elainegrey

On Friday the 13th my rain gauge, that i had attached to an apple tree stump in the front yard, was empty, despite the over three inches of rain. The stump had fallen over between the progress of rotting roots and the weight of the water.

Later that day, i saw a red delivery truck where our mailbox is located. They'd attempted a three point turn and backed over the mailbox, shattering the four by four cedar post. Odd to loose two posts on the same day, odder still Friday the thirteenth.


This week, a virtual conference.

Survived public speaking on Monday, even if i was a bit muted on the panel. It was about my experience of community which means i was talking about me which is a recipe for self consciousness, and the concept of community remains hard for me.

Tuesday i phased out a bit.

Wednesday i had a morning errand to get the second dose of the chickenpox vaccine i asked for. In thinking about my worries about what complications could arise from Covid, shingles would come to mind. I haven't had chicken pox and it turns out Christine has. If she get shingles, she'd be contagious. Getting the vaccine seemed a reasonable precaution. (At some point she might get the shingles vaccine.)

Colleagues from Ohio and California were talking about whether their counties were "going purple" in a Covid context. This made no sense to me so i took up a search. Different states have apparently different sets of threat levels color coded based around a variety of factors. California and Ohio have five color scales that top out at purple. I don't know if they have the same criteria. North Carolina has a three color scale, yellow, orange, and red. I found the criteria for California's and NC's scales -- and of course the numbers of recent cases were over different periods. Roughly adjusted, though, i found the floor values for North Carolina's orange to be more severe than Californa's purple. Essentially, California is has more sensitive comparisons in the less pervasive infections. When California rates get to their most severe classification of infection, that's when NC has it's first shift from yellow to orange.

Wouldn't it be nice to have one national scale? Well it turns out North Carolina's scale is from the Presidential Covid taskforce.

Meanwhile, there's no mandatory actions if one's county tips into these extreme ranges of infection here in North Carolina. One should consider not going into restaurants, for example, and instead get take out.

Meanwhile, we finally had our first hard freeze last night. I picked the peppers yesterday. Some might have been frot bit, but i kept them in the fridge until i could roast the possibly frost bit ones. I also dehydrated a tray's worth (easily fit in a 4 oz jelly jar after dehydration), and left five to ripen in the kitchen windows. The Corno di Toro peppers did wonderfully this year. Next year i will grow those and a pimento from the North Carolina mountains. I'm doing OK with bell peppers, but i think something that thrives is better than trying to compete with easily available in the grocery store.

My big question is did the freeze kill off the potatoes that have started up. I think they succumb at a slightly colder temp. My hope is to keep them growing and to harvest new potatoes -- i don't know if there will be enough time. Hard to get fussy over volunteer plants. Ugh, like the squash i left out there. I wonder if it's been ruined by the freeze.

Anyhow, sweet potatoes! Earlier this week i picked a mess of sweet potato greens, stir fried them with rice, and topped them with crispy roasted chickpeas and cannellini beans. It was delicious. I've a small bouquet of sprouts in a glass jar in my plant window, an experiment to see if they grow well enough over the winter months that i can get occasional meals of greens from them, as well as from the Malabar spinach plant in a repurposed ceramic water kettle.

I am all fascinated by the the Accumulated Winter Season Severity Index calculated just for the US by the researchers, but calculable for anywhere with temperatures and either precipitation or (better) snowfall and depth measurements. Looking at the map right now there's a whole bunch of average winters along the coasts and south west, then there's record extreme in the mountains and plains. Last year was the mildest winter on record for Raleigh, NC, which is good for me to keep in mind as i plan how to care for the dahlias that overwintered in the ground.


So, i had read Zeta was going to be weak a couple days before it was to hit the Gulf coast, and i just assumed it would take a while to make it to North Carolina. I wouldn't have been so blasé if i lived in a more exposed location, but i was not expecting the high winds today. Lost power here, as did my parents, as did many many others. The power outage was short, not long enough for me to regret not getting water set aside. Other folks are going to be a bit longer. I think we must get power off a main line that has a high priority for being fixed. A neighborhood down the street -- 40+ homes -- lost power about a half hour after ours came back, and they still don't have an estimated time of repair.

