The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 337 (837) Birthday Edition III

The poem I'm working on for my 66th birthday won't, I think, be as good as the one I wrote for my 65th.  I have too many other things on my mind right now. If it gets to a point that doesn't embarrass me, I may post it, but it won't be today or, probably, any day of the four-day weekend--Canada Day on Friday and US Independence Day on Monday. One summer in which the days fell the same way we spent the long weekend in Stewart, British Columbia which sits right next door to Hyder, the easternmost town in Alaska. Back then, you could just slow down at the border crossing, give a wave, and go on. Those were the good old days. Stewart is where we witnessed something I've never seen done anywhere else, a hospital bed race. One team member rode on the bed and the other three or four pushed the bed down the street. Needless to say, there were also costumes. 

As for the six-months-old resolutions, I'm not totally bombing. I wanted to finish the list of 50 things I started working on in my 50th year, the one leading up to my 50th birthday. I'm getting there more slowly than I had hoped but it's still doable. The Professor has agreed to accompany me on visits to two local historical sites, Monticello and Montpelier. I have written four of the seven poems I needed to finish. I have yet to sketch anything, so I still have nine to do there. I gave away my box of children's books written in Spanish, so I can't take the easy route on reading something written in Spanish. I did find the Spanish shelf on one of the bookcases, and need to see what's there. I did have The Gulag Archipelago in Spanish, but I don't think that's doable. 

I have practiced doing quilt binding on Xena the Warrior Bernina. I haven't decided if I'll try it on the quilt I'm quilting right now. It may take a little while to get back to that quilt. The Professor was complaining not for the first time about all the stuff in our garage. One item was a dresser that originally was our changing table. It moved with My Mom to the condo to which she moved, and when she moved on from there it came back to us ... to the garage. I did not realize that it was not going to fit where I wanted to put it in my studio/sewing room and to put it the only other place it would fit meant a massive reorganization of various things including my dolls. I have more dolls than I thought I did. I also found a couple of decades-old projects that shouldn't take too long to finish once I'm done with the current quilt. 

I wanted to keep up with the on-demand bodyweight training program I'd been doing. Then I had my nose-breaking fall on January 6 that also bruised my knees to the point I could not kneel. Then I developed what turned out to be a recalcitrant nerve in my right knee and spent some time attending to it. I am getting back to working out now, though. I'm doing the morning dog walks in a weight vest and have added some light aerobics to the mix. 

Related to the working out, I didn't want to gain any weight. I haven't and have even lost the couple of pounds I gained over the holidays. The working out helps for sure. 

Finally, I wanted to make friends with our convection oven. While I've done some recipes from convection oven cookbooks, I'm not comfortable yet doing something I'm used to making in the regular oven in the convection one. Adjusting time and temperature is, so far, intimidating. I've got six more months, though. 

And so I begin another trip around the sun, my 67th one. It will hold surprises, some welcome and some not. It will stretch me possibly to new limits just as it nestles around to keep me safe. I hope to be back in six months to make post new resolutions and in six months after that to embark on a new orbit.  

The View from the Hermitage, Day 473

Birthday Selfie 2021

I'm still reading and taking just a few notes on the pandemic, but this post is birthday-oriented. First, have I kept the resolutions I made for 2021?

EACH MONTH:

1. Make a pie.
2. Use the Instant Pot.
3. Start, work on, or finish a "creative thing."
4. Donate or toss one banker's box of stuff.
5. Use Apple watch's monthly fitness goal or set one of my own.

Why, yes ... yes I have, all of them even.

What does the Washington Post's horoscope say about people whose birthday today is?

You are soft, giving, and perceptive. You tend to draw attention to you whether you seek it our or not. You are adventurous and impulsive, and you have an excellent memory. You are always generous and kind. This year you want to secure your future for yourself and those who are close to you. Don't push yourself too hard. Explore real estate opportunities.

With all the flowery what-not, they must really want me to keep my subscription going.

Besides my birthday, today is Canada Day, International Joke Day, and the 100th anniversary of China's Communist Party. Probably the most famous person to share my birthday would be Diana, Princess of Wales. I'm five years older than she would be.

Finally, in the "do something every day that scares you" realm, I wrote a poem for this birthday. I wish I could get the lines formatted differently, but that's definitely a first-world problem. Enjoy the rest of your day. I certainly plan to.

When I Was a Child

 When I was a child

big brothers picked on little sisters

saying they were no bigger

than a piece of dirt.

Bullying? It wasn’t called that then.

 

Now I am older.

