Monthly Archives: May 2022

Quatro Amigas

Things

I remember when I desperately wanted a TV in the bedroom. People on TV shows had them, some people I knew had televisions in their bedrooms, but it wasn’t until I was pregnant with Andrew and on bed rest that we put a TV in the bedroom. It was a tiny TV — maybe 13 inches, maybe a little bigger. It sat on a dresser on the wall opposite the bed. I probably had to squint to see anything — but at least it kept me entertained while incubating the baby to full term.

After that, we didn’t have a TV in the bedroom again for a few more years. I don’t even remember the first one, but it was probably moved to the bedroom after upgrading to a larger set in the family room. Since then we’ve always had one at the end of the bed. In recent years we’ve rarely used the bedroom TV. We always watched TV in the family room and had our phones or tablets for bedtime entertainment. I’ve made noises about getting rid of the bedroom TV, but Dean is not ready. We don’t get cable upstairs anymore — but we do have dongles that bring us whatever we want to watch except broadcast TV on the bedroom TV.

Today as I was tidying my attic study I came across a woven piece of art that our friends Sandy and Arieh gave us once after returning from a visit to Arieh’s home in Santiago, Chile. We kept meaning to hang it up, but never got around to it. We draped it over the back of a futon for a while, but various cat claws pulled out some fibers and thread. I’ve moved this piece of art from one storage area to another for the past decade or two and while I like it, I was tired of moving it.

Back to the TV — having a huge black void staring at you when you fall asleep and wake up can be depressing, especially since we barely use it. As I walked past it carrying the textile art I had an idea. Not an original idea since our friend Tal did this 35 years ago when he first got a Mackintosh computer. He didn’t like the black screen, so covered it with a colorful batik cloth when he was not using it. I hung the textile artwork over the TV — it fit perfectly. There are even little hooks behind the TV on the top to keep it in place.

I keep smiling when I look at the TV now — something I have not done for as long as I can remember. And now I can really see the artwork, it’s really nice!

The Case of the Mysterious Musician

Musings

Here’s a mystery. Not a huge important one, but something that has me wondering. The photo below was among my mom’s things. At this point I have no idea where it actually came from — Grandma Green, maybe.

Mysterious Musician

Someone in my mom’s family seemed to adore Ray as indicated by the hearts over his shoulders. Ray played both the saxophone and is that a clarinet at his feet?

At first I thought Ray was a famous musician and this was a promotional photo, but the more I look at the photo I think it was just something someone snapped at home. The doily in the bottom corner of the room, just behind his chair, seems less than professional. In addition the lamps, especially the one on the left, just showing on the screen, seem odd for a promo shot. Also, the original photo is tiny — the size of annual high school photos you handed out to friends.

I cannot really tell when this was taken. Certainly before the 1960s I think. I think a clue is the foldable metal music stand. Professor Google is not very helpful when I ask about the history of music stands.

My next task for this mystery is to check my mom’s yearbook for orchestra members who played the sax and clarinet.

Stay tuned!

A Quiet but Not Uneventful Vacation

Birds, health, Life

We were supposed to go to New Mexico the first week of May. Dean had a talk at the University of New Mexico and we were going to make a week of it — exploring Albuquerque, then heading to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge before visiting my childhood friend, Stephanie in Silver City (where Dan Bern also lives).

Well, New Mexico didn’t happen because they decided to make Dean’s talk virtual and he had reasons to stay in the DC area for that week. He still wanted to get away and we settled on going to Cape May, New Jersey instead. I booked a house at Cape May Point — away from the hustle and bustle of the actual town of Cape May and walking distance to the bird observatory.

We arrived at the cabin we rented Saturday evening, followed soon after by Andrew and Alex. We dined at a vegan/local seafood restaurant that night and I’d planned on having someone (not me) cook breakfast (I had the ingredients all ready to go). When I realized that the directions were missing (turns out they were not missing) I thought I’d cook breakfast anyway. Dean took off to check out the beach and I started prepping — the first thing was to zest the lemon. Unfortunately there was no zester in the house so I peeled the lemon and was in the process of mincing the peel (with a very sharp knife I’d brought from home) when I sliced through the first section of my pinky on my left hand. I swore loudly and Andrew, who’d just gotten up, rushed to me and asked, “Cut or burn?” I said, “Cut — and it’s bad” while I grabbed for a paper towel to catch the blood. Alex must have heard the commotion and came out to see what was going on. She calmly wrapped my finger in gauze that Andrew found in the bathroom and agreed with me that I’d need stitches. We had to wait until 8:30 to go to the local urgent care facility.

By the time we left for the urgent care facility, Dean had gotten back from his walk, but Andrew had already written a note.

At the urgent care place a nurse practitioner who resembled Tony Soprano more than Nurse Jackie sewed me up. I don’t think he did that good of a job, but what do I know?

We had a much better breakfast of delicious bagels than we would have if we’d cooked the pancakes I’d planed. After breakfast we did some shopping, then bid Andrew and Alex farewell back at the cabin.

Dean was really tired and took a nap before making dinner. He was also stuffed up and complained of a sore throat. Later that evening Alex called to say that she’d been exposed to Covid at school but tested negative that night.

The next day Andrew informed us that Alex tested positive for Covid. Dean slept longer than he’d slept in years so used one of the antigen tests I brought from home — it was negative. I thought I would wait until Thursday morning to test again.

On Tuesday Clare called to tell us she might not be able to move into the new rental she and Pete were scheduled to move to on May 28 because it was still a shambles. (Luckily this was all resolved on Saturday when the landlord actually saw the place). It was worrying that she might be temporally houseless.

So with the possibility of developing Covid and Clare’s news, we were understandably a little anxious. I was grumpy, fulling expecting that I would either get whatever Dean had or Covid or both! We both tested negative for Covid on Thursday morning. I still need to test again to be sure, but I have no symptoms — nor any symptoms of Dean’s nasty cold.

Maybe it was good that the weather was lousy — it made sticking around in the cabin less painful.

That said, we did to a few things…