Some of my gardening structures did not survive. Apparently hemp, while a strong natural fiber option, still isn't really strong enough to deal with the humid heat for a whole season. I have lots of hemp lashing. I guess i'll figure out a use for it. And i guess i'll have to order something a little more synthetic for lashing next year's tripods and trellising. The green beans were still producing, so i'm sad to see them crumpled on the ground. And i wonder if the trellis collapsed on the one squash.

I had to go into Chapel Hill for a mammogram, and lots of traffic lights were out. NO ONE KNOWS THE RULES FOR INTERSECTIONS WITHOUT LIGHTS, FOR CRYIN' OUT LOUD!! It's a miracle there weren't accidents up and down 15-501.

I had gotten the impression that mammograms were very uncomfortable before i had my first one. I'd had a colonoscopy before my first mammogram: that is a high bar on the discomfort and distasteful and taboo-proximate. I wonder if my mother was my major influence in making me think mammograms were so horrible: she is so demure and strait-laced that i suspect being in the context of having her breasts examined was a significant discomfort. I think dental x-rays where they jam the films or sensor into your mouth behind your teeth, and you have to clamp down with tender roof of mouth on sharp hard edges, holding still in equally unnatural contortions, are in the same discomfort class as a mammogram.

Truck back without significant and painful bill. Carrie has clean bill of health from the vet, although she needs to watch her girlish figure. I did my monthly report before any of my other colleagues. Dad's colleague had died from COVID-19 so the funeral yesterday was carried out with care, outside, so my worries for him have diminished. (Although my sister and i still nag, nag, nagged.) Mom was delighted with hot and sour soup for lunch, one of her favorites. I raked 90% of the driveway, which was impossible to discern from the forest floor after all the leaf and needle fall: free mulch!

My sister is a poll worker this year: she says there have been people in their 50s across races registering to vote for the first time. As a voter in her 50s, I remember voting for Dukakis: i can imagine bailing out of that election. Was anyone passionate about either of those candidates?

I have failed to avoid lashon hara this morning upon the news the president and first lady contracted COVID-19.

Thursday i spent time in the presence of the second and third not-family persons since mid March: a nurse (who, i can't tell if she really believes Covid is just like a bad flu or thought that was politically expedient to say) and a occupational therapist. The therapist was very careful, and of course he's not one who will be returning (he was out of his coverage area for whatever reason for his organization).

My folk's broadband died as did network access on my phone as both are served by the same company. I note the wisdom of ensuring the cell phone network is a true alternative to broadband if we ever get off DSL (and i am still working).

A little pass of anxiety Friday morning of what will i do if i loose my job in a few years. I trust my employer will weather the pandemic, but i do expect the financial impact to hit once governments and academic organizations have to redo budgets and struggle with decisions of renewing contracts. I hope by then i can have a decent yield from the garden.

I discovered a chestnut tree within a mile of our home. I'd thought it was a chestnut leaved oak. I'd never been introduced to a Quercus castaneifolia but i knew chestnut leaves from my two tress. Walking Carrie down Saralyn Rd there were the spiny cases, crushed in the grave. Critters had likely claimed any nuts. One fruiting tree implies another pollen donor somewhere near. My hopefulness for my two trees increases, as does the thought of getting some others started in the woods.

On the same walk, acorns and hickory nuts as well as black walnuts. I suppose if i didn't have som much to do, i could try to get at the black walnut meats. Christine is allergic to walnuts, but i can imagine some sort of fig-black walnut concoction satisfying my sweet tooth through some future winter. Right now though, the black walnuts are for the squirrels. I have some young oaks and kicory on my property, but my woods are younger with the early populations of the fast growing pines, sweetgum, and tulip poplars. I've found a good sized maple and plane tree, and a 1

I took Friday off and got some Quaker work done. I dug up lemon grass and a holy basil to transplant. Due to feeling lethargic, i didn't get the holy basil planted until Saturday. I hope it takes.

