Month: November 2020

Isolation Diary: Why?! Why do the batteries of smoke alarms fail late at night? 90% of the time?! I am winding down. Here I am, by myself, one glass of red wine into the getting ready for bed process and ‘beep’. The dreaded ‘beep’. And why, oh why, are these devices so difficult to fasten back into their housings on the ceiling? So there I am on a ladder at 1a.m. railing against this idiotic system. However, for all that, I did change out the batteries……one MUST have back up batteries!!! And I will be out tomorrow to replace the ones I used tonight. Some struggle to get the thing re-attached but not enough to require the most serious swear words and I did not fall off the ladder and here I am.

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Richard L.
I KNOW!!

Ronnie R.
Ours have a ladies voice that yells out FIRE FIRE

Holly B.
A miracle dear Ruth; my way of dealing with beep,beep is get a hammer and smash the thing to death.

Kathi C.
Just had one of those nights. Struggled to get the top back on at 2 AM, alone on a ladder. Disaster waiting to happen.

Paul B.
Bravo

Carolyn K.
Most alarms now are 10-year alarms. At Red Cross we installed them in each home (Kidde). I figure in 10 years I probably wouldn’t hear any beeping anyway!

Ruth Silveira
Carolyn K. I could use a 10 year alarm. Although after all that time, if it started beeping at midnight I would still feel put upon, I fear.

Isolation Diary: Beginning on Monday, Nov 2, I isolated myself from TV news and almost completely from FB. Couldn’t take the stress. Feeling better now and checking in. Surprised by what I found. So many rather random posts. Few election focused posts, well, fewer than expected. Sort of like….when a plumber shuts off your water to fix something and then later when you turn on a faucet there is burbling and fuzzing and spritzing for a bit? Were this evening’s posts like that? Anyway, glad to be back.

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Claudette W.
Good analogy.

I am so relieved. Phew. I watch and love all the dancing in the streets and yet, remembering the shock and gloom of the last election, I know there are many people unhappy. But….maybe, with some finagling, they still might have health insurance. Maybe even clean water. Clean air? We are working on it. As for the schooling of your young? And the possibility of success for your small business…..wear a mask! Starve this virus don’t feed it.

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Jeff W.
Not unusual, except for the extent of the damage: a Democrat has the unenviable task of cleaning-up the mess left by a Republican administration. It’s a familiar pattern.

So very true!

Isolation Diary: My gosh, we are still isolating. Wearing masks. Being super careful in public places. I have put off a doctor’s appointment because I don’t want to ascend 10 floors in an elevator in a medical building. Maybe that’s extreme. Maybe I just don’t want to visit that doctor. Because I’m FINE, okay? A delicious fantasy: Biden and Harris somehow convince the citizens of this country to wear masks for a month and the virus is starved to death and we all go out to dinner and toast to each other.

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Claudette W.
Very concerning, yes. I wear a double mask in an elevator. And I make sure I’m alone when I take it.

Carolyn K.
Oh happy day: out to dinner and a toast.

Isolation Diary: The mundane resurfaces after being ignored because of high stress level and dire imaginings. Back room has been painted. Another crop of peas planted. A plumbing problem taken care of (faulty sprinkler valves that caused loud vibration through the house), thermostat replaced by one that works and only has 3 buttons, two unneeded lamps sold to a happy buyer. AND…..holiday cookie list made and ingredient list begun. Even, appointment made for a phone conference about replacing my disappearing SAG health insurance. I think since all these repair people have been in the house, I will get another covid test. It’s time to hunker down again. I cherish my safe pod.

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Jeff W.
I’m not sure why, but I find your posts very comforting, Ruth. Thanks for that.

Holly B.
I usually get one one of these a month done.

What if……the sky was infected with enemy drones. Small things, but bigger than a moth. Spread out over the country. They shot people with poison pellets. They were drawn to large crowds and small gatherings. They are small so keeping them out of enclosed spaces is nearly impossible. Let’s say 10 million people got shot. Right in front of other people. Sometimes the pellet bounced off a hat and did no damage, sometimes it made a scratch and a festering sore, sometimes it sent someone to the hospital, sometimes it killed the target, right then, right there. Would people then accept the urgent suggestion that it is helpful to wear a large brimmed hard hat? Or would they object to being ‘forced by the government’ to ‘save’ themselves? Another intrusion into their lives by Government.

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Jeff W.
It’s a GREAT analogy.Unfortunately, it brought this extremely unsettling video to mind —one I had managed to forget, but your scenario was so similar… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stHLrBs-_iE YOUTUBE.COM – Future weapon used by intelligence (Mini Drone)
(This video was so scary, I didn’t edit it out.)

Ruth Silveira
Jeffer! Sorry to remind you of that. It is horrifying. So similar to my little “what if” musing. But, yeah, with that threat people would wear hats and masks, I bet.

Isolation Diary: I got a covid test today. Just because. Repair people in and out of the house. Contact with family who are in contact with others. I mean…..the children! They need to be with other children. So safe pods expand, begin to overlap like Venn diagrams. We balance our physical health with our mental health. My mental health? My sense of humor is still intact, my sense of purpose and value is in question. But there are glimmers of a possible positive project forming. I am a little surprised at my continuing efforts to make this idea a thing, a reality. And I am encouraged. The isolation, however wonderful my family is, and they are a profound blessing, has blurred the outlines of identity a bit. Maybe blurred is not the right term. Maybe created alternate outlines. A bunch of them. Not right. Can’t say what I mean. At times in my life I have felt adrift. As though I could float away into outer space. I am grateful for my anchors. The isolation has loosened some of my anchors.

