Tues thru Thurs 14-16 April 2020

    Oh, oh.  I have about given up trying to keep up.  This is hard trying to blog day-by-day.
    Most important - I keep working from home this 4th/5th week.  Joining a research team, examining multi-volume titles which got separated between two libraries (trying to re-unite them and keep them in a single library), our liaison team meeting discussing how we liaisons on the front line for this online university are not getting our fair worth of praise for our work, several work and 'coffee' zoom meetings which keep me somewhat connected.
    Also make an effort to keep up walking, some days at least one 1/2 hour walk and some two of those.
    The India Bazaar store said it would re-open on the 13th Apr so we could restock our supply of paers which one each which we have in the evening (Deej is running out of her plain papars, though I have a pretty good stash of cumin papars). Drove all the way up to the Indian store only to discover  that they had not reopened but will reopen on the 20th (we can always hope). Also it was a little frustrating as both Deej and I tried to deposit some checks before going to the store - the automated teller didn't accept her check so we lined up and both of us deposited our separate checks at a window.
     Deej went to the store yesterday and got our weekly (maybe enough) groceries. The Tuesday afternoon stores were crowded.
     Flowers, bushes, and trees are blossoming hugely - especially after our 3 inches of rain which fell over Sunday night and into Tuesday morning. Some places were surprised to see some early Tuesday morning snow!
     Deej also mowed our side and front yards today (Wed). Deej mowing 12 seconds

   








     My classmates have been reading several books and I've listed most of them in Worldcat.org.  I sent that list by email and one of my testy members complained - "why are you recommending I read these books, I have plenty of good books to read." Of course I never thought I was "recommending" books, just listing them as interesting - so, I replied, "never mind, just delete that list and any others."
Here's the list - no, I'm not insisting you read all of them. The list includes 'failed' books too (started but never read) Moby Dick, The Odyssey : the story of Ulysses, etc.

     The other very interesting video I received was of a 20 minute motor bike ride, "Lockdown in India" of a friend taking an American on a 4 mile trip to a police station in the Himalaya hill town of Mussorie so he could get permission to travel to Delhi and get a plane back to the States.  What was unusual was the very narrow streets up and down the hills - the streets were almost empty of people, but there were dogs laying around, and one place cows roaming around. I have not learned if he got back to the States or not, but Modi re-instated the India lockdown which ended the 13th and then almost immediately was re-instated until early May.  Have a look at the video

Click on Helping My Friend Escape LOCKDOWN in India

And here's a Map of route https://goo.gl/maps/m1UShVjnkqA3YPi68

      I'm having a disconnect with my sister Betty, as she wants to set up her own zoom with me and because she needs to be the Host of her reading club zoom session.  We've tried various things, but still haven't been able to figure out a good time over the phone and the Internet to figure this out.  Plus her laptop's video and sound seem some how turned off, as in a zoom session we tried with her and others over the week end.  Hope we can get that all fixed.  

      Extremely sad to hear that brothers of two of my good friends died (the friends - Anand and Wayde) - their families and friends will miss these amazing humans.

Thursday through Monday 2-6 April 2020

Worked Thursday and Friday, did Gardening stuff Saturday, Sunday, and Monday evening
     Work mainly consists of trying to find ebooks and access for online learning. That was also true Monday when I worked with an anthropology professor and our digital access librarian to try to find a Cambridge publication online - and at first it didn't allow access to both the professor and me. The librarian ordered the book which will come Wednesday - then we can see if we can get his Chapter 10 in that ebook. Cambridges problems was that they have opened up their books digitally for the next two months - but this book did not qualify since it was not designated as a 'textbook'!
    There were various library zooms, morning 1/2 hour coffee zoom and a Research and Learning zoom in the afternoon - they are thinking of ending all scanning soon.
     Garden plot. Spent much of Saturday afternoon working with Deej to clear off all the old and dead twigs, corn stocks, etc. and place the cages, stakes, bamboo poles, all in a section. Deej also is working on a fenced in patch, which she started to folk spade on Sunday.

    We loaded and brought in the mower on Sunday also, and mowed the whole garden area. It was in preparation for our Afghan's fellow gardener's offer to til the plot. Monday we went and checked, but it had not been tilled - one tiller broke down and another was a front tiller and would not dig into the hard ground. So now we are thinking we will need to hire someone again to till the plot ($40-60).

