March 26, 2020 Thursday

New York Times 3/26/20

We are nearing the end of our second week in self-quarantine, relative shut down (the kids came home from school March 13) and this morning we woke as all our phones went off to remind us that Colorado went into Stay at Home status at 8 am.

It's another week that I opened my morning listening to Governor Cuomo rather than hear the lies spewed by Trump.

This is the first week (last was Spring Break) when I tried to get the twins (first grade) to do some school work with the German and myself tried to actually get our work done. Thank heavens we can both work remotely. It is impossible. And having the twins in separate classes and therefore separate requirements, makes it even worse. I think we may need to start doing shifts when one watches the twis and guides and the other works.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/25/opinion/coronavirus-trump-reopen-america.html

Any person who can move a slider should be able to see how important it is to extend the stay at home and federalize it. But the Narcissist in chief doesn't care.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/26/world/coronavirus-news.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage&fbclid=IwAR05KDDBs8i6bpSQRn6pRna1XFGeOXFQfvzOQvB7FU-7PvZxvu1yoq_1V9Q#link-8bbde61

We now have more cases than any place else in the world. And if it had been up to Trump it would have been far worse. Thank goodness the governors have shut states down.

My neighbors, who went to Florida for spring break, are socializing with other neighbors. I can do no more than what I am doing: require my children to socially isolate, socially isolate myself, and take two walks a day for sanity and health. If we would all just shut it down for three weeks, if we had done this two weeks ago in a hard-line way, how many lives would be, would have been saved?

Covid-19 --- the USA wakes up

School went into Spring Break March 13 and it went into break stating that we would have a week of distance learning after break (both the twins were sent home with Chromebooks). This weekend the CDC suggested six to eight weeks of social distancing, which was what I had anticipated: I'll be surprised if we go back into session before the end of the year.

It's been a very long time...

Since the last joyous post with our new Things 3 and 4, a lot has happened.

We lost my Dad to cancer. We had just the year with him and that was too short but I'm glad we came. It took me three years to recover enough to do some grief therapy with hospice and it has been six years and a bit that his place has been empty in my life.

We moved to a suburb of Denver.

I woke up this morning after dreaming about a call with my Dad. We had told each other how we missed each other and loved each other. Then the call was cut off. I woke up reaching to call him back and the I realized he was not at the other end of my phone and the pain was very sharp. It's been at least a year since this has happened. It was so very sweet and then so very painful.

I couldn't go back to sleep- didn't want to- and started to read. I read an article discussing how people are reading books to deal with corona virus anxiety, and it mentioned Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter. I'd never read it, but the description was intriguing. It's the semi-autobiographical story of Katherine Anne Porter's survival of the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic. I won't give any more of the story away, but it struck home. The story noted that this is the only written account of a survivor and that led me to a journal link which discussed trauma memory and recovery of great tragic events. There were no books written about the great flu pandemic, which killed at least 39 million people, until the 1980s. The pain and loss and trauma were subsumed in winning The Great War and the world tried to forget.

All around fascinating and hit me as we consider how to handle covid-19 and what I believe will be another great pandemic.

E said that the dream was because I so was used to calling my Dad whenever I was worried or concerned and needed to talk to someone and of course he is right.

I posted on FB but then thought- maybe I need to start thinking a little more longform. We are trying to decide how to handle the next few weeks.

Books Read in December 2015 and January 2016:

Books Read December 2015 and January 2016:

1. All-of-a-Kind Family
2. More All-of-a-Kind Family(1954)(Mary Stevens illus)
3. All-of-a-Kind Family Uptown (1958) (Mary Stevens illus)
4. All-of-a-Kind Family Downtown (1972) (Beth and Joe Krush illus) by Sydney Taylor: 

I read one or two of these when I was younger, of course, as I think all Jewish children do (or perhaps only those of my generation?). I wonder how many children of other backgrounds, or not from NY, did and still do?

I'm back!

The blog was hijacked by a runaway gadget and I just never got the time together to figure out how to get it fixed.

But with Twin 1 down with a fever I took the nap time to apply a custom domain, reach out to Blogger and to Google and get into the missing blog, then go ahead and tweak it until it worked. I've missed using the blog as both an extended diary (with pictures) and a reading reminder so I'm glad to be back in (and also glad to not be calling my mother for her pancake recipe because I couldn't remember an ingredient!). I also miss the virtual friends I used to talk to on here.

Lots has happened, some good and some sad, and I'll try to catch up and say hello this coming month.

A day in Upstate NY...

Forecast for Today

Updated: Jan 3, 6:45pm EST

Right Now -6°F FEELS LIKE -6° Clear, Bitterly cold.

Earlier Today 4° HIGH AT 2:05 PM Sunny

Earlier Today 4° HIGH AT 2:05 PM Sunny

Tonight -12° LOW Clear

Past 48 Hours Snow: 12.0 in (est.)

