Day #224 of the Corona Virus Diaries..
Oct. 11th, 2020 05:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatIt's kind of weird walking to Greenwood Cemetery - in that most people wear masks, but often I'll run across a handful who aren't wearing any at all. They act as if nothing is happening or if it is - it doesn't affect them. It's kind of a reverse of early March, where there was a handful of folks wearing masks and everyone else wasn't.
The other weird thing - which makes me wonder if I'm looking through a portal at an alternate universe or being gaslit is the stupid meetup groups.
They have meetups at diners and cafes for 25 or more. And painting in the park, and walking tours, and social distancing walks - with forty people.
I think they must have decided if people could protest en mass and be fine, they can do meetup group activities?
Some days I really wish I lived in the country miles away from people. Living in the middle of a major urban residential area during a pandemic is just weird.
Church was interesting - the sermon was on the Ancient Greek Creation myth.
Which to be honest isn't all that different than most of the creation myths, it just personalizes the characters a bit more than the Big Bang Theory does. The concept though is about the same - out of chaos comes creation.
Much violence ensues, which is seemingly unnecessary. The sermon however was more about - getting along with your parents and children, honoring them, and accepting changes, without holding too tightly to the past.
At any rate, when I listened to the story of the ancient greeks about how Chronos killed all his kids to prevent them from taking away his power - I thought, hmmm, I didn't realize how close that is to the back story of Kate Daniels in the Illona Andrews books.
Anyhow, took a walk around Greenwood Cemetery - it was a cloudy day, I figured it would have less people. I was kind of wrong about that. There were a lot of walking tours and cars motoring about. Now, Greenwood is about 549 some acres, so...you can avoid people for the most part. It can have 20,000 people and you won't see them - just a handful every once and a while. But instead of going an hour without seeing a soul, I could barely make it more than twenty minutes.
They appeared to have walking tours of about ten people. Even took them through the catacombs. (I don't know - there is no way I'm wandering through the catacombs with a bunch of people I don't know during a pandemic. Sounds blatantly stupid to me. But to each their own.)
The seasons are changing incrementally. I don't think I ever noticed how slowly the seasons change before now. Now, I'm able to watch as the leaves gradually turn from green to yellow to orange to red. Just as in the spring, I watched as everything slowly began to bud. It is comforting. Almost soothing. Seeing how things change in increments. But they do change.
And each day, the world is incrementally different than the last. It gives me time to adjust, to get used to it. Instead of happening all at once.
Everything has kind of been like that. Even the pandemic - it didn't happen all at once. I kind of got eased into it. If I think about it. Now, I'm used to wearing masks, when in March - I couldn't imagine wearing one at all. And worried about getting hold of one. Now - they are everywhere.
Same thing is true about my Dad - it's incremental - the changes. And I'm getting used to it. I'm given time as is my mother, to get used to how he's changed, so it's not quite as painful somehow. It gives us more time. She's adjusting to the home health care aids - the biggest problem is figuring out what to do with them. She's used to do everything for my father.
Anyhow, on my walk I passed several houses with Halloween decorations.
I thought this was by far the most innovative:
Although I admittedly appreciated the folks with Biden/Harris in their front yards...
And..for the Ghostbuster fans out there...
The setting up of Halloween decorations - which have zip to do with the pandemic, lend of an air of normalcy to our neighborhood - showing that life goes on, and even with all these changes, some things can stay the same.
Traditions have that calming sense of normalcy to them. Habit. Routine. Something to depend on. While at the same time, they can, without quite meaning to - cause depression. Not everyone has kids and families to practice these traditions with - after all. And some that do - do not have pleasant or kind ones. I've learned to find my own way - to celebrate in my own way and with my own means. Whether it is putting up a small fake Christmas tree with lights, or buying Halloween candy and watching scary shows. OR doing a Halloween meme. Talking to family.
And keeping in mind that it is temporary, that next year the holiday may end up being different.
Watching the trees change color..makes me realize how impermanent things are - the gravestones crumble, the sky rumbles and turns gray. The world changes as the seasons do. What happened today, will be different tomorrow. And when I'm feeling stressed or blue - that comforts me.
For example? I don't have my headache today. It left. Only briefly threatened to return in the cemetery, but once I got away from whatever was aggravating my sinuses, it disappeared again.
The other weird thing - which makes me wonder if I'm looking through a portal at an alternate universe or being gaslit is the stupid meetup groups.
They have meetups at diners and cafes for 25 or more. And painting in the park, and walking tours, and social distancing walks - with forty people.
I think they must have decided if people could protest en mass and be fine, they can do meetup group activities?
Some days I really wish I lived in the country miles away from people. Living in the middle of a major urban residential area during a pandemic is just weird.
Church was interesting - the sermon was on the Ancient Greek Creation myth.
Which to be honest isn't all that different than most of the creation myths, it just personalizes the characters a bit more than the Big Bang Theory does. The concept though is about the same - out of chaos comes creation.
Much violence ensues, which is seemingly unnecessary. The sermon however was more about - getting along with your parents and children, honoring them, and accepting changes, without holding too tightly to the past.
At any rate, when I listened to the story of the ancient greeks about how Chronos killed all his kids to prevent them from taking away his power - I thought, hmmm, I didn't realize how close that is to the back story of Kate Daniels in the Illona Andrews books.