Big brothers share with little sisters

and dirt is never mentioned

except in contexts such as gardening.

Not bullying but brothering.

 

When I was a child

we hid under our desks or in the cloakroom

not really sure just what it was

our parents were afraid of

as they talked in muffled voices.

 

Now I am older.

We no longer duck and cover

against some unknown enemy.

We are our own worst enemy

destroying our world on our own.

 

When I was a child

smallpox was real as was polio.

One Saturday morning we left cartoons

to get vaccines

one of which came in a sugar cube.

 

Now I am older

and have outlived smallpox

but not polio by decades.

There are scary new ailments

with vaccines for those willing to get them.

 

When I was a child

grown-up children moved home

to a place called a hometown

to plant seeds of their own children

as they themselves ripened.

 

Now I am older

mother to kids with a hometown 

even if but one still lives in it.

Those kids call our house their home-place

something that pleases me.

 

When I was a child

sixty-five meant grey hair and wrinkles

men retiring to go home

and prepare to die

unless they puttered.

 

Now I am sixty-five.

Some wrinkles but no grey hair.

Old looks different these days.

It may feel different, too.

I’ll let you know when I find out.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 444

Vaccine incentives take all forms, even guns. In West Virginia, someone getting vaccinated can choose to enter a drawing to win one of five custom hunting rifles and five custom shotguns. Weekly drawings will start on June 20, Fathers Day. Other prizes include $1 million. Fully vaccinated people ages 16 to 35 could win $100 savings bonds or gift cards. West Virginia is not the only state with a firearms incentive. Illinois is taking mobile vaccination sites to shooting ranges and giving those who get vaccinated 100 free targets. 

POTUS has declared June a National Month of Action working toward the goal of 70 percent of Americans having gotten at least one dose of vaccine by July 4. He also would like to see 160 million American adults fully vaccinated by then. Anheuser-Busch is offering to help by giving out $5 gift cards good for beer or any other beverage. All a person has to do to get one is upload a selfie taken in a favorite bar or restaurant. The only problem here is that I'm not ready to go to a bar or restaurant, though if they accepted a selfie taken outside, by the entrance, I could manage that. Another program is "Shots at the Shop" to engage Black-owned barbershops and beauty salons to conduct outreach and offer education on the vaccines. Over 50 mayors have joined a Mayors' Challenge to see which city can get the most residents vaccinated. Several child care centers have offered free child care while parents get shots or recover from any side effects. Finally, thousands of pharmacies have said they will stay open late every Friday night in June.

Kudos to the 12 states that have already met the 70 percent goal: California, Maryland, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

Rural northern California is seeing a worrisome rise in covid cases and hospitalizations in counties that continue to protest safety measures. One cafe in Mendocino is threatening to charge patrons $5 for wearing a mask. They also note they will charge $5 to anyone "caught bragging about your vaccine" but will give a 50 percent discount to customers who throw their masks in the trash. The northern counties have some of the lowest vaccination rates in the state. In three counties, only a fourth of the population is fully vaccinated. Some county supervisors have been threatened with recalls for supporting covid safety measures.

The Washington Post obtained Dr. Fauci's emails from March and April of 2020 using the Freedom of Information Act. The man keeps his cool even in email. In response to a suggestion from an official at the Department of Health and Human Services that the shortage of PPE could be resolved through the use of "doggie cones," Dr. Fauci offered polite thanks.

The US may be returning to normal, but some countries are seeing their worst outbreaks yet. Argentina, Malaysia, and South Africa are among the countries that have reimposed lock-downs; in Malaysia, you can't go farther than six miles from home. Thailand and Taiwan have closed schools and nightspots. Paraguay and Uruguay now have the highest reported fatality rates in the world according to Johns Hopkins University. The best way to combat these surges is to increase vaccinations. In North America, 60 doses have been given for every 100 people. In South America, 27 doses have been given for every 100 people, while in Asia, 21 doses have been given. In Africa, frighteningly, only two doses have been given for every 100 people. 

For those who doubt the vaccine really works out in the broader world, a Brazilian town saw a 95 percent drop in covid-19 deaths after almost all adults were vaccinated as part of an experiment. Serrana has about 45,000 inhabitants. After 95 percent of those people had been vaccinated, deaths fell, as noted, by 95 percent. Hospitalizations fell by 86 percent, while symptomatic cases fell by 80 percent. No severe side effects to the vaccinations were reported. 