I forked up a long row and Deej helped me plant two types of peas. She's also been loading and taking (so far 4) buckets of mulch chips. She upset that some of our fellow gardeners have taken almost of of the large pile of rich mulch - not much sharing of that, like they have done in previous years. 

 

 There was a nice sunset and a full moon as we left the garden.

Deej baked another loaf of bread Sunday afternoon.









    While the dishwasher and new faucet got put in, only today did the dryer repairman come in to fix the heating on it He finished and we paid him $350, and then Deej did two washes, and the dryer didn't heat up - so called again and they're coming in tomorrow morning.  Whew, nuts.
      I had a nice zoom chat with my Class of 59 folks Saturday afternoon - the second week with them.  And I joined a Woodstock alumni management small group to try to figure out what ways we might make contacts and help out anyone during this time of virus.  Some actions were suggested, but most were vague and uncertain.
       And I joined another Woodstock alumni zoom on Sunday late morning, with a variety of about 15 Woodstockites - talking of a variety of our experiences during theses 'stay at home times.'
       We've been on some walks around Belmont park and to Moores creek this last week end.

Monday - Wed 30 March - 1 April 2020

Groceries, walks, zooms, work, repairs, bread.
     Monday's a blur of getting back to work, calling people for clogged sink and heat for dryer repairs, and a walk to the quarry.

New faucet

faucet installed

    Tuesday both repair people came in the early afternoon with the sink guy working for about 1.5 hours and putting in a new single-handle, drip-free faucet. The dyer guy puttered around, took it apart, saw he need thermal heater replacement, put it back together, ran it and the burnt smell permeated the house. After much calling, the we accepted that they would replace the thermal which is on order and might come Thursday. Deej has not decided on a new freezer.

     We also went in the afternoon to pick up my heating mug from the Science and Engineering library and a mailer from Kerchof, the Math Library - was able to do that though nobody around since I had keys. We decided to walk around the Gardens which are spread out on each side of the Rotunda's Lawn, even though it was raining slightly.  Got some nice photos with rain droplets on them Here's the 1 minute 20 seconds video of the flowers https://youtu.be/tiH3tTDJyz8
and the 26 photos https://photos.app.goo.gl/eHztw84d73EhYy5x7

snow drops

Deej with tulips

Philip in the garden

Red petals

While out we also picked up some onions, peas, and a blackberry bush from Southern States.
     Wednesday we set to wake at 6:30 am but pushed it back to 6:50, coffee, and drive to Kroger by 7:20 am for their early morning Elderly hour. Got needed groceries - cookies, yogurt, beer, milk, broth, condensed milk, sliced turkey roast, avacados, bananas, eggs, etc. You know, essentials. Parking lot about 30% less full than usual, not too many elderlies (2 retired librarians), and we were home by 8 am.
        I've been working on several library matters - book and access requests, work zooms (1 hour Wed afternoon with liaisons) and non-work librarian zooms - 1/2 hour each day for our coffee break. Today was show your pet - but our cat Kali was not having anything for me to hold her on my lap and show her - others conversed about dogs, cats, or such. And is there the ashes of a past University professor in the library - where is it and how is it cataloged (everything's got to be cataloged!). I may be working on a project to find subjects for each of 800 India pamphlets (1960s), besides helping my faculty and students for occasional requests. I need to vote for 2 proposed amendments for the South Asia Microfilm Project.
      The work zoom was not as good as it could have been since our host Internet was not too strong, and we had to resort to turning off our videos and muting, until we joined in to say something. We are still fumbling around trying to do our best in this online environment.
       As requested I had tried zooming with my Woodstock Class of 1959 classmate, Chris, who's in Switzerland. We tried it Tuesday afternoon, and then Wed. afternoon.  He can see me fine, though the sound is garbbled - I was never able to hear or see him - just a box with his name on it. His Internet access might be way to slow or/and others are using the Internet at the same time way too much. We will try after the Pandemic - when will that be? 3 months? 7 months? when?
         I did also figure out a good time and zoomed with my daughter Julie in Iowa for about 15 minutes this Wed. evening - catching up on how Iowa school system has still not figured how to connect to students and courses or continue the school year online. It may be over - Lauren's last semester as nursing training may somehow be completed; Eliza's not sure about here schooling; but Matt's still working as usual. Wanted to have Jan and Betty in on the zoom, but Jan's at his daughters for pizza and never got connected to Betty. We'll keep trying.
       Rained some more today.
   Oh, yes - Deej made another loaf of bread Tuesday afternoon.

Ingredients

In the machine

In the machine Done

The wonderful loaf