elainegrey

I have been struggling with to do lists.

This morning i saw a bright satellite in conjunction with Castor and Pollux cruising through the early dawn sky. It was as bright as Castor and Pollux (between magnitudes 1 and 2). SL-24 DEB was the best match for track and time, a Russian object of unknown categorization, with a maximum brightness of 3.4. The track ran closer to Castor and Pollux than the prediction draws -- but it's the best match. I may write to http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html

Except, pfft, to do list.

I'm not sure why the steps project has frozen up for me. I am the block right now.

I took Friday off and frittered it away: 50% of my reason for taking it off was to deal with finding a carpenter, etc. Admittedly the frittering included lots of shopping for gifts, including trying to figure out appropriate books to help get my freshman nephew using Jupyter notebooks. Which -- it seems like it's going to be so easy with Anaconda, the scientific python package. Install that great huge thing (i should probably bring it over on a thumb drive giving their satellite connection), and i won't have to coach him on the command line if you doesn't want to. I trust that if this is a direction he should go, the limitations of notebooks will soon push him there. The gaol is to give him a playground that will inspire.

I'd already picked out a pastry chef book for my niece who is far more inspired in that direction.

Another fritter trigger is that both Christine and i are moping around with small coughs and malaise. No fever, good oxygen saturation: presuming it's not COVID-19. Nonetheless, i am not going to my parents. We have tried to ask the woman who comes twice a week to add the COVID tracker to her phone: she's not interested. She's "Double masking" in public, whatever that means. She takes cash only and has made negative noises about vaccines. We teeter at the edge of being done with her. She's cisgender, white, presumably hetero due to ex-husband in history: i tend to suspect we are of different political outlooks. All this OK without a pandemic, but handling cash was suspect early on. She was pretty confident in her essential worker status and chafed against the spring shut down even though we kept paying her (cash, sigh). We gave her Thanksgiving off (paid), partly due to worry about the surging rates. She comes today. We'll open windows.

I joined Christine & Carrie for a walk Friday night to the nearby dirt road that goes to the Zen center and we encountered a woman walking her English shepherd (related to border collie) off leash and training the dog. We were happy to be a teachable moment for Harlan, and i was happy when Carrie demonstrated her lack of interest in treats: part of the challenge in training her. In trying to explain where we lived, Christine finally said, "We're the house with the Black Lives Matter sign." Our interlocutor immediately went to the fact that the Zen Center probably wouldn't want to put a BLM sign at the road because of vandalism concerns: just being "Zen" was triggering enough, apparently, for the leap of "Not Christian, therefore Satanist." On one hand i was assured that Christine's and my wariness in decision making was not an outlier. And we were glad to say that we haven't had any particular trouble: the trash rate seems the same, perhaps more sign adjacent now instead of sprinkled down the frontage. She gossiped a little about the reactionary barber on the corner, of whom we'd heard from my father, and who had a 2016 Trump sign up for years and a Thank Jesus yard signs up as long as we have been here.

I am sad that the #3 "Frequently asked question" about voting in Chatham county is "I suspect that somone [sic] registered to vote does not qualify. Where do I verify this? " It;s only much further down that i found out about how my mother can vote.

And yesterday's county mailing list calls on the county to become a 2nd Amendment Sanctuary County. ( cut for failures in poking around in DNS etc to identify the poster. )

More insects: a yellow jacket nest in the back yard near the picnic table and in one of the many many holes due to rotted pine roots. I was showing a friend the orchard, noticed Carrie nipping and then realized that she had multiple yellow jackets around her. I'm sure Carrie was stung, poor dear, and i was too. The inflammation of the sting hung around for the evening, but this morning all seems well. While i think the horsefly bite more painful, and other bites cause me more harm, i think the swarming nature and the location of the nest is a problem.

I've pondered various removals: i was most fascinated by the advice to bury the nest under a wheelbarrow load of ice, cover with a tarp, and cover that with wood chips. The most reasonable seemed to be covering the entrance with a glass bowl. Unfortunately, given the situation -- the old stump hole with heart wood and very loose clay -- i don't think it's likely that the yellow jackets would be trapped for long.