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Guy P.
I love your posts Ruth.

Nancy W.
Ruth, you express so well my own feelings. And my family is too far away go me to ever see them. Anchors loosened, adrift and afraid. And winter coming on.

Ruth Silveira
Nancy, I am so sorry you are far from your family. Traveling is hard right now. We must keep what contact we can, with friends, with family. Sometimes with, hey, anybody.

Nancy W.
YES! So good to hear from you and read your posts. xoxo

Isolation Diary: There was a bunny rabbit in my yard! A little brown one. I saw it 2 weeks ago and then again today. It skedaddled (Is that one of the words that Pat Towne posted as artifacts from yesteryear?) under my backyard deck. I left a carrot out for it but that remains in place uneaten. I would love to meet this little creature. In other news: weeding in the garden in the a.m., fun D and D session in the afternoon, another batch of Christmas cookie dough into the freezer in the p.m. Plus I did my exercise and my tai chi. So, it’s okay that I end this and play a computer game.

I haven’t seen the bunny in several months now.

I’ve been thinking about the idea of the Holon, a concept introduced to me by Joe Jordan. A whole that is part of a larger whole. Something that is simultaneously a whole and a part. Incredibly this word is not in my Websters dictionary or my American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. No wonder we are in such division and chaos! We are all a whole individually, also a part of numerous larger other wholes. And those larger wholes are part of larger wholes. So, in my opinion, the person who wrote to the LA Times that he voted for Trump because the stock market was lining his pocket, this person is working from his small Whole. His small circle. Without consideration of the larger Whole. And, also in my opinion, those who created AB5 are focused on the large whole; as are those, again in my biased opinion, who support changing zoning across California, or the US, to allow multi-family dwelling or lot sub-divisions just about anywhere, without consideration of the smaller Whole. These ideas are born of graphs and numbers (AB5 and zoning) and need to meet with lives of the smaller Wholes to become actually workable and beneficial ideas. To extend a bit further…….those who won’t wear a mask because it is an assault on their ‘liberty’ are living in their small Whole. (or hole). And then to jump to another idea–Those who so guard their ‘liberty’ support a person who is basically an autocrat and who can’t help but undermine democratic practices. Okay, further thought….a Libertarian might not care about the democratic process. But….has a Libertarian ever come face to face with tyranny?

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Ruth Silveira
And when a Libertarian does come face to face with tyranny, do they become anarchists? I listened to “American Kingpin”, a book about the person who created the website “The Silk Road”. He was a dedicated Libertarian. His original intent was to sell drugs on-line, through a highly secure website, because he believed people should have control over what they put into their bodies and because buying on-line and having one’s drugs delivered by the post office was much safer than buying on a street corner. He called himself the Dread Pirate Roberts. The website was a huge success and expanded quickly to sell more than mushrooms and marijuana. Vendors from all over sold a large variety of drugs. Just about anything was available. Of course, there was nothing like quality control. Then weapons were added. Then problems arose and The Dread Pirate Roberts put out hits on people. Yes, he had people killed. He was eventually caught. (If I have any of this wrong, please let me know.)

Isolation Diary: So I am home a lot. I hardly go anywhere. How do things still go missing?! For example: my spare car fob. Look, I remembered I left something in the trunk of my car so I took the spare key off it’s hook and put in my pocket…I’m sure I did this….and went out to open the trunk. Okay, days later I reach for the key on its hook, it’s not there. I have checked every pocket I have, jackets, jeans, sweaters, aprons….no key. I have searched the floor below the hook, the kitchen island, the counter, the here and there, no key. No reason I would take the spare key off the premises. I am alone here, there is no one to accuse of mislaying this thing. I have no pet who might have buried it in the garden. Mysteries invade even a cloistered life.

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Jeff W.
Absolute madness.
I find that I can now perform magic tricks and totally fool my own self — I’m able to make a thing disappear, even in a confined area. “I just had it, and I haven’t even left this part of the room. It HAS TO be right here somewhere!” But somehow it isn’t.
I hope you’ll post an update when the car fob turns up. It’s gotta be there somewhere…

Paul B.
The rumored Ascended Masters of Tibet occassionally dematerialize objects for removal to their homeland in order to lay blessings on them before rematerializing them back to you.

Ruth Silveira
Paul B. How….uhm, nice of them?

Mandi M.H.
YES I FEEL THIS

Nancy W.
Ruth, could it be in the trunk???

Ruth Silveira
Nancy W. It’s an electric ignition and when I push the button I am told that no key is detected, so it’s not in the car.

Sandy R.
Welcome to the club!

Leslie D.
I feel soooo relieved reading all of this. I put a small plate of turkey in the cupboard one night recently, instead of in the refrigerator where it belonged. Found it next morning. One if a large number of mind boggling experiences around here. Includes doing things, then a few moments later not knowing whether or not I did them.

Nancy W.
How about “Where’s my phone? Where’s my phone?” And then “Oh, I’m talking on it.” I’m happy to be in any club Sandy and Ruth are in!