is anxiety producing.
Wednesday August 19
Got up at seven thirty to purée the apple butter. I used a hand blender and thought I was being very careful, but Michael found little apple butter pimples that had landed over his computer and work table and all the surface and walls around the slow cooker. He spent a good deal of the morning cleaning everything. I was embarrassed. Canned the apple butter. Only two jars!
Strained stock and chopped watermelon and peaches and added blueberries for a fruit bowl.
Everyone in the house working and having zoom calls this morning. Michael had a patent call with some person who might try to sell the patent. How good if that worked! Goodbye Bleak House. I talked to Carole and Pam about Recovery Kitchen numbers, walking them through the spreadsheet. Smart women but absolutely no computer skills at. They need a lot of money to sustain their effort! Rebecca is working for a website whose name, a vanity site of some famous producer who everyone except me seems to have heard about. Netflix is supporting it and I guess it's set up to promote her future productions using some vapid life-style features it’s editorial stories seem pretty random, and its expensive to run—four editors and additional freelancers. Traffic is slim and Rebecca says it’s not long for this world.
Harris called with the news that the house sale looks solid. He also reported Neville's ethical conflict as a member of a Kingston art board, which has given a contract to her friend Bobby to produce a video. The essential problem is that he can't really do the job without Neville's help. She doesn't want to work pro bono, but of course it would look wildly unethical if she took part of Bobby's funds. She should have told them the board up front that she was Bobby's partner but didn’t. I ducked out of offering any advice.
Cooked chicken thighs with a French vinegar sauce, rice, and broccoli. Ok. Watched Day 3 of the Convention, when Michelle Grisham got to speak before Obama and Harris. I thought she was great but didn't get much play from the press. Obama and Kamala were effective, but I was very sleepy and political speeches are sounding all the same, even the good ones.
Thursday August 20
Our wonderful mover Nicole schlepped the freezer, the Bolton Jones painting, the newish filing cabinet and the little safe from Dave's barn over to the house. Nicole is beautiful thin and blonde woman and leads a pack of cheerful friendly young men, although I saw her lift the freezer by herself. Wonder woman and incredibly nice! Michael went over to the barn before she came to wash out the freezer and found a mysterious dozen bottles of kefir and buttermilk texted Gavy and Lily, Farrell, and Dave and Janet to see if they had put them there, but no one had. After the freezer arrived, I realized that I had put them there, after a major donation to the Salvation Army that left only me wanting them. There are also bags of raspberries and blueberries put there in some banner fruit year. Everything has been nestled in there for at least three years. Tempted to try them out.
Lee sent a picture of Dad, corporate handsome and happy with his seventies sideburns, before life's brutality shot holes in his fine mind. Heartbreaking picture.
Got a text from Jessica Porter, as a young volunteer cook at the Army, who's back cooking with Faye on Thursdays! I’m going to try to hobble in.
Went to the Red Barn for dinner, which has good seafood, outdoor seating, and pretty strings of lights. The waitresses are all good-natured but they forgot about us. After about a half hour, and watching them leaning over the counter at the front of the restaurant, I told Willie talk to them and pretend we didn’t know if we were supposed to order upfront. They were very apologetic, and gave us our cockles for free. The food was all fine, and Rebecca and Willie were good natured and funny.
Back home to watch Parks and Recs on the PS4 while the Dem Convention played on mute on my computer. We switched over to Biden’s speech, which was very strong. Such a contrast to the Phantom of the White House. I just don’t understand how people of good will can support this ugly pathetic man
Friday August 21
Paul completed the pond outlet. We said good-by to him and his skinny assistant and walked down to see it. I’m so pleased that it’s done. I hope we get some rain so that the pond starts filling again, but it's very dry and no sign of any change this week.
Richard Wallace has been texting from the HSS Slater. It's supposed to be heading up the river to Albany today but it just sprung a leak, so won't be moving until Tuesday. Richard will be onboard during this period and is giving tours to the guys working on it I imagine he's in Heaven.
I'm so excited to have the freezer in the garage. I threw out the kefir (sad) but kept the fruit, thinking that it may be ok to process. Probably won't kill us..
Took Willie and Rebecca to le Gamin, our first visit since the viral lockdown. It was so good to be eating their wonderful omelets and smoked salmon sandwich.
Did a lot of garden picking for tonight’s Catholic Vegetable soup. I made it in the early afternoon and became obsessed with baking cornbread, which I did.
Lost his rosary beads and couldn't find them anywhere. He finally called the Red Barn, where they had been found after dropping out of his pocket. Everyone very pleased.
Watched Parks and Rec.
Woke up to hear the cats chasing a mouse that Stevie has been stalking for about 24 hours. I woke Michael up and he rescued the mouse with his trashcan magazine defective trap and put it outside.
Went back to sleep but woke up flooded with memories of loss and pain, maybe evoked by stories I’ve been telling Rebecca about her dad. Meditated on it and took a bath hoping for some spiritual transformation. Then I dreamed about Stevie chasing a pet hamster and I made coffee and toast for some meeting. Entirely pedestrian. I have no spiritual gene at all.
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