Happy New Year, Hello 2021 (observe, cooking, privilege, politics, eating notes, justice)

Tears watching the light show from London, watching the celebration of the NHS and Black Lives Matter in the sky. I grieve this country, but i am also understanding how broken this country has been all along. As i become more aware of events like the lynching of Wyatt Outlaw (1870) and burning, massacres of the Black communities in Wilmington, NC (1898,also a coup) and Tulsa, OK (1921), i become more aware of how brutally my fellow Americans have been terrorized. My beliefs of "what we used to be" are false. The grief is for the myth.

Meanwhile, the house still smells strongly of scorched food. My sister gave us a steamer bucket that was delivered yesterday. The water boiled off far faster than the instructions implied. Christine was triggered by the idea of crab -- the killing of the creatures -- so i did as i did so often with Dungeness crab in California and picked through the exoskeleton to harvest the meat, to eat it in some dish where meat would be separate from dismemberment. I wonder about the wisdom of giving such to Mom & Dad: i hope the delight and the memories over weigh the mess and the fuss for them. Dad will have to do all the work to help Mom eat. On the other hand, this sort of seafood was a joy for my parents.

I don't find augury to be meaningful, but the temptation to wonder about what such a smoke scented New Year's day presages. (On the other hand, i can't remember new years 2020 at all.)

2021-01-01 Lichen glows in the gloom (photography)

alt="Trunks of trees where the loblolly pines stand out because of the green lichens that are extremely visible on a rainy day."

Argh. Didn't work. https://adobe.ly/2Lfk5DD

It's been ages since i used Lightroom. Looks like Adobe now pushes photos out to the cloud. I guess this answers my question as to whether i want to pay for Flickr or 500px. On the other hand, someday we might not be willing to pay for Adobe.

Anyhow - touched the camera! and the camera card! And put in lightroom! And figured out how it worked. (Wow. Lots of change. Wonder about all my archives on the "big" machine....)

Dreams of forgetting (dreams, covid-19)

Last night's dreams were fertile ground for stress: the setting was urban, with a waterfront, temperate zone -- more Charleston, SC than Baltimore, though. My appointments included a medical provider where no one, including myself, was wearing masks and i was very confused. I knew i'd forgotten mine. And then i realized that there was a class i'd been forgetting to attend all term, and i had no idea when drop was, and the turn restrictions in the routes kept me from getting to the meeting with the professor in time.

Late and forgetting, which is current stress. Forgot my mask driving over to my parent's on Thursday.

I remain wondering about just how similar everyone's pandemic experience will have been. Part of my rural privilege is the lack of worry And thank heavens this disease was not fomite transmitted. And, i discover today that the "fomite" is the package and doorknob, etc, NOT particles on the package or doornob. Did we really need a New Latin word for "stuff"? Hrmph. Anyhow, thankful.

I did not develop handwashing habits like the rest of the world seems to have.