Debated going to Josh's yesterday but decided against it. Just too hard to social distance inside and rain was forecast. And I really don't think I could wear a mask for any length of time. I know it could easily be my last mother's day but venturing out just makes that more possible. It is all too terrifying to think of the chaos and madness going on at 1600. There has got to be a way to get him out of there and get someone who can handle this virus in there. NOW. November is too long to wait.
Watched a few old movies: Lean on Pete and Here Comes, Mr. Jordan, with Robert Montgomery and Claude Rains stick out as the best.
Reading The Red Lotus by Chris Bohaljian. Set in Vietnam today. Still wading through Hidden Valley Road, which has got to be the most depressing book I've ever read. Imagine having eight kids with schizophrenia. Finishing up Dance of the Happy Shades by Alice Munro and she is a genius. Well deserved the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Watching a few series I like on TV. Normal People on Hulu and The Eddy on Netflix. The Eddy is about a jazz club in Paris. Each episode concentrates on another character. Great atmosphere and music. And Paris!
And I close out each day with an episode of Schitts Creek. Good way to go to bed. I need to find another show soon.
How about you?
15 comments:
I'm glad you found a good 'go to bed' show, Patti. Those can really help you settle for the night. And I know what you mean about social distance. It's very hard to do indoors...
The Eddy? Will have to check it out. We rotate a number of shows - of the ones broadcasting now, Jackie likes Killing Eve. John Oliver's HBO show remains my favorite. Also watching 9-1-1 on Fox (last show tonight, I believe), Baptiste (nasty), Death in Paradise (series 9), Call the Midwife (series 9), What We Do in the Shadows (silly vampire show, set in Staten Island, on FX Wednesday nights), Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives.
We finished the second series of My Brilliant Friend this week, and watched the first two episodes that we had missed in Florida of Ken Burns' Country Music series on PBS. We've added Outlander on Netflix, and Srugim (so far) on Amazon Prime. It's a half hour Israeli series about 5 Modern Orthodox 30ish people (three women, two men) in Jerusalem. Not sure about it, but I like having a few half hour shows in the mix. Others are After Life (Ricky Gervais), What We Do, DDD.
The best thing we are watching at the moment - at least the one we are both enjoying the most - is the third season of Fauda on Netflix. It's another Israeli show, this about a counter-terrorism unit operating mostly undercover on the West Bank, though recent events have brought them into the much more dangerous Gaza. Very good, very fast moving. Bosch is good, but Jackie hates his sideburns.
The other new show we've added is the Japanese-British Giri/Haji ("Duty"/"Shame"). Takehiro Hira is a Japanese detective sent to London to find his Yakuza brother, previously thought to be dead, for murdering the nephew of a Yakuza member, which could start a gang war. He works with a London detective played by Kelly Macdonald, who I've always liked (love her accent).
As for the White House, one can only hope that the rumor that the virus is running wild in the West Wing is true. Nice leadership there, Donnie. No masks, no distancing, no testing, no plans other than reopen and see what happens. What could possibly go right? Nothing.
Seriously guys, if this had happened twenty-five years ago, we would have been much more pressed at sheltering. Think of just having five stations to deal with. Daytime tv was awful-well, it still it, but we can stream. Blockbuster would have closed and we'd have some long days.
Yeah, having something cheerful to send me off to bed helps.
Watching mostly movies this last week. My favorite new movie is Tigers Are Not Afraid. A Mexican film in the vein of The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth. Started several series but couldn't find anything to keep my interest. Catching up on second season of Yellowstone. The third season starts this week.
Finishing up War of the Maps by Paul McAuley. Probably the best SF novel I have read in the last six months.
Getting ready to see the retina specialist this morning. They are only seeing one patient per hour so at least I won't have a lot of waiting around to do.
Diane and I watched 23 HOURS TO KILL, the Jerry Seinfeld comedy special on Netflix.