What I have been reading through August 2013

1. The Mystery Woman by Amanda Quick(2013)(Library): Regency paranormal romance:-).
2. The Edge of Nowhere by Elizabeth George (2012-Library):
3. The Sound of Broken Glass by Deborah Crombie (2013-Library):
4. The Secret of the Sirens by Julia Golding (2007-Library):
5. The Gorgon's Gaze by Julia Golding (2007-Library):
6. Mines of the Minotaur by Julia Golding (2007-Library):
7. The Chimera's Curse by Julia Golding(2007-Library):
8. Frozen Heat by "Richard Castle"(2012-Library):
9. Iced by Karen Marie Moning (2012-Library): (A Dani O'Malley Novel)- In the world of the Fever series, but following O'Malley rather than Mac, a 14 year old "superhero".
10. Bliss by Kathryn Littlewood (2013-Library):
11. A Dash of Magic- A Bliss novel by Kathryn Littlewood (2013-Library):

A very quick update

It's been a long time since I checked in and there are very many blog posts waiting to be written, photos to be posted, and books to be reviewed.

But just to dip my toes back in the water, I thought I'd post a quick update on what has happened since the end of November.

I have read some books (though not many recently), and might actually post a combined review sometime but the biggest news of course is this:

That and moving back to the US, of course. More to follow (and probably be backdated to the correct times).

What I am reading: November 2012 and thoughts on e-books

So far I have packed just on 24 boxes of books while putting about 164 out to be taken by passer-bys. I probable have only a few more boxes to pack (of books!) and about 20-30 more books to give away. We have also packed 4 boxes of clothes, which 1. tells you how many clothes we have in comparison to printed material and 2. that we actually will need to take clothes in suitcases with us for the 7-10 weeks that it will take our container to follow us.

One might think that I would be reading a lot while I pack books away, and to a certain extent I have been. But mostly, I have been reading on my reader,  A new Lois McMaster Bujold came out and after reading it, I realized that when I bought the hardback copy of Cryoburn from Baen, it inclued a CD with a large majority of her Vorkosigan books on it. So I reread them all. Then I bought one that wasn't on the compilation and reread it. Then I reread Captain Vorpatril's Alliance and then I reread Cryoburn.

This is what I mean by saying that when I buy a hardcover, I should get an e-copy included. When I bought that HB of Cryoburn, I already owned everything that Bujold had written. But all those books were (and are) in storage. The HB cost the equivalent of buying 5 of those books in e-form (Baen prices its non-DRMed books at a very reasonable $6/copy when it is out of e-ARC form). So rather than waiting until this new book came out in PB, I went ahead and bought it in HC and Baen included a mass of interesting other material (including speeches given, travel commentary, and previous books in the series). They weren't all included, and so when I went on this reading jag I re-purchased one and may go ahead and purchase another and now they have even more incremental income.
And while I was there, I bought a few monthly bundles, and thus some books I wasn't interested in (whose authors I will now give a try) because at $18 for the monthly bundle, if three of the books intrigue me, taking a gamble on the others that I get for free is well worth it (it's a great upsell). And this is what publishers should be doing, rather than setting their prices above a PB price, not ever re-adjusting prices (as the books age and the PB comes out) and basically making it cheaper and easier for me to buy the physical book when, by heavens, I (and my poor beleaguered spouse) want to stop buying the majority of non-specialized (cookbooks, illustrated books, pop up books, children's books) in physical form.

So, here is my November reading jag:

1.  Steel's Edge (Nov 27, 2012)by Ilona Andrews: the last of her Edge series and a good read. Now waiting for her next Kate Daniels book.
2. Captain Vorpatril's Alliance  (Nov 6, 2012)by Lois McMaster Bujold:Started off my reading jag and winds up Ivan Vorpatril's stories. Comes before Cryoburn in internal chronology.
3. Cordelia's Honor (1999): Shards of Honor and Barrayar (Hugo winner).
4. Young Miles (2003):  previously published in parts as The Warrior's Apprentice, The Mountains of Mourning, and The Vor Game.
5.  Miles Errant (2002): Originally published as Borders of Infinity, Brothers in Arms, and Mirror Dance.
6.  Miles, Mystery and Mayhem (2003): previously published in parts as Cetaganda, Ethan of Athos, and Labyrinth. This is the first unified edition.
7. Memory (1997): Miles sabotages himself out of his Naismith life. Is it possible to find meaning afterward.
8. Miles in Love (2008):  Two complete novels and a short novel in one large volume: Komarr, A Civil Campaign and Winterfair Gifts— which I hadn't read before.
9. Miles, Mutants and Microbes (2008): Two complete novels and a short novel in one large volume: Falling Free, Labyrinth, Diplomatic Immunity.
10. Cryoburn (Sept 27, 2011): The culmination of the story arch that started before Miles' birth as Aral Vorkosigan's story comes to an end. I was so sorry to see the end of the Vorkosigan saga, so glad to see that there would be another, and dearly hope that we may see another focussing on Miles and his young family and extended family.
    

Items for sale in Berlin...

For anyone who might be interested:

Highlights are the Dyson, the Kitchen-Aid, Gas Grill, and full size/double Simmons Beautyrest mattress and box-spring.

I will be adding more pages as I go, if you go to home: http://leavingberlinnow.blogspot.de
and look through the "Pages" drop down menu you will see all the pages as I add them and update what's available (and can see what our apartment looked like:-).)

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8176108087133654163#editor/target=page;pageID=2756288861197276486

http://leavingberlinnow.blogspot.de/p/kitchenaid-digital-photo-frame.html

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