Today is my big brother's birthday. Because of the holiday weekend, I didn't put his card in the mail until yesterday, so I shall offer him Best Birthday Regards here on the proper day. I hope you had some nice hiking weather, Jon, and that the trails weren't too crowded.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 170

One of my birthday presents has been a running joke for a few weeks. Older son ordered it around the time of my birthday and kept telling me it was coming. Then he was telling me it had shipped. Then he would tell me whatever tracking info he had received the day before. Then he told me it was at least in town. Then he told me it turned out to have been a fraud, and he was getting his credit card refunded and looking for another of the same thing. Then that thing had shipped and was being tracked. He kept insisting that this was not a joke present but a "real" one. This morning, he showed up with a large box with eBay tape all around. I did not think to ask if he had gotten it on eBay; I will have to remember to do that. Inside the box was 

It's a Janome (duh, they can see that, Jean) needle felting machine also called an embellisher. I've done needle felting by hand for some time, but this will expand the horizons. A friend has one, and I've admired the things she posted as having been done all or in part on her embellisher. I had mentioned wishing I could try one; I may even have had it on my Amazon.com wish list for a while. I did not expect to actually get one.

I played around with it a little this afternoon and could have spent a lot more time. I wanted to write this post, though, and work a bit on book-sorting so as not to feel guilty about totally ignoring putting the house back together. I'll have plenty of chances to play with it during the coming days. Here's what  I made today:

Being so used to a sewing machine, I kept reaching to move the nonexistent presser foot up or down. I had to get used to moving the fabric around underneath the needle. I don't really do free-motion machine quilting, or that would have been more familiar. I love a learning curve on a new toy!

The governor did a briefing this afternoon. I missed the first 20 minutes which was when he talked about the covid-19 data. When I tuned in, the discussion was all about making sure people had filled out their census forms. I did learn a bit during the part of the Q&A that I listened to. There will be no changes--relaxing or not--to the reopening phases before Labor Day. I got the impression from one question that loosening the restrictions was under consideration. I hope they don't do that because the number of new cases each day is higher than it was when they started the process of reopening. The governor did remind people that there had been upward bumps in the new cases numbers after Memorial Day and July 4 weekends. He said he didn't want to see similar increases after the Labor Day weekend. It doesn't matter what he wants or doesn't want; there will be increases.

It seems that HWSNBN has an advisor pushing ending any remaining covid-19 mitigation measures and waiting for herd immunity to appear. Sweden did this, and it hasn't really ended well. It's not clear what level of immunity would be needed to reach herd immunity, nor is it clear how many lives would be lost along the way. Some White House types have referred to this advisor as the anti-Fauci, which is not what we need right now. 

And HWSNBN is in Kenosha, Wisconsin this afternoon after having been officially asked by the governor not to come. I'll see what the news has to say about it tonight. No notifications have come via my phone, so I'm assuming nothing untoward has happened yet. I did see that HWSNBN attacked the press while on his way to Wisconsin, but what else is new? And now, lest I slip into writing, which means thinking, about the looming election, I will move on to sorting books.

The View from the Hermitage, Days 108 and 109

Yesterday was not the day I expected. The good news is that we had already postponed the birthday dinner until Friday, so the plan for a relaxing evening was not undone. I Zoom with my mother Wednesdays at 2:00. We were rudely disconnected mid-conversation when the phone started flashing "no line." No line means no Internet. Ten minutes later, it all came back, just not for long. It turned out that one of the box-like things through which the signals must passed got fried by lightning. The phone folks said we'd have phone and Internet back by this morning. That was the good news.

The bad news was that the husband had not yet taped the lecture he was to show today, nor had he uploaded the midterm the students would take prior to the lecture. Fortunately, at the outset of the home studio misadventure, older son suggested using his house in town and fiber optic connection as a backup should something go wrong. The husband packed up his computer and large monitors plus my laptop (in case he needed a spare) and went into town. I threw a peanut butter sandwich to him as he was packing. He got back about 9:30, exhausted. It looked as if all had worked, though. He said he ended up being able to do everything using my laptop.

The morning started a bit too early with a phone call form older son asking for the login code to my laptop. It was not clear the lecture had uploaded. It turned out all was okay (well, except my having been rudely awakened on one of the too-rare nights in which I did not need to get up and pee). Since we by then had phone and Internet, the husband went into town and retrieved everything he'd taken there last night.