On Mothers' Day we Facebook PORTALed with Patrick and Katie. Both of our kids are baking. Katie just baked a wonderful lemon cake. Patrick baked French madeleines flavored with oranges. That inspired Diane to bake orange madeleines, too. And I made Chocolate Oatmeal cookies. We have too many desserts!
We ordered a Mothers' Day Take-Out meal from The Hideaway Grille (Diane's favorite local restaurant). I had BBQ ribs and Diane went with the Filet Mignon. And dessert was a massive slice of 17-layer Chocolate Cake!
I'm counting the days when the Tonawanda Aquatic and Fitness Center reopens!
Social distancing is difficult and wearing a mask is a pain that constantly fogs up my glasses, but the alternative is far, far worse. I keep my glasses in my shirt pocket and hope I don't bump into anything and that anything I have to read is printed in 60 point type.
As for President Bozo and his Clown Car, each day they bring the country close to extinction. I, for one, hope that he remains healthy; otherwise we'll a President Pence and Mother -- brrr! Our hope, of course, is the the Dems will turn everything around in November but they do have a proven track record of snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory. Even so, it will take a concentrated effort to remove America from the disease and economic brink.
In the midst of all this glum and despair, there's always something positive to cling to.
We've been beaching almost every day. We go to a dog beach at 9:00 each morning. There are few people there at that time and it's easy to distance ourselves. It's a great joy just to watch the people and their dogs. The Gulf is beautiful and calming and the weather is warm but not too warm. We usually stay for about ninety minutes and can go about our day refreshed. Weekends, Jessie, Ceili, and Amy join us, along with Nugget. Now at thirteen weeks, Nuggets is sweet, loving, playful, and really, really curious. I think it's impossible not to love that dog.
Mother's Day also started off at the beach. Christina and Walt had to work a Farmer's Market so it was just us, Jack, and Jessie's gang. Jessie had planned to have a Mother's Day breakfast for us; she had already decided on what to get from Panera. Sadly Panera limited their menu but did not give any indication that they did; the signs outside still advertised all the things that Jessie wanted to get -- none of it was available during the pandemic. We ended up with store-bought breakfast pastries from Publix. The food didn't matter; the company did. It was a very successful day.
Saturday, we were over at Jessie's helping the family take down bamboo. One entire side of Jessie's back yard is an old jungle of bamboo, thirty, forty, or more in height -- all clumped and twisted together. A lot of work was done and about a third of the jungle was cleared. Once the bamboo is all gone, she will put a privacy fence around the backyard. We estimate that we took well over a ton of bamboo and debris from when she had a bunch of old trees removed from the yard. It will be gorgeous when she finishes.
Erin technically finished high school this week even though the senior class has another couple of weeks to go. She had enough credits to graduate last year as a junior but opted not to. Instead she took a year's worth of classes at Pensacola State College this year while Gulf Breeze High School paid for it. She ended the year with a 4.76 GPA (out of 5).
Watched the last half of the final season of VIKINGS. Poor Lagetha. Poor Bjorn. Also watching the late night comics on YouTube. What would we do without them? We're up to season eight of SUPERNATURAL. Sam and Dean have already saved the world three times only to get tossed into even larger danger. Clever writing and a balance of horror and comedy manged to keep the show fresh. (At the end of season seven, an alpha vampire escapes and tells the boys, "See you next season.") There are currently fourteen seasons available to us; by the time we get to the end, the fifteenth and final season may become available.
[I have to stop typing this because the damn cat insists on being fed.]
Have a great week, Patti!
Jackie is reading Sandra Hill's Cajun romance series about Tante Lulu for the laughs. She can't read anything too dark. She just read the 50th J. D. Robb book, GOLDEN IN DEATH.
Since I'm not planning on flying any time in the foreseeable future, I am having no trouble reading FLIGHT OR FRIGHT, the anthology edited by Stephen King & Bev Vincent. So far, nothing tops the classic "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" by Richard Matheson, which made one of the best TWILIGHT ZONE episodes (with William Shatner as the guy who sees the gremlin on the wing).