--== ∞ ==--

My Chatham County database is getting all my attention at the moment. I became fascinated with this excerpt from a compilation of county citations:

"Some 20 or 30 years ago, it is said an extraordinary disease was prevalent on a small run called Landraum’s Creek, in Chatham, 5 or 6 miles from Pedlar’s Hill, which was called the creek sickness. The cattle would die in great numbers; and the persons who drank the milk of the cows, and the dogs that ate the carcase would sicken and die. Such singular fatality was so extraordinary that it drove the inhabitants entirely away from the vicinity; and even now, few or none can be induced to live on that creek. It is believed that there are now occasional cases of it in that neighborhood. How the disease originated, or what should remedy it, could never be found out. Some have supposed it to be much the same as the milk sickness so prevalent in some of the western States" The North-Carolinian (Fayetteville, N.C.), March 22, 1845

I can find out about the creek, but no other sources about the sickness. The historic register document for a mill on the creek says "Located on the same property, the grist mill is on a site known to have been in use as a mill since at least 1838," which rather contradicts that narrative.

I've gone on to revisit searching details about the near by creek, continued to examine the 1870 map, find other maps, and just generally follow any thread that seems to lead to county history. I am impressed by the number of Russell Chapel Churches in the country.

"The whole county is a series of linked folktales: of a race of famously plentiful rabbits now nearly disappeared, of deadly freshwater mermaids found where the Haw and Deep Rivers meet to form the Cape Fear River, of the dribbling fonts of miraculous spring water named Faith and Love, and of the ghost dogs in the abandoned shafts of Ore Hill overlooking the springs below. Out on Russell Chapel Church Road, just past Elf Way, a woman has erected a sign in front of her trailer, its message written in foothigh black letters: get to no me befor you judge me."

Murrell, Duncan. “Jump Juan Crow.” Harper’s Magazine; New York, December 2013.

I'm managing to resist the mermaid call, and i do wonder about the creativity of Duncan Murrell as there is only one known shaft at Ore Hill. He does catch a flavor of the county that i've sensed, though.

Hours spent with more maps....

Late last week i was speculating about a fictional story and had an whimsical thought of a character who was immortal being involved, but the immortality part was an anti-MacGuffin, something to advance the plot but not revealed until the end and as such likely to elicit, "wait, what? Why did i read all this boring stuff when there's an immortal in our midst?" The public-records novel will linger at the back of my mind.

I'm assuming this is a mental reset, much like i would spend weekends doing genealogy in California. Indeed, as i was structuring my database, the genealogy database structure came to mind. Also the dilemma when consulting a source: do you extract everything at that time? Or wait and come back later? I'm trying to balance, and leave myself to-dos (which i will never do?)

I';m also feeling under the weather, and my sister was under the weather on Friday. I'm deeply in introvert/hermit mode despite yesterday's surprise socializing.

Tuesday i was weepy. I don't know exactly what it was about. Family, mortality, surely was a pert. Reading the NYTimes "partial" obituary of Cokie Roberts and it's linked 2017 interview with her and her husband about their 50 year marriage teared me up. I could shoot the Adobe Illustrator developers who have inconsistently implemented color changing from swatches (what works for fills fails for strokes) and the swatch system! Geeze, louise. Work stresses me (due to my procrastination expectations of self etc, and my belief that they will all soon find out it is all a facade.)

I took the afternoon and poked at county history, will take Friday and will go play in the woods with my niece. Hopefully that will help.

I used a UV flashlight outside in the moonlight on Tuesday morning - absolutely fascinating to see occasional fluorescence and color shifts. Violet leaves are a dark dark magenta-burgundy, brassica leaves' dusty bloom fluoresces blue, and there's something on the dying stems of miniature roses that fluoresces orange.

I went out in the evening and tried to take photos with my phone. Unsurprisingly it responds a little differently than my eye-brain system and overwhelmingly just recorded purple.

This morning when i went out i was quite startled by the hoot of an owl. Single loud hoots -- not the familiar who-cooks-for-you-ish rhythm. I didn't let the cats out; Carrie barked once in her startlement.

I made a natural deodorant yesterday: baking soda and my mint glycerate. The glycerate is OK to add to water as a flavor and sweetener, but i think the ice cubes with mint seem a more agreeable delivery. It didn't take much glycerine to mix in with the baking soda to make a paste with the consistency of the average deodorant. So, no big chunk of plastic -- but, boy, do i miss the delivery system of that big chunk of plastic. It looks like cardboard tubes are available to fill and use as a push-from-the-bottom delivery system. I have established its reasonably effective for me, so i think i will buy the tubes and see how well it works over time.