So I did get my pancake breakfast. Younger son and his spouse-equivalent Zoomed with their own pancake breakfast, and we "partied" for two hours. Most of my gifts were spinning or weaving related since that's what I've been playing with lately. Older son emptied his "spare cat parts" container and brought me the contents in case I want to felt or spin yarn for a replica of his long-haired Maine coon cat. After telling me that he'd lend me his small "sampler" loom on which to practice things that had been giving me trouble on my larger loom, younger son gave me a brand new sampler loom. That stinker! We're doing a birthday dinner tomorrow night; older son is making the birthday cake.

We did fly the Canadian maple leaf flag at the top of the driveway yesterday. We attempted a rousing chorus of O Canada! that is better left unheard. When I was much younger, before I knew July 1 was Canada Day, I used to ask why I could not have been born on July 4 so that I got birthday fireworks every year. I've come to prefer birthday pancakes, knowing that many parks in Canada are hosting their own pancake breakfasts.

Finally on the birthday front, every year I clip from The Washington Post's horoscope the "if today is your birthday." I'm not sure how to take this year's entry:

Highly sensitive and giving, it is essential that you move out into the world to be fully successful. Once there, you are most often adored. That which you love generates a good income. I single, you can become depressed and must overcome this to let a partner know your personal feelings. If attached, marital bliss is assured as long as you can still feel emancipated. Capricorn is very protective of you.

As for moving out into the world, I'm just fine here. Yesterday's birthday added a bit to the risk factors I already have in relation to the novel coronavirus. Capricorn? That's December 22 to January 19. While I know some people born in that time frame, I would not consider myself especially close to any one of them. And a good income from that which I love? Not! That which I love to do usually involves outgo, not income.

Speaking of income, I need to find out if I'm still employed. Long story shortened: I resigned from my job in May 2019 as my mother's health and my life were basically in tatters. The boss told me to take leave for the summer and let her know in August if I wanted to come back. We're talking a part-time work-from-home job. Come August, I again said I wanted to leave. The boss asked me to at least stay on the payroll so that if anyone in the office had a question about something I'd done, they could email or call and I could get paid for the time it took to answer the question. This went on until May just passed, when I told the boss that the office had now done one complete year without me meaning that any questions should have been asked and answered. She said she wanted me to stay on through the end of the fiscal year, which was Tuesday. I have heard nothing to indicate that I have been "retired," leading me to believe I am still considered employed.

Okay, back to the current pandemic. I say "current" because there are bound to be more pandemics though I hope not in the rest of my lifetime. Of course, the current one may end up filling all the time I have left. There were more than 50,000 new covid-19 cases yesterday, and it would not surprise me to hear that there were even more today. The 100,000 new cases daily floated by Dr. Fauci sound all too possible. Speaking of Dr. Fauci, I saw a clip of the lieutenant governor of Texas slamming Dr. Fauci who supposedly has been wrong in all his predictions or specific statements. At least the governor there is rolling back some of the reopenings as are the governors of several other surging states. At least we are not surging yet, though the number of new cases creeps up a bit almost every day. The governor did revise the Phase Three order to prohibit people sitting at bars drinking. To drink alcohol, one must be at a table and consuming food as well as liquids.

Richmond, site of 33 straight days of demonstrations, took down the statue of Stonewall Jackson on Monument Avenue yesterday. It's not clear to me, or I missed it in the publicity, what will be done with the statue now. I keep thinking of Presidents Park outside Williamsburg. The park is home to 43 large (20-feet tall) busts of 43 presidents. They used to be in a park with manicured lawns and sidewalks; now they sit, seemingly abandoned, in a field. They could find a similar field and deposit all the removed Confederate statues there. For extra measure, they could add any other statuary deemed offensive, such as the Charlottesville one of Lewis and Clark standing above their guide, Sacajawea, as she could be reading the trail.

A belated Happy Canada Day and premature Happy Independence Day to all and to all a good...wait, it's not Christmas yet, is it?

It's Been Too Long

I really should try to update this blog more often. An entire year between one post and the next does not make me happy. As I go through the day, a thought here or there is followed by another thought that I should write something about the first thought. You can see how often I've gone through with that. It's mostly because somewhere, possibly folded in the emotional baggage some of us carry, is the thought that keeping a blog or journal is a waste of time. I need to work on changing that. I like to write and therefore should write even if it is just for myself.

My six-months-from-New-Year's-Day birthday means it's another new year, this time a new year of my life. According to the horoscope in today's Washington Post, here's how that year might go:

This year, optimism becomes a given in your life. You will see concrete results from this attitude change. If you are single, you have a strong personality, so you probably will need someone a little less intense for a partner. You will have several potential sweeties around you. If you are attached, this year offers many romantic moments. Aquarius teaches you how to express your feelings.

