Day #232 of the Corona Virus Diaries
Oct. 19th, 2020 05:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatAfter much fretting, I decided to fill out my ballot, take it to the post office and mail it. I also bought breast cancer awareness stamps. So my effort supported the post office and breast cancer.
I was planning on dropping if off during Early Voting on October 24 (even dated it 10/24/2020) but after the news media informed me that the NYPD was putting together 10,000 cops to patrol all the voting sites, in expectation of protests - I thought, okay, I'm mailing the thing in. So much safer, and less anxiety inducing.
Meanwhile the Orthodox Jewish community is upset because New York put the kibitz on one of their members wedding plans.
Me: Guess how many people they were planning on having at this indoor/outdoor wedding in Williamsburg?
Mother: I don't know a thousand.
Me: Go much higher.
Mother: What the hell? You're kidding?
Me: No, apparently they had invited 10,000 people to this wedding. New York said - "uh no. Sorry. We're not permitting that. You can have close family members and everyone else can visit remotely. No more than 50 tops."
The poor things are whinging about it all over facebook and social media. "Stop the Jewish Hate!" And they posted a Breonna Taylor protest rally and outdoor concert to raise funds for justice for Breonna Taylor (who'd been brutally murdered) - as proof they were being unfairly discriminated against. If that rally could have a thousand, why couldn't the Orthodox Jewish Community have a high priced wedding with 10,000?
Meanwhile - I see people from my church wandering around with a group of forty people checking out little outdoor concerts in Brooklyn - I've no clue where - it looked like Brooklyn Heights. And Meetup keeps scheduling social distancing hikes with forty or more people. Uhm - how can you socially distance on a hike with forty people? Assuming of course no one else plans on visiting the location that you are hiking and its just you? So, it's pretty much guaranteed there will be more than that on this hike? I see that as hiking in a crowd - the whole point of a hike is to escape crowds, be in the outdoors with just trees. You bring along 40 people kind of countradicts the whole point.
I don't understand why people feel the need to socialize with large groups of people? You figure the more people, the more chances of finding someone who doesn't think you are a complete nitwit? Is that it?
The pandemic isn't going to drive me insane - other people are.
After mailing in the ballot - I walked around Greenwood Cemetery, which didn't have that many people - just the maintenance folks.
It took a long time to get the above photo right. I finally found the aspect ration button on the iphone camera and managed to refocus the picture. The setting is to make close things look far - or portrait, while what I wanted was how to make close or far things look close.
Anyhow it worked after multiple tries. Still figuring out the gadget.
The walk helped ease my tension over voting (which I'd been worrying about because of the stupid media and the Republicans - we shall speak of them no more, spits metaphorically into the air.) It was peaceful. Didn't see many people, and was able to walk about on my own with no mask on, and no one nearby or even within hearing distance or sight. Lovely. I did pass a teacher and five students holding class outdoors on one of the paths, and another group of kids walking up a path, a small group - no more than five if that.
Some people obviously driving in to visit graves. Most of the people who visit the graves - drive into the cemetery. The rest of us tend to walk in.
The first three times I saw this, I did not take a picture. But today I gave in to the temptation.
Yes, it looks like a giant penis. I guess someone decided to let go of all pretense and just go with the giant penis idea. I mean there's a lot of phallic monuments in the cemetery - but they are all pointy and have a strong Egyptian influence or all just look like the Washington Memorial, but this one looks like a giant penis.
It's not quite fall here yet - although it is trying. We'll hit full peak in NYC closer to Halloween and election day, we might even make it to Thanksgiving. While upstate is way past peak now. Note to self - be sure to visit brother next year in early October.
Anyhow..I told mother that I'd decided to be radical and actually read a book. After a lengthy break (as in eight months), I've gone back to reading The Widow of Rose Hill - at least I think that's the title. I could be wrong. It's a feminist ghost story/historical romance that takes place in the 1800s in NY. The heroine, who may or may not have murdered her abusive husband, is trying to redesign and refurbish a house for a design book she's agreed to write, except for one small problem - the house is haunted. She stumbles upon a paranormal expert, inventor and scientist of some experience and fame, who wants to investigate her haunting. She reluctantly takes him up on his offer, after her work crew flees the house and refuses to return until it's declared clean of spirits. Meanwhile she's being blackmailed by her brother-in-law, who apparently has evidence that she murdered her husband. So, she can't afford to hire an out-of-town work crew while being blackmailed. The paranormal expert who is insanely attractive is her only choice.