Friday afternoon we ran some errands. i felt very lethargic in the afternoon, set up the fire pit, and sat outside reading with it running*. Unfortunately, by the time Christine came out i had managed to put in a large log but not kept up with keeping it hot.

Saturday i eventually got outside and puttered, moving plants around. I moved sedges and gladiolas away from the blue-eyed grass colony at the end of the south berm, and planted the tiny "baby" plants that arise on the flower stems. I fought the weeds around the plants right off the deck. I think i will lay paper down and cover that with rotten wood, hopefully creating some barrier against the cursed Indian strawberry. I found clumps of cut leaf cone flower and moved those to the south side of the south berm. Clumps of my favorite grass were transplanted along the bases of the drystacked rocks retaining the berm and to other paths.

anyhow, i should post this before another day goes by.

Oh, box turtle going around the outside of the orchard! Carrie is now carefully double-checking each fallen leaf, certain it to is a turtle. Christine too. I would love to see many more turtles, but just the one was a delight.

* a battery powered fire pit -- the battery drives a fan to keep oxygen on the coals. Yes, crazy purchase. It sure looked cool in the online videos. I think it would work great with grocery store firewood.

Me to my sister via Apple's Messages, includes cussing:
( Transcript about a neighbor visiting with our parents sans mask )
Message to neighbor
( Read more... )

And another day colored heavily by the absence of prednisone in my system, tears at lunch not for any good reason (well, because not communicating well in a meeting). Therapy after lunch was good with the message that while i was obviously fragile i was also thinking clearly.

From someone at meeting:

I gather that we will be discussing this, but I wanted to let you know that I have had two recent contacts about when Meeting might be held in person at Spring. We all know that it won't be any problem to be socially distanced as few as we are and as large as the Meetinghouse is.

Am I accurate that we will be discussing this?

My reply

yes, we will discuss what we each know to our own experience this coming Sunday in order that we may discern right action at Meeting for Business. I think it's important for us all to listen to the needs of all in meeting and hold space for opportunity for Light to lead us to ways of Worship that are right for this time. It's clear to me that in person meetings are not advisable for some in meeting until vaccines are available.

I hope this makes sense. Feel free to call me after 5:30 pm if you'd like to chat.

My desired response, "*We all know*?? *We all know*?? I sure don't know that." The place has one door and i don't think the windows open. Everything i've read about air circulation and the virus makes the thought of being inside a closed space with a bunch of other people highly unattractive as a voluntary activity.

( ruminating on risk )

In a similar vein, i have finally decided i can't -- HA! The local co-op has finally posted the offerings of the bulk section! I can do a curbside pickup with them. Huzzah.

I can't quite tell how i'm feeling right now. Meeting and others' desire to meet in person weighs on me.

Delight: two miniature rose blossoms (in full bloom) and a sprig of spearmint on top of already brewed tea leaves. The rose is so strong. I think i will make an extract.

On Monday, Christine and i watched oil prices behave in novel ways, discussing the mechanics that make oil prices go negative, informed from our distinct financial sources. Christine learned how much it costs to have a full tanker ship sit off port for a day, and there was the reminder of how futures contracts work and what happens when the owner of the contract at the due date isn't prepared to receive the commodity. Oil got to -$40 per barrel, went back positive over night and fluctuated in the negatives today.( NYTimes 10 am Tuesday shows West Texas Intermediate at $1.25) I wonder about how much flexibility there is in fractioning the oil into the various components and how easily producers might shift. Say the previous processing had the fraction being (pure fantasy numbers) 40% jet fuel, 15% natural gas, 15% diesel, 20% gasoline, 10% the sludge used by ships. If the demand for natural gas and the sludge stuff is the same (although hearing is decreasing in North America), diesel is 20% less, gas is 50% less, and jetfuel is 90% less -- i wonder if instead of making 40% jet fuel, the amount of jet fuel produced from a barrel of oil could be decreased. Or is it sheer chemistry, and there will be a jet fuel glut produced because the demand for other fractions continues? New term: super contago!

