dianora

The COVID-19 crisis is going to be with us for quite a while yet. Listening to Quirks and Quarks today with Bob McDonald [1] talking to epidemiologist Ashleigh Tuite, on 'flattening the curve'. Unfortunately the current model shows that even if we can flatten the curve in the short term and then decide we can 'let up' on the restrictions the virus has a good chance of making a strong recovery. They only looked at the next two years hence we have a possibility of a good long time before we will have a vaccine and an effective treatment to eradicate this virus. Those of my generation dodged the Polio epidemic that hit our parent's generation with people still in iron lungs at least in 2017 [2]. We have had it good. No Polio to worry about, No Scarlet fever (which killed an aunt of my partner)

So we are effectively in prison. Sure we can go for walks. We aren't as regimented as an actual prison. But to hug our grandchildren or even our children? It's just not safe in these days of physical social distancing. Either we catch the virus or we endanger our children or grandchildren. Let's hope Science comes up with some good answers quicker than 2 years.

1.https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/covid-19-can-we-control-the-pandemic-and-move-from-flattening-the-curve-to-riding-the-wave-1.5512562
2. https://www.newser.com/story/251950/meet-the-last-3-people-still-using-an-iron-lung.html

Current Mood: depressed

How are people with young children managing now that they have to keep them at home? How do they tell their children no they cannot go play with their young friends anymore for a few months? How do they manage grocery shopping with the need for physical distancing? It goes on and on. I worry about all these things with my daughter and her three children primarily of course but there are so many others.

Current Mood: worried

It's funny how our minds work. Or at least my mind. Corvidae is a family of birds that includes the crow. COVID is Coronavirus disease.I've known about Corvids (crows, bluejays etc.) for a long time but COVID is the new term for me, hence every single time I start writing COVID-19 I almost invariably "correct it" by writing CORVID-19. It's silly and embarrassing. Nineteen crows? Actually I'd prefer nineteen bluejays.

Current Mood: amused

Supposedly scientists are moving away from the term 'social distancing' to 'physical distancing' but I bet the PR departments figured social distancing sounded nicer than physical distancing in the first place. go figure. It's not social distancing if you can still use the phone to talk to friend.

We have tons of food in tins, dry food, frozen but we are running rapidly out of fresh vegetables and fruits. It's leading to new taste experiences. Instead of the TV show 'fridge wars' where cooks go into random fridges we are having a personal 'fridge war' competition going on at home. No brie in the house? But we still have some feta? Why not!? We've also discovered the beauty of simple curries and stir fry.

Losing a pet is hard for everyone but Tony's death hit me pretty hard. I first met Tony when he was still one of my mother's cats. He was standoffish, very much unlike my mother's female cat who was and still is very affectionate. Perhaps that's what I liked about Tony. His aloofness. He was much more neurotic a cat than Jesssie, the other cat, my mom treated Tony with more yelling than Jessie.

When my mother died we adopted the pair of them. Tony and Jessie. Tony was always harder to approach, very much more frightened than Jessie; even hissing at me when we came to bring them to their new home. It took Tony much longer to adopt us than it did for Jessie, but his purr and affection when he finally did adopt us was no less welcome. One night he simply jumped up on the bed and
starting purring. Sure, he just wanted his breakfast but we loved it anyway.

I admit I spoiled him rotten. He would look up at me with those brown eyes (They weren't actually brown) and ask me with a little meep for a treat and yes, he had me trained to give him a treat. Sometimes he would put his paw on my knee and ask for more. Did I have any resistance to his pleas? Nope. He was a spoiled rotten little boy.

He and Nanook our much younger calico were great playmates. He'd chase her, she'd chase him back; Sometimes even in the day time rather than the wee hours of the night. He was a jumper and
killed the red dot many times on the wall and floor.

He'd come over and rub his face on my laptop and allow me to start stroking his head. Sometimes. It always had to be his idea, unlike Jessie. Then he'd tentatively put a paw on my stomach
think about it, then settle on my tummy to be stroked while he purred.

We knew for a long time that he had a dodgy heart. What is better for a pet? Especially an older animal? Should we have allowed the heart specialists to test him in the vet hospital for a week?
Surgery? At 13 years old? No. That's selfish. It's hard to talk to a cat and ask. We were warned that he could simply drop dead of a heart attack but what happened instead was aortic thromboembolism. We wondered where he was for breakfast and finally heard him in the
basement crying as both his rear legs had gone limp. A blood clot. I was hopeful something could be done, perhaps a week of waiting and some meds to treat. Our hopes were dashed by the vet, it was time to let him go.

Maybe what made it much harder was losing Tony the same month my mother had died (April) two years ago. A link lost to my mother. He was a great cat.

Current Mood: sad

I have never liked FaceBook. The idea that a company is going to set up a service for the benefit and well being of mankind is the stuff of acid trips. They want your life. They want you to tell them all about you so they can sell you to the highest bidder. I have hated the idea so much I have referred to them as “Fecesbook” privately and amongst friends. I bet they trawl the net looking for people to sue. I'll keep my ears open for the black helicopters and report back.

