Reading an article from the New York Times about pandemic-proofing your habits, came across this sentence: “Things we had already figured out and relegated to the brain’s autopilot function — going to work, visiting the gym, taking the kids to school, meeting friends for dinner, grocery shopping — now require serious thought and risk analysis.” This is what having a chronic illness is like. Every single thing you do requires thought and risk analysis and also how much pain is this likely to cause, and then there is calculating energy expenditure, or how many spoons will this take and how many do I have left for today anyway. Spoon theory is a good way to make things understandable for those who don’t need to worry about such things.

Have been avoiding using my laptop recently, not only because I have been really struggling the past while. Pain, cannot sleep at night so sleep during the day, not being able to get anything done. But the laptop main reason I realized yesterday. It’s because looking out at the empty storefronts across the street is depressing. No life, no lights. Not liking that at all. So I moved the laptop to the coffee table, and here I am. 🙂

Had an okay Thanksgiving. I was able to do some things, so made candied sweet potatoes. baked a Marie Callendar pumpkin pie, and a Boston Market frozen turkey dinner. Sweet potatoes were great, as always. Pie was good but too sweet and too rich and the spices were all wrong. I have only eaten my own recipe pumpkin pie for eons. and this was nothing like it. Good, but not mine. The turkey dinner was mediocre, like all frozen dinners are, but it did at least have a bit of roast turkey flavor.

It’s barely winter, and the gray is getting to me already. And the hardly ever seeing another human, and then usually for only a couple of minutes while they are in the hall and I am inside. Am watching a Christmas movie every day to cheer me up, and because I cannot do decorations because Gertrude will destroy them. Such a cute kitty. LOL There are some really bad Christmas movies out there, but once in a while you get something good. I am saving White Christmas and Christmas in Connecticut for closer to the day. I would do a Christmas story, but you have to rent it. I try not to pay for things is I don’t have to. Bezos and Suckerberg have all the money, so there is not a lot for me to spend. If you are interested, I thought Jingle Jangle on Netflix was very good. 12 Dates of Christmas was good too, and Holly’s Holiday was kind of cute. Finished binge-watching Wild at Heart on Prime, a long running series set in Africa, which is beautiful in the show. Of course, they didn’t really show the slums, which are horrid. Some were featured in an episode of Wallander, and lord how we force people to live is a disgrace. Humans suck. But anyway, The series had a really impressive ending, which I was not expecting at all. And really, really beautiful scenery and animals.

We’re about done with November, so here’s a gorgeous picture from Afon Llugwy Betws y Coed, in Wales. I am ashamed to say I do not have a credit for it.

from DailyKos:

Trump reportedly concerned his lawyers are ‘fools that are making him look bad’

Oh, honey, you don’t need any help with that at all.

10 Of The Best Survival Books For When Things Fall Apart, from Book Riot.

Last on the list is a book about black people and the outdoors. Isn’t it weird that black people’s relationship to the outdoors merits a book? Not really. Way back in the dark ages, when we first moved to New England from Colorado, we went to a nearby park with a friend. It had a lovely lake and a small beach with a lot of people just having fun. Around five o’clock, although it was midsummer and quite light still, everyone started packing up and leaving. We asked our friend why everyone was leaving and she replied that now is when the black people come to use the beach and swim in the lake. What? WHAT? There are separate TIMES for blacks and whites to swim in a lake? WTF was our reaction, but apparently this was the norm back then. I never quite got over that. I am white, but good grief, I could as easily have been born black, or yellow, or red, possibly green but I seriously doubt that. We had never knowingly witnessed discrimination in Colorado, and I don’t think it would have occurred to us that it could happen. We were still pretty young, early twenties, when we moved here, so maybe were just not aware, but it came as such a shock. Later on, same friend and her husband were walking with us in Newport when we passed a mixed race couple, and although he said nothing to them, he did express to us his disgust. Stunned is what we were.

My mom raised me to not look down on anyone because of color or dress or whatever. She always said it’s what’s inside that matters, and how the person treats others. That was what counted. Being from Puerto Rico, I always thought she must have suffered discrimination since coming to the mainland, but she never spoke of it. Just made sure we did not discriminate against anyone.

Anyway. the book reminded me of the lake and how my husband and I felt about it at the time. Kind of took the shine off of being in New England, which we only knew from old Doris Day movies and the like. Priscilla curtains and widow’s walks, Old Cape Cod, and all that jazz. Which reminds me. You can rent Christmas in Connecticut, one of my favorite movies ever, on Prime for around 3 dollars. Which reminded me that when my sister came to visit us, she mentioned something about Massatusetts. Seriously, sister dear? We don’t live in Massatusetts, since there IS NO SUCH PLACE. Made me laugh, anyway. 🙂

Looking for a picture to illustrate this post. Go Google blacks and whites swimming together. Surprise! And it’s not dolphins.

I am rereading ‘Wings of Desire’ by Nos4a2no9, a Due South fan fic. Read this and immediately knew the answer:

“These children are beautiful, and he wonders what happens to make them
into the hard-faced adults who pass him on the street.”

Capitalism. That is the answer. The constant grubbing for more, more, more. The constant fight to survive with limited resources. Greed. All the things capitalism brings to humanity. I believe people were meant to be a community, each of us bringing something positive to the whole. Instead we have become an ‘every man for himself’ destructive people. Two or three people own almost all of the wealth in the US. Do they share? Do they use their billions to make the lives of other better? No. They hog every cent to themselves, because that is what capitalism says is the way. Maybe some day we will outgrow this madness, but i am not at all certain that we are going to survive long enough for that to happen. Right now we are deliberately destroying ourselves and our means of survival, which is the entire ecosystem of the planet. Here is a quote I find very apt right now.