My therapist used the d-word yesterday: i suppose i should have named myself depressed to begin with, but ... well, so it goes.

I went on a road trip with Dad this morning. We pretty much kept to the plan.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1UB8ugy8nI4nzFdNybpcmKPsmIEKr1eUV&usp=sharing

Deep River Park and the bridge are nice. Dad thinks it would be a good destination for him to take Mom; i think the drone would be fun to fly there once i am confident i wouldn't loose it. Not sure when that will happen. Huge box elder and black walnuts on the Chatham side of the bridge, with tiles of Chatham rabbits decorating the the masonry posts. The Lee County side had a boring courthouse with tobacco image. Pfft. They had a lovely line of American plane trees, though.

Marion Jasper Jordan Farm looks lovely, but i don't know that there's a good place to photograph the historic register building.

Haughton-McIver House in Gulf is a bed and breakfast. Gulf was ... eh. The country store, www.jrmooreson.com, looked interesting though, and worth a stop in a different time.

Goldston was interesting. The antique store was "Shut." I think i ran across a walking tour - no, it must of been the historic register submission https://files.nc.gov/ncdcr/nr/CH0538.pdf.

The William Alston Rives House is down a public road that REALLY FEELS LIKE A DRIVEWAY. But i will return and photograph the house someday - it's been lovingly preserved and the landscape maintained.

I misplaced Pedlar's Hill. The place i marked as Pedlar's Hill (35.62438, -79.34013, NE corner of the Mark Willet Rd & Campbell Rd intersection) is interesting, but the 1930s post office map has the location at Campbell and Griffin Rd, and was unremarkable today.

I'm not sure i recall, entirely, what i think of Bonlee. There was a feed elevator that was kinda visually interesting.

I was delighted by the Mt Vernon Spring, and was glad to drink from it as i'd forgotten to bring something to drink. It felt like a lovely spot, more than it looked like one -- i was delighted to see Zephyranthes atamasco (rain lily) blooming. The Lane-Gorrell-Rosser Farm would lend itself well to photographs.

I just spent hours hunting down historical record questions: the Chatham county survey isn't online but i can buy it from the county historical society (answering a question about why sites are on the map but i can't find anything about them). I can't figure out where details about state listed and "DOE listed" properties are kept. Dad and i talked about House in the Horeseshoe, built by Philip Alston while on our ramble: turns out it's in Moore County and that Alston isn't particularly related to the Alstons of the Alston-DeGraffenreid house (i have a winding relation to the early DeGraffenreids who settled North Carolina).

All in all, i think it was a good trip and that it was a pleasure for Dad as much as it was for me. Not sure he talked about Mom as much as he wanted, but not for lack of opportunity. It was a vacation for him.

I wish i could advise a sensible way for him to fall back asleep when he wakes at 3 am. Skimming over "sleep hygine" advice, i don't see anything jump out at me as a problem he might address.

1. Are you an Essential Worker? No. I was a specially-granted work at home worker, now with almost everyone at my company working at home.

2. How many drinks have you had since the quarantine has started? No more than usual, maybe averaging one a week, maybe less (as i don't tend to make drinks strong).

3. If you have kids... Are they driving you nuts? No kids.

4. What new hobby have you taken up during this? No time for new hobbies, or even re-dedication to old ones. Just barely keeping up with yard and garden.

5. How many grocery runs have you done? I think my last run was the 18th of March. Christine and i normally went grocery shopping together every Wednesday evening. When we began taking this seriously, i stopped going as a modicum of risk management so i could easily spend time with Mom and Dad. Dad goes shopping himself, which... sigh. His first trip was to a nearby military base which was aggressively managing risk. I think he's going to general stores now. I don't think he has a mask.

Adding that to the consult list with my sister.

6. What are you spending your stimulus check on? 50% saving, 25% for Christine's discretion in managing her business efforts, 25% to be donated. I've not yet discerned where to donate. We've started a regular donation to the food bank, something i've procrastinated on doing since we moved here. I am concerned about people in our community who are not receiving such a check: the donation may go there.