Anyhow, took a walk around Greenwood Cemetery - it was a cloudy day, I figured it would have less people. I was kind of wrong about that. There were a lot of walking tours and cars motoring about. Now, Greenwood is about 549 some acres, so...you can avoid people for the most part. It can have 20,000 people and you won't see them - just a handful every once and a while. But instead of going an hour without seeing a soul, I could barely make it more than twenty minutes.
They appeared to have walking tours of about ten people. Even took them through the catacombs. (I don't know - there is no way I'm wandering through the catacombs with a bunch of people I don't know during a pandemic. Sounds blatantly stupid to me. But to each their own.)
The seasons are changing incrementally. I don't think I ever noticed how slowly the seasons change before now. Now, I'm able to watch as the leaves gradually turn from green to yellow to orange to red. Just as in the spring, I watched as everything slowly began to bud. It is comforting. Almost soothing. Seeing how things change in increments. But they do change.
And each day, the world is incrementally different than the last. It gives me time to adjust, to get used to it. Instead of happening all at once.
Everything has kind of been like that. Even the pandemic - it didn't happen all at once. I kind of got eased into it. If I think about it. Now, I'm used to wearing masks, when in March - I couldn't imagine wearing one at all. And worried about getting hold of one. Now - they are everywhere.
Same thing is true about my Dad - it's incremental - the changes. And I'm getting used to it. I'm given time as is my mother, to get used to how he's changed, so it's not quite as painful somehow. It gives us more time. She's adjusting to the home health care aids - the biggest problem is figuring out what to do with them. She's used to do everything for my father.
Anyhow, on my walk I passed several houses with Halloween decorations.
I thought this was by far the most innovative:
Although I admittedly appreciated the folks with Biden/Harris in their front yards...
And..for the Ghostbuster fans out there...
The setting up of Halloween decorations - which have zip to do with the pandemic, lend of an air of normalcy to our neighborhood - showing that life goes on, and even with all these changes, some things can stay the same.
Traditions have that calming sense of normalcy to them. Habit. Routine. Something to depend on. While at the same time, they can, without quite meaning to - cause depression. Not everyone has kids and families to practice these traditions with - after all. And some that do - do not have pleasant or kind ones. I've learned to find my own way - to celebrate in my own way and with my own means. Whether it is putting up a small fake Christmas tree with lights, or buying Halloween candy and watching scary shows. OR doing a Halloween meme. Talking to family.
And keeping in mind that it is temporary, that next year the holiday may end up being different.
Watching the trees change color..makes me realize how impermanent things are - the gravestones crumble, the sky rumbles and turns gray. The world changes as the seasons do. What happened today, will be different tomorrow. And when I'm feeling stressed or blue - that comforts me.
For example? I don't have my headache today. It left. Only briefly threatened to return in the cemetery, but once I got away from whatever was aggravating my sinuses, it disappeared again.
no subject
Date: 2020-10-11 10:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-10-12 02:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-10-12 01:39 am (UTC)I'm glad the headache passed.
no subject
Date: 2020-10-12 02:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-10-12 04:52 am (UTC)And now for something completely different... No, not Monty Python.
Sorry I took a week to get to this, but here 'tis finally. Hope this helps you get your DVD player up and running again. You can watch Farscape again, and whatever else! (Also remember, all DVD players play CDs. Maybe you can get your brother to buy you a TV soundbar for the holidays, perk up the audio quality? :-)
There are three images-- two different possible connections, and an Amazon link for an optional device:
Good luck! Post if neither of these look like they'll work. but I used images from your actual TV and DVD manuals and filled in the rest around them. I very much doubt you've used all of the inputs on the set to date, but let me know.
no subject
Date: 2020-10-12 09:40 pm (UTC)My TV only has one round slot not three.
I may have to get an HDMI converter. (My brother doesn't have them - he's not into gadgets and only has one television set. )
no subject
Date: 2020-10-13 04:27 am (UTC)A component video cable will have three connectors, red, green and blue. On an older TV, these would plug into three round ("RCA") jacks, with the same colors. The digital audio cable would plug into a fourth RCA jack, typically labeled "Digital Audio In".
Your newer TV has deleted these in favor of HDMI type digital audio & video connectors, and fortunately you have three of those, which gives a fallback.
However, if you can find that cable adapter that was supposed to be shipped with your new TV, you can re-use those component video cables currently on your DVD player, they just need to be moved to the DVD player jacks shown on the drawings I provided. ("Left & Right Audio, Video").
When I've done this for customers, I generally connect the component cable as follows when used for audio and video: Red Plug to Red audio jack, Blue plug to White audio jack, Green plug to Yellow video jack. Follow the same connections to the adapter cable.
Note -- The cables are all electrically identical, the colors are just to keep straight what goes where in the system.
no subject
Date: 2020-10-13 01:02 pm (UTC)The DVD player was given to me by a co-worker, it wasn't the previous DVD player (which died ages ago - due to lack of use). So it didn't come with the TV nor did it come with the previous one. And the cables provided, the co-worker provided with it. (No, co-worker doesn't live anywhere nearby and hello, pandemic!)
There is no cable adapter that I'm aware of. They just plugged it into the cable box without any issues. The TV wasn't shipped it was hand delivered and installed by Best Buy.
no subject
Date: 2020-10-14 04:53 am (UTC)They should have left every accessory packed with the TV with you, but of course installers do screw up sometimes.
Well, if you don't have the RCA-to-miniplug adapter they showed in the TV's user manual (which is where I clipped the image from) then you'd need to get the HDMI adapter and go that route. (picture #2). It's not too expensive, but of course that's up to you what you care to invest.
Hopefully this was at least helpful in outlining some options.