Do I have to be single to be strong? Does that mean I am not strong having been married for a third of a century? I'm also not sure how being married relates to the "several potential sweeties" angle. If I skip those thoughts and go to the next line, not passing "Go" on the way, "many romantic moments" doesn't really seem like much for a whole year. How about some excitement on a front other than the romantic one?

About those "concrete results" from being more optimistic, well, there might be something to needing to be more optimistic. My 62nd year had more than a few rough spots. Several people I know got medical diagnoses of a less-than-positive nature. The results for most have, however, been positive. While I do have pretty much the dream job (part-time, from home), I'm still adjusting to the retirement of my boss of several decades (and the only reason I went back to work when asked to). Even after more than a year, there are new things to get used to with a new boss. Even though it was the right time, saying good-bye to our canine companion Biscuit still hurts much more than a little.

And my own physical condition leaves a lot to be desired. While I feel so much better after April's knee replacement, to get there I had to give up several things I loved doing and that kept me in great physical condition. And let's not talk about the more than 15 pounds I've gained as a result. I went from being in the best physical shape I'd ever been in to being in worse shape than at any time since childhood. Would being more optimistic help here? Probably, but it's not necessarily easy. I am working steadily at getting my strength back while also dealing with knowing that more of my weight gain may have come from emotional eating rather than lack of exercise. Having lost 30-plus pounds at one other time in my life tells me that I can do it. It also tells me that it won't be easy. Note to self: Try to feel more optimistic about succeeding.

Should I offer resolutions for this new new year of my life? Would "be more optimistic" count? Would "blogging more than once a year"? Spending less time on social media and more time in creative pursuits? Keeping the house and environs neater and more organized? All the resolutions that come to mind are based on improvements, suggesting there is a lot that needs fixing. Which I know, when it come right down to it, there is.

So let's start small, with putting up another blog post before 2019. And add a photo or two next time.

If July 1 Is Your Birthday ...

This year you value your domestic life even more, if that is possible. You are aware of a need you have to be more independent and a self-starter. If you are single, you will want a meaningful relationship; do not settle for less. If you are attached, you and your sweetie emphasize your domestic life together. You might even take cooking classes together, or remodel your home. Libra might unintentionally create a lot of friction.

(from The Washington Post)

Interesting, but I'm not quite sure how to take it. Sweetie? I have never thought of the husband in such terms. Does valuing my domestic life mean I have to clean more often or better? I guess a need to be more independent and a self-starter might fit with the New Year's resolution mentioned in last night's post, tell me again I can't, but then I know that at times I am too independent. At least there's lots of food for thought here.

Another Year Counted

I've been pondering the passing of time as I think of something from my past and realize that it was 40 or more years ago. When I was a kid, 40 years seemed an eternity. I could not imagine myself 40 years later. Heck, I couldn't imagine even turning 40, but then I grew up with Jack Benny's always turning 39. Jack Benny? Talk about dating myself! Watching Mitch Miller on the black-and-white television. Listening to Andy Williams or Bobby Darin on the huge stereo console with speakers on each side and on which one could stack multiple records to be dropped and played one by one. Damn! Those things take me back, forget 40, but 55 years.

And I think I'm old when I ask if someone remembers the Caravan (Home of the Humpburger) here in Charlottesville. Or the Chinese Dragon out Fontaine Avenue Extended where a friend learned to tell the gender of an unborn child by whether the mother's face changed during pregnancy. I was abroad for my second pregnancy, but said friend nailed that older son would be just that, a son. Those things only take me back about 30 years.

If you've visited this blog before around this time of year, you've seen that with a birthday six months away from New Year's Day, I have a tendency to think I should evaluate any resolutions I made six months ago and/or make some birthday resolutions for the six months that start that day. Of course, my New Year's resolutions have fallen off in recent years. My sole resolution for 2017 was somewhat fuzzy in that it was to try to live up to the sentiment on a Spartan race t-shirt I got for Christmas: TELL ME AGAIN I CAN'T. I guess I was hoping that in 2017 I would be brave or braver, set goals or higher goals and, whatever, accomplish more or accomplish it better. I'm not sure why I might have been feeling that way, though it could well have been that I was feeling lazy about resolutions  and using the shirt was the easy way out.

As for birthday resolutions, I noted in last year's birthday blog post that I was going to keep them private. That suggests that I made at least one, but if I did, I've now forgotten it or them. That's actually a good strategy--keep them private even from myself. Or, more pessimistically, there are said to be some memory issues with aging, not that I am.