7. Do you have any special occasions that you will miss during this quarantine? No

8. Are you keeping your housework done? Me personally? As much as i usually contribute. Christine is taking on more, now that M is not coming in. I should sweep.

9. What movie have you watched during this quarantine? Um. Christine's watched Money Ball as a baseball substitute. I'm sure we've watched others. What we watch more of is the late night comedians /hosts and the news shows. And i'm trying to withdraw before too much.

10. What are you streaming with? We have Netflix and Prime, and on Prime, Brit Box and CBS. I'm not sure how long Netflix will last once The Crown is over.

11. Do you expect any significant changes to your household by the end of the year? I think we're pretty stable. I have a hard time imagining a change to our household. Maybe another dog, were we to hear horrible news about fear-abandoned animals.

12. What's your go-to quarantine meal? Erm, I don't think meals have changed that much for us. We might be having more smart dogs -- but i'm not sure. We had them a little more often than i would like to admit anyhow. We did start having a little more slaw earlier than usual: no lettuce made cabbage based slaw more attractive.

13. Is this whole situation making you more preoccupied with worry? I have the meta-worry that we're not worrying enough. So much of the advice i read in the NYTimes is urban oriented, and so i don't want to take on all the actions that are needed when you open the door to your domicile and there can be others within six feet. And i don't want to stress Christine as the person who goes into the world unduly. I'm trying to be balanced.

And i keep reminding myself my cough is asthmatic. (Temperature: 98.2°F)

14. Has your internet gone out on you during this time? Well, most of it was self inflicted (unterminated cable causing the router to fail), but i think there have been a few short provider inflicted outages.

15. What month do you predict this all ends? Ooof. There's such a challenge for the people who are more at risk and those who live in communal situations. The retirement homes and prisons will need to be able to be certain - and that's going to take a vaccine. Schools? And massive stadium events? Festivals?

I am not looking forward to the public health vs personal freedom fights with the anti-vaxxers.
18. What free-from-quarantine activity are you missing the most?
16. First thing you're gonna do when stay at home orders are lifted? Stay at home. Maybe go on a road trip with my Dad to the beach or mountains, assuming an uncrowded destination. Because Mom is particularly at risk.

17. Where do you wish you were right now? No wishing needed.

18. What free-from-quarantine activity are you missing the most? Giving into temptation to buy plants at the farm store.

19. Have you run out of toilet paper and hand sanitizer? No. We had hand sanitizer before and are just using that. Didn't think to buy that in late February. We did buy some alcohol to make some more if we really need it. TP is concerning for Christine who hasn't seen any for sale since the first runs on it. But i think we'll be able to restock via Amazon or the restaurants selling their supplies if the supply chain failure continues.

20. Do you have enough food to last a month? In late February we stocked up with the usual canned pet food for two weeks and kibble for longer. We certainly have enough calories in the house for people for a month. Whether it would be enjoyable meals for a month -- erm.

16.

I think we came up with a good project for our cleaner: the back porch is coated with pollen and it’s why i think i am coughing. Yesterday she came over and gave the place a good clean out, and then there was disinfectant applied to touch-surfaces after she left. Given it’s outside and not a must-use space, it seemed a good way to balance needs.

A hummingbird is visiting the azalea outside the office window. I first saw them yesterday just after lunch (while on a call with my therapist) and then again just as i was settling in at my work desk. It seems odd to see them at this time? This will be such a crazy year with some plants taking advantage of the head start this unseasonably early spring is providing and possibly out competing plants that would otherwise be more successful.

On the other hand, we are getting a perfectly seasonable frost or freeze tonight. So the blooming blackberries, need cover as do the cucurbits. I’m glad i didn’t succumb to planting out the lemon grass. Meanwhile the greenhouse is closed and getting very warm, fourth Fahrenheit degrees warmer than the ambient temperature. I ‘m hoping I’m making the right choice with that — now that the sun has come out it could get to a hundred degrees. Hopefully the water in the tubs will warm and retain the heat a little bit after the sun goes down.