It is appalling, but not surprising, to see how childishly the orange man is behaving over having lost the election. Then there is this, from The Guardian:

“Mark Zuckerberg has defended his decision not to suspend Steve Bannon from Facebook after the former Trump adviser called for the beheading of Dr Anthony Fauci. The Facebook CEO told staffers that Steve Bannon had not violated enough of the company’s policies to justify his suspension from the platform.”

How badly must one behave in order to get Suckerberg (my dd’s name for him) to do anything? I imagine anything that costs him profit would do it.

Finally had to close the window as very cold air was blowing straight in. Window has been open for days, and it maintained a steady almost 70 degrees in here. Colder at night, but only upper 60’s. It felt muggy for a bit last night. Muggy. In November. Weird weather. Weird year.

Had a really good day Tuesday for no known reason, then yesterday and today were the usual crap. On the couch, hobbling around. Doing nothing. But got several things done Tuesday and it almost felt like a was a real person for a while there.

More people getting covid, my friend exhibiting riskier and riskier behaviour. It worries me a lot. She is the one friend that always, always makes me laugh and we always have fun when we are able to get together. I have expressed my concerns, but it is her life to live as she sees fit, and I can only stand by and watch. I don’t think her husband says anything about it, either. She did make me a new and better fitting mask, so that was nice. I now have two, both made by her, so if one is not dry from being washed, I have a backup. Not that I need a mask very often, since I don’t normally go out, and the homemaker has only just been coming in briefly. But we are always masked for that.

I actually cooked on Tuesday. Broccoli pasta. So easy, so doable for me. Tasty, too. I got a very small broccoli crown and just separated it into florets and boiled them briefly with the pasta, meanwhile you saute garlic and pine nuts in olive oil, drain the pasta and toss it all together. Add tons of parmesan, which I know I have some in the freezer but was unable to find it, so no cheese. Was still very good, though. Good olive oil makes all the difference. I used Campanelle, too, my favorite pasta, cause it’s pretty and reminds me of the flowers, and it catches the pine nuts in the curls. Neat. I was planning to make unstuffed cabbage today, but too much pain. Maybe tomorrow. I used to always make cabbage rolls in the autumn, but too much energy to do the leaves and divvy up the filling, etc., so am just going to shred the cabbage and put it all into a pan with the tomato sauce and either cook it on the stove top or bake it. Not sure. You do the rolls on the stove-top, but not sure how it will work this way. Experimentation. It’s a good thing. 🙂 While I was looking for a picture, I came across this. Looks good, I think.

https://www.marthastewart.com/898871/campanelle-walnuts-ricotta-and-lemon

Stay safe, everyone. Wear your masks, please. It is a health issue, not a political issue. Keep your loved ones safe even if you don’t care about your self.

https://www.boredpanda.com/donald-trump-losing-election-people-reactions/

And some of my favorite pictures.

From a SouthernLiving.com article on keeping things in the frig:

“My entire family loved chilling mangoes in the fridge that my grandmother grew in her backyard.”

It’s freezing here, and I am thankfully not outside, but calm woman reading. Just realized that it’s election night, and I am calm. Listening to my Calm Instrumental station on Pandora, reading The Witch Elm by Tana French, which is nothing like I though it was going to be, but very very good, baking leftover Kraft mac and cheese with crumbled bread dotted with butter on top, for my dinner, because even though it feels like 9 pm, it’s really only 6:30. And I hadn’t thought once about the election until it suddenly just popped into my head. I will wait til tomorrow night or the next day to look for results, although I imagine it will be hard to avoid them. But I am calm and not stressing and that is a good thing.

Found this while looking for an illustration, and it just cracked me up.

From a song. “I think I thought myself to death.” From Come With Me Now, by the Kongos.

So far, the only thing I’ve gotten done today was make some perked coffee and get the trash ready for the homemaker, make the shopping list, and order a bunch of crap online. It’s a good day. LOLOLOL

Just saw a headline, How to Cope With the Anxiety of Watching Election Results Alone. Don’t. That’s my advice. I don’t have regular or cable tv, so no chance of doing it anyway, but I wouldn’t. I may not look for a day or two, just like I did last election. Let it settle first. If it’s bad news, dig a big hole and crawl in. It it’s good news, celebrate like crazy.

We need to do something about algorithms, because just feeding people more of the same tends to create tunnel vision, I think, and you cannot see any other point of view. I do consciously try to read things with differing opinions, even though sometimes they make me cringe, but you really need to be informed to make good decisions. Just read an article about books and algorithms, too, which just point you to more of the same on Amazon and other sites. I used to wander the shelves in the library and pick up anything that caught my eye. Things I would never see on Amazon or wherever, just because they are not my usual choices. I never really realized how much the online world affects us, not in a good way. It seemed like an excellent way to see other points of view, find out from those living it how other people manage in their countries, personal experiences, meeting people from all over the planet. And then along come algorithms, and they gradually narrow and narrow and narrow your vision, your sources, your information. This is not a good thing in my opinion. Don’t know how to fix it, though, which is the big disappointment of my existence. I don’t know how to fix anything. Please vote, if you haven’t, and please vote them out. Thank you.

Brendan said it much better than I can. Also, oh god, oh god, oh god, please vote them out.