SCIENCE and SENSIBILITY

Wednesday

2.1.2020.

News of the Covid-19 pandemic is worse and worser. Meanwhile, this is how I watch Television on my non-cabled 12 inch old clunker which gets reasonable reception from it's rabbit-ear antenna on several key channels (thank goodness)

and this is my 12 inch cabled laptop where I store pictures, get email, construct my blog posts and read several others, interact on Facebook, and watch you tube and other videos.

How might it be, I wonder, without these luxuries?

More silent and less stressful I suspect.

Still, my 'prayer' is that the electric grid is maintained and the cable connections hold for the duration,

"April Fools"

(A Holiday gift from my Massachusetts 'family')

~*~

Thursday

4.2.2020

Self Defense

Midnight Temperature 97.7-taken once or twice a day because of Covid-19. It's not all I do now, locked down in my apartment for who knows how long, I've gotten blurry in more ways than one.

 

Time

'Retired' many years ago, I lived alone and time was at my command for the most part. Other than the occasional appointments, meetings or events, It was simply mine to decide. Now, it's out of my hands.

One abandons the external clock and reverts to that internal one; to night and day, the minute details of each moment and every activity in the service of survival. Sound dominates the current quiet. How welcome are these clankings of hundred year old iron pipes as they deliver hissing heat. How comforting that hiss is. Everything seems to take more time, yet time continues to expand or contract unpredictably. Out of contact with people, thinking about them has becomes more abstract, introspection more intense.
 

Time to get Out Walking

Union Square

Squil in Bloom
 
Chess and Dog Walking

A gathering without social distance
Spring

Social distance line to enter Trader Joe Grocery Store
entrance at the far left (middle) down near Third Avenue!
I decided I didn't need anything. 

 8 p.m.
Watched full Episode
"The Polio Crusade"
Remembered getting the shot at school and that I developed a slight fever late that evening at home, but it passed.
Ten Minute Preview
https://www.pbs.org/video/chapter-1-polio-crusade-ng86fe/

More
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonas_Salk
~*~
  

THIS SORT OF DAY

Wednesday

Daffodils for Wendy Golden-Levitt
(She's healing well)

 Thursday
It was this sort of day:
Sun crept up the sky and slipped through curtains to wake me from my dreaming. By noon the temperature was sixty degrees and home chores done, I was heading out. I got what I needed from two stores, chatted with two people, waved at three, visited the library, exchanging literary reviews with my favorite librarian, and photographed headlines at a local news stand.

1.

 2.

 3.

 At three PM, sky overcast, I worked my way around cliques of school kids bursting with their freedom and with my two new audio books I returned to base. It feels like rain is lurking.

 Nothing happened.
~*~

Thursday

Face Book Message appeared as soon as I logged on and I'm still trying to decide if I care. I have a lingering residue of anger I'm aware of which may take some work to disengage from. I'm not yet ready to abandon this ship. Sorry about the cut off screen shot.

I followed through to this:

"Check below to see if your information may have been shared with Cambridge Analytica by the app “This Is Your Digital Life.”
Was My Information Shared?
Based on our investigation, you don't appear to have logged into "This Is Your Digital Life" with Facebook before we removed it from our platform in 2015. However, a friend of yours did log in. As a result, the following information was likely shared with "This Is Your Digital Life": Your public profile, Page likes, birthday and current city. A small number of people who logged into "This Is Your Digital Life" also shared their own News Feed, timeline, posts and messages which may have included posts and messages from you. They may also have shared your hometown. Review and update the information you share with apps and websites by checking your settings.
Was this information helpful?"
YES and NO
I went to my Face book SETTINGS as instructed. There are too many COMPLICATED STEPS TO REMOVING APPS and TO REMOVING STORED DATA. I tried and tried to no avail. I have only three and they are not lethal so okay for now - but - Damn! It should be easier.

Meanwhile

Here's another Link If you feel like reading more from Mr. Z.

Cambridge Analytica

 ~*~

Friday

Honey Sweetens Everything

Especially honey from these bees who are the healthiest at the market.

Try the Elixer

(a healing mix of pollen and honey)

 Spoke to this young man burning purifying sweet sticks from Peru.
I cleansed myself.

 Beautiful

 6:45
On my way home again

 I've already got eggs and butter. The plan, as you can see, is to make a double batch of rich brownies to eat Sunday and share with my writing group and the Zendo next week.

 ~*~

The evening news was deeply distressing

SYRIA

~*~

https://austinkleon.com/2017/03/23/planting-iris/

~*~

SIMPLY DREAMING

Saturday opened with rain that was transformed by afternoon sunlight, and passed so quickly it seemed as though time had accelerated.  Waking from a nap, I wondered briefly where I was.  Some dreams take on dimensional reality that's very convincing.

I stole some more violets for the vinegar while the seven o'clock mass was in session.

Even though it was me who carted those violets there in the first place, and me who spread them from place to place over the decades, I still felt like a thief.  Onward then, down to the East river Styvesant Cove park at dusk to a reflected sunset with a 'bird' cloud.

Some Plant Profiles:

Names temporarily forgotten

 *

 Got much too close

 *

 Having focus problems

"Hmmmm" I thought

 *

Waking reality is simply another kind of dream

One perfect Cherry Tree

 *

May I dream as a bee dreams tonight.
Summertime dreams:

https://youtu.be/MxVeUvo5COI

LINK

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuyvesant_Cove_Park

ONE SMOOTH STONE

Rediscovered
I may have even placed it there myself decades ago when we were a real 'community'
and raised money to plant the ten original trees on the block

Soaked and scrubbed

Rust left a mark

 ~*~
(Switched to a warmer light source for these next shots)

A strip of tar and something else made marks

I made some marks

In a world of uncertainty and strife, something about a stone seems right.  It's the past in my hand.  The future?  Who knows.
~*~
Something More About Stones
about time, and about the ineffable

This is a documentary about the artist
Andy Goldsworthy

British sculptor, photographer and environmentalist producing site-specific sculpture and land art situated in natural and urban settings. He lives and works in Scotland.

"RIVERS and TIDES"
(1 Hr. 45 Min.)

http://youtu.be/l9xygwtP6SQ

More information

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Goldsworthy

~*~

"My life, the most truthful one, is unrecognizable, extremely interior,
and there is no single word that gives it meaning."
Clarice Lispector