Resolutions to keep for the next six months, written down so that I can hold myself accountable? I'm in a work wellness program in which I can get $250 if I continue to eat the amount of protein I should 20 days each month and do something creative for eight hours each month. The challenge ends in December, so keeping with those could be one resolution. I'm registered to run a half marathon in November, trusting the sons who say that if I can run a ten miler as I did in March I can run three more miles and make it a half. Let's make that a second resolution. Given that these cover just six months, two seems a reasonable number.

So much forbirthday eve musings. Tomorrow, I'll get to see what the coming year holds according to The Washington Post's daily horoscope. That's sometimes good for a laugh.

Birthday Bling

I recently complimented the birthday tiara of a dear friend, The Other Jean, and look what she left for me overnight! My very own birthday tiara. Heck! I may wear it on days that aren't my birthday.

So I'm wearing a tiara and my "I'm Not Dead Yet" t-shirt from Spamalot, and more people (one) have reacted to the shirt than to the tiara. Go figure. Perhaps someone will comment on it when I'm working out at the gym. I won't wear it into the shower, but I will certainly wear it for my workout.

I always like seeing what The Washington Post's horoscope has for me in its "if today is your birthday" entry. I must remember to ask younger son for his interpretation of it when he arrives this evening. Here's the published version:

This year you have an innate sense of independence. You will have opportunities to make certain situations more to your liking. If you are single, friendship will play a significant role in the meeting or development of your next relationship. If you are attached, check in with your significant others frequently to confirm that you are on the same page. Get behind a key mutual project together, and you might be surprised by how quickly the two of you can achieve that goal. Taurus can be very stubborn.

Seems somewhat rosy, but then an entry saying, "Watch out! You're going to be victimized in the coming year." probably wouldn't fly. I guess the entry above just doesn't seem that different from what I'd normally do.

Those pesky resolutions for the coming year of my life or the rest of the calendar year? I've got a couple but I think that, as older son does, I will keep them private. That will take away the chance of my flaming out in a public forum. I'll post next year at this time or perhaps on New Year's Day how I did or am doing. If I remember to. If I make the time to type something here. (I've resolved to be a more regular blogger before, and it does not work.)

I have been treating myself today, starting with a deluxe pedicure using one of the gift certificates the husband gave me. The deluxe comes from wrapping your calves in hot towels and, later, oiling them and rubbing them with hot rocks. This is pretty darn incredible in how good it feels.

I picked the loudest, shiniest color I could find because it would go with wearing a tiara. (I used a glittery polish on my last pedicure, and you would not believe how difficult it was to remove.) The technician asked if I also wanted a manicure; I declined. Had I gotten one, I guarantee that the polish would be cracked with 10 minutes of leaving the studio if not before or on my way out the door. Manicures are not my friend.

The rest of my birthday? I'm stretching it out to two days. Younger son arrives late this evening. I'm told that he and the husband will be making me a cake. Tomorrow we're having breakfast at the place with the best pancakes I've had since our favorite pancake place closed down. The we'll go to the city market for some tomatoes. I'm getting back into canning, and tomatoes are something I've always wanted to try. In my domestically healthful fantasies, I make spaghetti sauce from scratch using all natural ingredients. I also want to do some strawberry jam. Jam implies bread, and we are now out which means the bread-making is on the agenda as well. I'm trying to limit myself to things I want to do even if they are mundane such as running errands. It is nice to run errands if one can do it at a chosen pace and change the itinerary as desired.

And now? I could balance the checkbook, but that seems more like work. The statement's not going anywhere; doing the act of balancing it can wait. Maybe I'll do the New York Times crossword. Or not. It's my birthday (the 61st one as in I am now 60), and I'll do whatever I damn well please for a day or two.

About Those Resolutions ...

Can I have a mulligan for recent resolutions such as those I made a year ago or six months ago? A do-over? I don't even want to look back and see what they were. I just know I didn't meet the ones I remember making. I came close on the "run the Charlottesville Ten Miler" one, and I did get a very special medal for running the Jean Ten Miler, but that's only one of several. Oh well (said with appropriate inflection).