I'm also reading two other books at the same time - one on audible, "Zealot", which I'm finding rough going in that it is insanely violent and the author appears to have an agenda, and I find himself arguing with his facts. He's a wee bit too certain of his interpretation of events and documents that well, are over 2000 years old and been translated and reprinted by various unreliable narrators. I'm sorry unless he traveled here via a time machine - I doubt he can really tell us with any degree of certainty what happened. This should be an interesting book discussion. I tend to get into trouble with book clubs - for questioning the writer's expertise or knowledge. There's a reason I haven't joined in a long time.
The other book is Touch of Snow and ...something, I can't remember. It's okay, just a tad on the purple prose side of the fence - very melodramatic. And I'm not buying the melodrama. Melodrama only works if you buy into the emotions or can relate on some level - if you can't, it's kind of laughable.
The novel is about a female warrior who gets exiled from her kingdom, and her lover, the bastard prince of the realm didn't stand up for her, and allowed her banishment - also he didn't run away with her. Through a twist of fate, she finds out that the only way to redeem herself - is to go on a quest for her goddess - which entails protecting the bastard prince and sacrificing herself for him. This probably won't go down well with said prince and his huge cat, who loves her and did everything to save her life.
The last thing he wants is for her to sacrifice her life to save his. There's lots of angst, and the writer has decided to write the dialogue as if they are all speaking in medieval times. It's a fantasy novel - why writers feel the need to do this is beyond me.
And I started watching the Canadian sitcom Schitt's Creek - a young Tim Rozon (aka Doc Holliday on Wyonna Earp) is on it. Hmm...I need to go back to Wyonna Earp at some point. I got stuck on S3.
Schitt's Creek is about an video store mogul and his soap opera star wife, along with their two adult children - who lose everything due to a business manager who didn't pay their taxes. The only asset not taken by the Feds is a town that the father (portrayed by Eugene Levy) bought as a joke. So he and his family move into a motel in the town they own, although it's pretty much run by the Mayor - Rowland Schitt. It's mainly a class comedy - in the same viene as Green Acres, The Newhart Show, Bless this Mess, and Beverly Hillbillies - although I'm thinking this one may be better written. The episodes are 15 minutes each, and there's six seasons. It kind of overtook the Emmy's. Beating out The Good Place, along with all the others for Best Comedy.
I'm on episode six. There are some admittedly funny bits. But so far, I've not fallen in love with it. But I'm curious and I've been told it gets better. So we'll see. The comedy kind of reminds me of What We Do in the Shadows - that kind of sly absurdist satiric wit - where people do dumb stuff and we laugh at the absurdity of it?
Anyhow, in other news - movie theaters outside of NYC are re-opening. This is somewhat controversial since New York City residents feel left out and don't understand why they can't have them too - especially since they just travel to them anyhow. (The ones with cars, maybe. ) They are also allowing ski resorts to open with a 50% indoor capacity - it seems a little early for this decision but okay. Also, they may not get enough snow - the Northeast is in a drought like the rest of the country. They keep talking about voting, apparently in NY, you can request an absentee ballot up to Oct 27. I don't know that seems a tad late to me. Also, my area went down from a 4.6% infection rate to 3.6% - which either means the Hassidic Community is reaching herd immunity or they are behaving themselves, along with the rest of the maskless wonders.
I was planning on dropping if off during Early Voting on October 24 (even dated it 10/24/2020) but after the news media informed me that the NYPD was putting together 10,000 cops to patrol all the voting sites, in expectation of protests - I thought, okay, I'm mailing the thing in. So much safer, and less anxiety inducing.
Meanwhile the Orthodox Jewish community is upset because New York put the kibitz on one of their members wedding plans.
Me: Guess how many people they were planning on having at this indoor/outdoor wedding in Williamsburg?
Mother: I don't know a thousand.
Me: Go much higher.
Mother: What the hell? You're kidding?