Regarding my speculations from public records: i've become interested with the idea of a "novel" from fictionalized public records. Whether the records would be in facsimile (and art book, like Griffin and Sabine?) or it would be simply text, i don't know. I did come up with a fictional county & county seat -- Beauford, Norfield County named for Earl of Norfield, of the County ---, George Beauford. I don't know what County in Great Britain he should live in. The Earl of Chatham was from Kent. I decided my fictional county seat would be at the fall line of the Cape Fear, where Moncure is now, but fictionalize the confluence. The "port" might make for a more interesting alternative-history with a bit more records about early arrivals and departures.

The plot line -- it's harder to come up with something other than the usual two family lines and how they shift politically through history. A Quaker family from the Revolution and Civil War whose scion is now an adamant "[Confederate] Flagger," a wealthy aristocratic settler whose scion is a progressive community leader, an enslaved person whose descendants have become local politicians. This is why an artbook with reproductions could be more interesting than a novel.....

I was distracted yesterday by researching the person likely responsible for the absurdly large Confederate flag flying as one enters Pittsboro from the east. The shiny new flag is likely correlated with the county commissioners terminating their contract with the Daughters of the Confederacy and wanting them to get their statue off the courthouse lawn.

I'm not certain how this tactic will work but it does seem to try to run around the state law by making it clear the state (and the county?) doesn't own the statue. ( Found it: https://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2015/Bills/Senate/PDF/S22v4.pdf) I'm happy to see the statue leave it's place of prominence, and I'm happy the county first discussed "reimagining" the statue to recontextualize it. I am well aware that the historic courthouse itself is understood by some in the African-American community as a symbol of injustices -- lynchings. The statue doesn't help.

Finding the name of the property owner was no challenge, and a bit of a story or two unfolds in town government proceedings. I'll call him Johnny R. One story is that of trading one subdivision for another: Johnny R's family has been here for some time, and had a bit of land outside town. Johnny R apparently wanted to subdivide and sell lots in May of 2008. It appears it had preliminary approval. but a great deal of neighbor complaints about all the horrible development. 2008 was a bad time to start a project like that, and it looks like Johnny R sold most of his land to to the developers who are making the mega-development around the town called Chatham Park.

My sister and i exercised our eyes a good bit, rolling them around, considering folks who assume their neighbors aren't going to make changes with their land. I think again about the 60 acres to the east of our patch: i'm not sure if the hunting is worse for Christine than bulldozers. The county just recently zoned all unzoned property: that rilled people up, but it's those same folks who are indignant about cement plants and mining.

Back to Johnny R, deeds, cemetery records, and a genealogy all connect to point to the person being over 80 years old. I wonder about wives and children. A genealogy lists a wife, and she's since died. Her obituary mentions a daughter with the same first name as the daughter listed in the genealogy, two deeds list a woman with the same first name, Johnny R's last name, and the last name used in the obituary. There is no mention of a husband in the obituary: no husband predeceased or surviving.

I develop a story in my mind about a bitter divorce and a desire to strip Johnny R out of their lives.

Following Johnny R's deeds he remarries, and he and his second wife apparently stand in line together to give public comment at various county and town meetings -- often at the front. His second wife also has an obituary -- and again Johnny R isn't mentioned. His brother has an obituary: Johnny R isn't mentioned. Deeds record the second wife's daughters, as trustees of her estate, releasing property to Johnny R in reference to a court proceeding.

I'm getting a sense of Johnny R that doesn't seem to indicate a beloved family member. On the other hand, he performed in a local theater production (in keeping with his education and drama degree) and he's acted as an announcer at horse shows.

When i mentioned the flag to the town mayor at an event at Meeting last night, she exclaimed about Johnny R always getting into things, so it's clear he's a well known quantity in town.

Meanwhile, a Confederate "History" group is having a prayer and vigil rally in town today for the Confederate soldier statue. Mayor C asked us to keep clear: she's very worried about the possibility for a fracas. This after our little town had a hostage situation in the state credit union on Thursday.

The statue, flag waving, and local politics distress Christine. Given the distress the code bro culture of Silicon Valley caused her, i have to bite my lip when she talks about the benighted state of affairs. It's easy to see darkness at the edges (if not center) of much of what goes on in human life. There's light, too. It's easy to see one and ignore the other.

Well, then there's me. I'm off to ignore both and just mow down stilt grass.

[I'm sure i've written of Chatham county things before, but recent obsessiveness leads to retroactive adding the tag chatham back this far- 2019-09-22)