Back in March, I reflected on how this has been far from the year I expected. It has since occurred to me that expecting that what I want to happen or do will happen or will get done is perhaps more than a bit conceited. Who am I to tell the deity(ies) that my will be done, not theirs? So let's just say that the year from last year's birthday and the six months from New Year's Day were not what I wanted. I certainly did not want a do-over on rotator cuff repair, especially when it appears that this one was a total tear. In terms of a positive side to the surgery, being unable to do some things I never really got back to after the first shoulder respite is making me realize how much I do want to get back to them, that I miss them more than I had thought. As before, shoulder rehab is making me slow down, but I'm not sure I want to put that forward as a good thing. Slowing down because one has to is far different from slowing down because one wants to. The biggest positive has probably been the reminder of how strong some of my friendships are. I just hope those friends know that if they ever need anything from me, to ask as freely as I may have asked them. That's what friends are for, right?

I go back and forth about whether I should do any sort of resolutions this year. Sixty is something of a milestone birthday after all. I'll potentially have to check one box down on a survey-type question of how old I am. I should be eligible for a wider range of discounts should I remember to ask about them. (I had to show my ID once to prove to the clerk I was over 55.) I don't expect I shall feel any wiser. What besides wisdom is supposed to come with growing old? Nothing immediately comes to mind. Wait! Isn't forgetfulness age-related at least stereotypically? Perhaps that's why I can't recall any other accompaniments of aging.

So, if you're waiting for some resolutions about which you can nag me throughout the coming year, they aren't coming today. I'll still be 59 tomorrow and the next day and even the day after that. Three whole days! That seems plenty of time to go back and forth a bit more.

Hello, Birthday, My Old Friend...

I'm heading to the gym for some shoulder rehab and my post-workout shower. If you show up on your birthday, they give you a coupon for a free smoothie. After that, I could, if I wanted to, pick up a free pastry at Panera and a free coffee at Starbucks before heading to the quilt store for 20 percent off my entire purchase of regularly priced items. All of those are good all month long, so I don't need to pack it all into one day.

As for the day, I'm not at all sure how to interpret The Washington Post horoscope's "if today is your birthday" item. In case you don't get or read the Post, here it is:

This year you might find yourself on the fence. If you jump off it, you can see how to merge opposing ideas by focusing on the root of the issue. There will be a push-pull in relationships. You will need to establish your boundaries and deal with issues suck as resentment and guilt. You will appreciate the process when you look at the results. If you are single, you will meet someone of importance after August. Get ready! If you are attached, you will be sharing more of yourselves with each other.

Sounds like a pretty ordinary year to me, but ordinary can be good. So can adventures, but they run more of a risk than ordinary does.

I usually spend some birthday time assessing whether I'm meeting the resolutions I made seix months ago for the birth of the new year. I looked, and I didn't really make any, which means I'm right on track to meet all of them.

For my 49th birthday and the advent of my 50th year of life, I made a list of 50 things to do. I managed to accomplish most of them. I'm honestly not sure if I could come up with a list of 60. I decided, then, to go for quality rather than quantity. A dozen things, or one per month, seemed a lot more doable in both  creation and execution. Because the first dozen I jotted down were all in the artsy-creative vein, I decided I need to expand my horizons with four things in each of three areas: Artsy-Creative, Physical, and Not Artsy-Creative nor Physical. So here they are. Making them public makes me accountable for accomplishing them or having a good reason why I didn't.

The Artsy-Creative things are all things I haven't really tried before. While I have needle-felted and felted items I knitted or crocheted (technically, this is fulling, not felting), I have never wet felted. This means starting with fleece and finishing with felt. This seems like a good year to play with that. I would like to make (bind) a decent book. The few I've done weren't really bound; the pages came from folding and there was no binding. When I reorganized my studio, I realized just how many wine corks and labels I have saved over the years. I'm going to have to do something with them. I also have a box of things I have picked up, mostly on trips. A lot of them are spoons. I kid you not, I found a spoon in the street just about everywhere we went in our 2009 adventure in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Europe. I'm thinking I should make a sculpture.

The Physical areas is where I reserve the right not to do something if my shoulder will not permit it. The two that fall into that category are doing a pull-up, just one, though more would also be nice. I'd also like to climb a rope, which can be done mostly using one's legs. Still, if doing it would be shoulder-risky, it's not gonna happen. Younger Son suggested that I climb to the tallest point in the three states in which I've lived. Granite Peak in Montana is a technical climb and carries the warning of possible death. No, thank you. The one in Kentucky, Black Mountain, is on private land and requires a special permit. Too much trouble. I'll stick with Mt. Rogers in southwest Virginia. It's supposed to be doable as a day hike. Finally, I want to run the Charlottesville Ten Miler in the spring. That should be very doable if I can manage to run through the winter without injury.