Me: No, apparently they had invited 10,000 people to this wedding. New York said - "uh no. Sorry. We're not permitting that. You can have close family members and everyone else can visit remotely. No more than 50 tops."
The poor things are whinging about it all over facebook and social media. "Stop the Jewish Hate!" And they posted a Breonna Taylor protest rally and outdoor concert to raise funds for justice for Breonna Taylor (who'd been brutally murdered) - as proof they were being unfairly discriminated against. If that rally could have a thousand, why couldn't the Orthodox Jewish Community have a high priced wedding with 10,000?
Meanwhile - I see people from my church wandering around with a group of forty people checking out little outdoor concerts in Brooklyn - I've no clue where - it looked like Brooklyn Heights. And Meetup keeps scheduling social distancing hikes with forty or more people. Uhm - how can you socially distance on a hike with forty people? Assuming of course no one else plans on visiting the location that you are hiking and its just you? So, it's pretty much guaranteed there will be more than that on this hike? I see that as hiking in a crowd - the whole point of a hike is to escape crowds, be in the outdoors with just trees. You bring along 40 people kind of countradicts the whole point.
I don't understand why people feel the need to socialize with large groups of people? You figure the more people, the more chances of finding someone who doesn't think you are a complete nitwit? Is that it?
The pandemic isn't going to drive me insane - other people are.
After mailing in the ballot - I walked around Greenwood Cemetery, which didn't have that many people - just the maintenance folks.
It took a long time to get the above photo right. I finally found the aspect ration button on the iphone camera and managed to refocus the picture. The setting is to make close things look far - or portrait, while what I wanted was how to make close or far things look close.
Anyhow it worked after multiple tries. Still figuring out the gadget.
The walk helped ease my tension over voting (which I'd been worrying about because of the stupid media and the Republicans - we shall speak of them no more, spits metaphorically into the air.) It was peaceful. Didn't see many people, and was able to walk about on my own with no mask on, and no one nearby or even within hearing distance or sight. Lovely. I did pass a teacher and five students holding class outdoors on one of the paths, and another group of kids walking up a path, a small group - no more than five if that.
Some people obviously driving in to visit graves. Most of the people who visit the graves - drive into the cemetery. The rest of us tend to walk in.
The first three times I saw this, I did not take a picture. But today I gave in to the temptation.
Yes, it looks like a giant penis. I guess someone decided to let go of all pretense and just go with the giant penis idea. I mean there's a lot of phallic monuments in the cemetery - but they are all pointy and have a strong Egyptian influence or all just look like the Washington Memorial, but this one looks like a giant penis.
It's not quite fall here yet - although it is trying. We'll hit full peak in NYC closer to Halloween and election day, we might even make it to Thanksgiving. While upstate is way past peak now. Note to self - be sure to visit brother next year in early October.
Anyhow..I told mother that I'd decided to be radical and actually read a book. After a lengthy break (as in eight months), I've gone back to reading The Widow of Rose Hill - at least I think that's the title. I could be wrong. It's a feminist ghost story/historical romance that takes place in the 1800s in NY. The heroine, who may or may not have murdered her abusive husband, is trying to redesign and refurbish a house for a design book she's agreed to write, except for one small problem - the house is haunted. She stumbles upon a paranormal expert, inventor and scientist of some experience and fame, who wants to investigate her haunting. She reluctantly takes him up on his offer, after her work crew flees the house and refuses to return until it's declared clean of spirits. Meanwhile she's being blackmailed by her brother-in-law, who apparently has evidence that she murdered her husband. So, she can't afford to hire an out-of-town work crew while being blackmailed. The paranormal expert who is insanely attractive is her only choice.
I'm also reading two other books at the same time - one on audible, "Zealot", which I'm finding rough going in that it is insanely violent and the author appears to have an agenda, and I find himself arguing with his facts. He's a wee bit too certain of his interpretation of events and documents that well, are over 2000 years old and been translated and reprinted by various unreliable narrators. I'm sorry unless he traveled here via a time machine - I doubt he can really tell us with any degree of certainty what happened. This should be an interesting book discussion. I tend to get into trouble with book clubs - for questioning the writer's expertise or knowledge. There's a reason I haven't joined in a long time.