March 28th - high of 93°F (greenhouse high was 120°F, so i guess getting that hot today won’t be a disaster)
April 11th - low of 32°F (both on the back fence and in the greenhouse)

I have an asthmatic cough that started after sitting out on the pollen covered porch. Not really welcome these days.

Work has been intense all week as i prepare to share a document today. Our "software development process" is poorly defined.

Therapy Tuesday was helpful, i think, reality check for my insecurities about work, to recognize some of the exaggerations with which i frame my work.

I'm still pondering what to say Sunday. Hope? Barclay (an early Quaker theologian) writes powerfully about the classical Christian concept of salvation in his propositions 5 and 6, arguing for salvation's universality, drawing a fine line that separates Quakers from the heresies of which they had been accused. He builds up the one of the fundamental insights, that the (seed of) Light is within all. (Wednesday morning: I just went and skimmed the chapter.) Is that the message for NOW?

Wednesday evening i thought about the exhaustion in trying to make decisions about what to get at the grocery and when to go and what not. (Additional complications arise because i am not going in order to maximize my isolation for Mom.) And i thought about the thype thinking i have gone through in deciding to buy things and reduce plastics as well as consider carbon footprint. The pandemic is a human problem: the climate change is a global problem for all life. Is that a message?

"In the tiny county of Early in southwest Georgia, five people have died. And the mayor and the police chief of the county seat, Blakely, are among the county’s 92 confirmed cases. It has been a shock for the rural county of fewer than 11,000 people. " -- https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/08/us/coronavirus-rural-america-cases.html Dad's family are from the county near Early. (Early was a large county when it was first formed and his ancestors arrived in the area. It was divided and divided again as populations grew.)

Wednesday evening i finally tried to make a soaker hose. The water pressure from the tank can only manage about three feet of holes every one inch at the size of hole i drilled. Sadly, i did almost thirty feet (from the 100 ft of hose i have to spare). So i think i have smaller bits, and now that i've done it once i have a process. I can count up the holes in the functioning stretch an space them out much further. I don't mind if it takes a very long time to soak out. If i can open the tank up and let the soaker hose go for hours for a whole row, it will make it easier to use during the work day than a hose that i have to move every 30 min or half hour.

Green tree frogs (Hyla cinerea) and cricket frogs (probably Acris crepitans) are abundant in the orchard, and i see the cricket frogs elsewhere as well. I've seen a few lizards - sadly, the best view of a skink has been one that Marlowe appeared to have caught and killed. No snakes yet. A songbird is dead on a path around the outside of the orchard fence, attracting a mass of beetles. I wonder if the fencing was a contributor to its death and wince with guilt. No snake sign yet.

The star of Bethlehem has started to bloom: it seems so late compared to the early spring. I assume it must have day length triggered growth. The bear's foot plants are shooting up to the height i would expect in May. Easily two weeks early if not a full month.

I spent six hours yesterday trying to sort out how to share management of Zoom meetings without paying $190 a month. It was hard because the user interface shows the controls for the business style set-up even while they are not functional. And the error messages and direction are just fuzzy enough that the difference of control based on license is not clear.

Oh, and Zoom is making security changes today so who knows how that will play out.

Anyhow, that was exhausting, and some part of my mind was all, "when is the meeeee time?" When The Secret Chapter came free for me to read midday, i snapped it up and plopped myself down, and read the whole thing. I spent a little time in the yard -- finally planting the magnolia and a mystery tree that have been in pots for a year. I should have planted them in the fall. The mystery tree is NOT a persimmon. That's what i was told when i bought it as a bare root in the 2018-19 winter Mellow Marsh farm sale at Country Farm and Home. I think, also, the arrow wood i bought was mislabeled. It's leaves this spring look more like the witch hazel from this year's order. Fortunately the arrow wood i bought from another source is doing well (i'd given up on it last fall).

I'm not sure what to do today with not-Meeting time. So much backlog of so many sorts. We're looking at ten days of no rain, so making a soaker hose comes to mind.

Meanwhile we are having network issues again. ... Ah, reboot resolves.

Work has been intense, parents are coping, sister and her family seem to be doing fine.