Not Artsy-Creative nor Physical things start with reading (for the third time) George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire, aka Game of Thrones. I'll probably do this late in the year, though if a release date is given for the sixth book in the series, I'll time the re-read to lead into the new book. I am almost embarrassed to say that despite being a second degree black belt in Myo Sim kendo, I've never watched Seven Samurai, Sanjuro, or Yojimbo, three classics. We actually have all of them on DVD, so I'll be watching them this year. I do like writing but do not make time for it on a regular basis. I'm going to try to put up one blog post per week and include with it a photo I've taken. Yeah, we'll see how many weeks I make. Finally, I have The Art of Zentangle, a book with various zentangle exercises. I may not manage one per week, but I will manage one for each month. You can see what a zentangle is here. I know that these last two are perilously close to the idea of Artsy-Creative, but it's my list, my rules.

And now, after a quick proofing, I'm off to the gym!

Thoughts on the Passing of Another Year

Having a birthday six months away from the start of each year means that I somewhat compulsively look at any New Year's resolutions I made for that year and consider whether I'm doing what I resolved. My resolutions of six months ago were not that specific, as seen here and here.

In terms of the first one of those, have I made some art, dreamed dangerously a time or more, and made some epic mistakes? I'd like to think so. I know I've made some epic mistakes, but who hasn't. I've definitely opened my mouth more than once and inserted my foot, at times both of them. I should perhaps try to live the sentiment I found on a friend's blog a while back: Don't make the same mistake twice or you won't have time to make them all. When it comes right down to it, a perfect life would get boring pretty quickly. I've definitely dreamed some dreams, some bigger than others and some which might be looked at askance by some people. Some might even come true. Finally, I've definitely made some art. Anyone who knows me knows that I do that as often as I can.

In terms of the second one, have I lived the life I imagined? I have, at least in some respects, though the life I imagined has been a different one at different points in that life. As I sat in the husband's arms in an underground bar in Coober Pedy, South Australia, in May, listening to oldies and sipping some local brews, it occurred to me that the life I'm living is probably better than any I have imagined along the way. It was one of those transcendent moments where time almost seemed to stand still and all was right with my world.

My brother turned 60 a month ago and has pointed out that my turn is coming in two years. He lives in Maine, so he marked his 60th by climbing Mt. Katahdin at the northern end of the Appalachian Trail. I suppose I shall have to give thought to how I might mark mine. As for my 58th tomorrow, I have no real plans. There will be birthday push-ups at SEAL Team PT, more than some people might like. I do not expect much hoopla at home given that younger son is coming down on the weekend meaning hoopla may arise then. Older son has suggested that I might want to make a honeyed apple pie in place of a birthday cake given that he is doing a nutrition challenge in which he cannot eat any processed sugar. I think what he meant to say is that if I tell him, his brother, or the husband how to make one, then one of them will make it. I can draw the line at baking my own birthday treat, can't I?

Is it Pronounced "pica-key" or "pie-cakey"?

Younger son has, for the last several years requested a pie baked inside of a cake for his birthday. He asked for it again this year, but I decided to mix things up and see if I could bake a cake inside a pie. Indeed, I could, and younger son thought it actually turned out better than the various capiekes (pronounced cah-pikes) have. The photos below are from the pilot piecakee that I did two weeks before the real one, which did not look too much different from the one shown here.

That's just a pie, you might be thinking, but not if you look at its inside. 

If you want to make one of these, it does help to have a (very) deep dish pie pan. Step one is, obviously, making a pastry crust and placing it in that (very) deep dish pie pan. I could show you a photo of that, but (1) you probably already know what that would look like and (2) I forgot to take any photos until I got to the step of adding the upper pie filling.

That's a lower pie crust topped with cherry pie filling, chocolate cake batter, and a second layer of cherry pie filling. Next is adding the top crust. I made this easy on myself and used a cake mix and canned pie filling. For the pilot, I only used one can of cherry filling, which meant that I didn't have enough for the whole area. I remedied that in the final, birthday version.

Note that the top of the unbaked crust seems a bit lower than the top crust in the above photo showing it post-baking. Cake batter always rises--the finished cake is higher in the pan than the batter alone was--and that's what happens here as well. In terms of temperature and time, I baked it much as I would a pie. The first 15 minutes were done at 425 F; the last 30 to 40 minutes was done at 350 F. If you're still thinking that it might not work, here's a close-up of a slice.

Nice browned, flaky pie crust, cherry filling, and normal looking chocolate cake. Now if I could only find a way to work the icing in.