The other book is Touch of Snow and ...something, I can't remember. It's okay, just a tad on the purple prose side of the fence - very melodramatic. And I'm not buying the melodrama. Melodrama only works if you buy into the emotions or can relate on some level - if you can't, it's kind of laughable.
The novel is about a female warrior who gets exiled from her kingdom, and her lover, the bastard prince of the realm didn't stand up for her, and allowed her banishment - also he didn't run away with her. Through a twist of fate, she finds out that the only way to redeem herself - is to go on a quest for her goddess - which entails protecting the bastard prince and sacrificing herself for him. This probably won't go down well with said prince and his huge cat, who loves her and did everything to save her life.
The last thing he wants is for her to sacrifice her life to save his. There's lots of angst, and the writer has decided to write the dialogue as if they are all speaking in medieval times. It's a fantasy novel - why writers feel the need to do this is beyond me.
And I started watching the Canadian sitcom Schitt's Creek - a young Tim Rozon (aka Doc Holliday on Wyonna Earp) is on it. Hmm...I need to go back to Wyonna Earp at some point. I got stuck on S3.
Schitt's Creek is about an video store mogul and his soap opera star wife, along with their two adult children - who lose everything due to a business manager who didn't pay their taxes. The only asset not taken by the Feds is a town that the father (portrayed by Eugene Levy) bought as a joke. So he and his family move into a motel in the town they own, although it's pretty much run by the Mayor - Rowland Schitt. It's mainly a class comedy - in the same viene as Green Acres, The Newhart Show, Bless this Mess, and Beverly Hillbillies - although I'm thinking this one may be better written. The episodes are 15 minutes each, and there's six seasons. It kind of overtook the Emmy's. Beating out The Good Place, along with all the others for Best Comedy.
I'm on episode six. There are some admittedly funny bits. But so far, I've not fallen in love with it. But I'm curious and I've been told it gets better. So we'll see. The comedy kind of reminds me of What We Do in the Shadows - that kind of sly absurdist satiric wit - where people do dumb stuff and we laugh at the absurdity of it?
Anyhow, in other news - movie theaters outside of NYC are re-opening. This is somewhat controversial since New York City residents feel left out and don't understand why they can't have them too - especially since they just travel to them anyhow. (The ones with cars, maybe. ) They are also allowing ski resorts to open with a 50% indoor capacity - it seems a little early for this decision but okay. Also, they may not get enough snow - the Northeast is in a drought like the rest of the country. They keep talking about voting, apparently in NY, you can request an absentee ballot up to Oct 27. I don't know that seems a tad late to me. Also, my area went down from a 4.6% infection rate to 3.6% - which either means the Hassidic Community is reaching herd immunity or they are behaving themselves, along with the rest of the maskless wonders.
no subject
Date: 2020-10-20 12:55 am (UTC)(I'm aware that WWDitS is now a show as well. It's another thing that I've held off watching.)
no subject
Date: 2020-10-20 01:03 am (UTC)But when it's funny - it truly is.
And yeah, Schitt's Creek reminds me of it in a way. Same brand of humor. Just no documentary style - so more like Green Acres in that respect.
no subject
Date: 2020-10-20 05:00 pm (UTC)Everyone wants to see their group as victims now. Cry me a river.
A meet up I belong to keeps organizing outdoor luncheons and dinners for 15 people, technically legal but highly risky in my opinion. I won't be having a meal with anyone besides my husband and son for the foreseeable future. I don't trust these people.
no subject
Date: 2020-10-20 06:34 pm (UTC)Fifteen is at least reasonable. Mine is doing it for twenty-five. And I'm thinking, where? Where will accommodate that?
I won't do the hiking. You have to get there - which is problematic, meet up with people you don't know, and go on a socially distant hiking with forty people. One - which is museum and art exhibit tours was a little more reasonable - limited to ten people taking a special tour. But I'm still wary.
Considering I won't go into the office and am still working remotely, and voted by mail...
no subject
Date: 2020-10-20 09:07 pm (UTC)(Or for that matter, even knows 10,000 people...)
no subject
Date: 2020-10-21 12:12 am (UTC)Also, recently got into trouble for having huge services for Yom Kippur - which resulted in an uptick in cases.
They are annoying.