Good luck, Steve. Hope you get in this time.
I can't imagine getting to go to the beach whenever I want. Good thing you moved when you did although you had better government in Maryland.
My mother's day dinner-well, why depress you. It would have been good if I had gone to Josh's where he ordered meals from a nice restaurant.
Yes, the airline industry is in one of the worst situations. Trump will no doubt ask Americans to fly by July 4th to keep it afloat.
Patti, Diane has always made a point of spending Mothers' Day with Patrick and Katie. Last year, we were in New York City seeing plays and enjoying some great restaurants. Katie took the train to NYC from Boston. Patrick, unfortunately, was in Scotland (but we did Skype with him).
The year before that, Diane and I flew to San Jose and spent time with Patrick. Katie flew in from Boston and we had a great time touring GOOGLE and dining in some excellent restaurants.
Sadly, we have no idea when we'll see our kids again physically. Patrick is leery of flying right now. Katie is just recovering from mononucleosis so she's not ready to make an 8-hour drive from Boston to North Tonawanda. So, it's Facebook PORTAL for the foreseeable future.
Patti, I hope you had a good Mother's Day, in spite of showers and staying safely at home. There's no way to get a change at the White House until November, and then in actuality, January. All we can do is vote.
@ Steve: Good for you! I hope the eye guy can do something positive to help your vision, and soon!
We're reading, me a lot and Barbara between being in the yard and doing a puzzle. We always seem to have one going these days, though my interest level is waining. I've been grumpy lately, it's the news I think, but am trying to enjoy things. The garden is beautiful right now.
I talk to Megan every Sunday but a trip out here looks iffy at best. Josh, luckily, lives less than an hour away although I haven't seen him since early march.
Both of my kids do puzzles but I never had the patience. I wish I still did quilts.
Things are mostly the same in the Saylor household and I am grateful that my wife and I are still employed and the children are in such a great school system. But, some days I am still just skirting a major blow-up of anger and frustration.
Boy #2 qualified for the state level on his tuba solo as an 8th grader. The competition was cancelled but thankfully the performances could be recorded and submitted for judging and Boy #2 scored a 4 out of 5. My wife and I were impressed but Boy #2 said his performance at the regional competition was better.
Boy #1 was supposed to go to the Boys State program in June. I doubt I was ever considered for the honor when I was in high school. Of course Boy State was cancelled and not rescheduled and I got pissed off that Boy #1 is unable to attend.
The silver lining to all the school, music, athletic, Scouting, and social event cancellations is that I can sleep in every weekend. This is a luxury I've been without for 17+ years.
Jerry mentions his granddaughter completing college courses on the high school dime. This kind of opportunity is so fantastic, and I am impressed that so many schools give this option. Our high school offers several AP classes and a advanced HS student could earn about two semesters worth of college credit taking the exams. Boy #1 has his calculus AP test tomorrow. He'll likely do just fine but I think he may be having some anxiety about it.
Last week I discovered that my family really don't like it when I play or sing HOLIDAY IN CAMBODIA at the dinner table. https://youtu.be/7sF8rkSPDH8
Although having a family around you must help with the loneliness, it also must add to the anxiety. I hate that this will be the "thing" in so many lives, the event you can never get past.
Sorry to be late, seems like that happens every Monday. But as I said last time, this way I get to read all the comments too.
I never made any actual quilts (full size) but in my thirties I pieced many squares and appliqued squares and made several fronts for large pillows and quilted those. And now I find it challenging to even think of sewing a mask. I don't have my sewing machine anymore which would make it easier ... but still not easy.
Yesterday I baked cookies, first time in years. I don't really like baking, it demands too much of you, little room for mistakes. But the results were good and I used my Kitchenaid mixer which had sat unused for a while. So all in all it was a good thing.
As Jerry mentioned, I too have problems with my glasses and masks. If I have to read details on a package when shopping, I am in trouble. Up to now I have been using a scarf / balaclava but we have some masks on order so maybe they will be better.
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