In any case, I was finally pressured into joining FB after my mother's death a few years ago. “It will be easier to co-ordinate details of the estate!” my sisters said. Ok ok. An added incentive was the local volunteer group I help needed help with social media. If I *have* to be monitoring FB I might as well post useful stuff to it eh? My profile is bare bones, as little as FB would let me get away with. I ignore their entreaties to have me fill out my profile more. *grumble*

I also ignore their ads, but I had a moment of weakness. I was on the lookout for this one *thing* anyway. It made no difference to me the company was nationwide and this particular ad was from Barrie Ontario. So I clicked. Oddly now I get ads for everything in Barrie Ontario. Everything from new stores opening there to car dealership. It's great! Perhaps I should move to Barrie.

blogcutter and I went to the National Art gallery and managed to see three exhibitions.
The Jack Bush one http://www.gallery.ca/en/see/exhibitions/current/details/jack-bush-8058 was major. It was amusing to see his commercial art used on an old Chatelaine magazine, a comic book about a kids visit to the hospital and three Molson beer ads.

We also took in the Escher exhibit http://www.gallery.ca/en/see/exhibitions/current/details/m-c-escher-the-mathemagician-8228 Most of the major pieces here were ones I have already seen but it was nice to see the progression from the simple more realistic pieces to the crazy highly mathematical pieces. This exhibit is a must see.

The Janet Cardiff "40 part motet" is back. http://www.gallery.ca/en/see/exhibitions/current/details/janet-cardiff-forty-part-motet-6857 I loved this piece the first time and we got to see and hear it one more time. I'm still amused I did not know the "Spem Alium" was popular because of "Fifty shades of grey".

Finally we walked up to the Saudi Arabia embassy and helped in the protest of the flogging of Raif Badawi. https://www.flickr.com/photos/cfi_ottawa/sets/72157650249147616/

Current Mood: tired

It was lovely to see our daughter two Sunday's ago Oct. 20 http://www.flickr.com/photos/dyanora/10590766053/in/set-72157637153344476 singing at this event http://www.flickr.com/photos/dyanora/sets/72157637153344476/ one in a series of http://dustyowl.com/whatsnew.htm

Oscar made friends with the woman behind the bar and I enjoyed the poetry though it got very warm in the pub.

From time to time I make a batch of penne with a homemade sauce involving a bit of brie cheese. We had bought some rather runny brie from the grocery store for this purpose as it had been marked down. I'll just say that it was a little too runny. Wednesday night and Thursday were write offs for me at least. I don't even want to think of listeria. Oops. I did say it. My reading shows soft cheese like this is very susceptible to the word I will not mention again, and I now know what to look for. Fortunately we were able to go to our Saturday night ottawabachchoir.com performance so we are definitely on the mend. In future, we will not be buying any marked down brie. Thanks but no thanks eh?

Current Mood: drained

My grandfather (Wilfred Bruce) wrote a book on 'The Bruce Family, of Kitley township/Leeds country Ontario 1823-1974'. All of his grandchildren got a copy when we were young, and at the time I really didn't know or care much about family history. I remember being bored out of my mind at family reunions for example. A recent visit with my mother brought back some of the history as she told me about our childhood visits to relatives in the Toledo Ontario (Near Smith falls) area. So out of newly sparked curiosity I had a look on the web, a tool my grandfather did not have available to him when he wrote the book, and have found bits and pieces of the history mentioned in our family history book.

Right here http://www.canadianheadstones.com/on/view.php?id=126822 I found an online photo of the grave site of the first Bruce of my line. Robert Bruce, 1788-1856 came over from 'London Derry' (As my grandfather put it) Ireland probably in 1823.

I also found Mary Bruce (nee Kennedy) http://canadianheadstones.com/on/view.php?id=126820 grave site. My grandfather has a correction in his Errata sheet for her death, it was indeed 1858. It's also the same design on headstone.

I also found a date match for one of his daughters, Mary Brown (nee Bruce).

http://www.canadianheadstones.com/on/view.php?id=126268

Current Location: Toledo Ontario from the Web

Oh dear. I finally found out why the Tallis piece we heard at the museum was so popular.
HAH!
I must not be up on current popular culture!

Current Mood: amused

We babysat our grandson last Friday night. He can be tiring!

I also had a chance to hold my new granddaughter for a few minutes before we were left to fend with Oscar. It was nice to hold her and rock a bye baby to calm her down. She is definitely looking much bigger than she was in the hospital.

We received our membership card for three museums in the mail yesterday. The membership card allows us into the Agriculture museum, the Aviation and space museum and finally the Science and Technology museum. Yesterday we decided to visit the aviation museum since it had been many years for both of us. The museum was simply overwhelming and entertaining. We can picture a younger grandchild being fascinated with the museum as well. In any case I took quite a few photos of the aircraft which I will have to put up on a website.
In our way back from the museum we found ourselves going right by the NGC, so we had one last visit to the 40 part motet. We have a membership after all. We'll try to get into the Van Gogh exhibit one last time on Monday. It's not a big deal as we have already seen it once.

I blogged about the Tallis exhibit yesterday in the Rideau chapel. We went again to see and listen to it today. This time I took more time to listen to individual voices as was recorded. It is fun to catch a glimpse into the lives of individual singers. Yes, their small talk was recorded as they stood there before they started singing. The conductor going on about "Let's give it a good go!" Then away they went. Again. Go run and see it.

If you are in Ottawa run, don't walk to the Gallery and listen to this work in the Rideau Chapel.
http://www.gallery.ca/en/see/exhibitions/current/details/janet-cardiff-forty-part-motet-3132 It is over August 26, as I said, run don't walk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybQdoab92tw

We walked into the Chapel during Chamber Fest not knowing the exhibit was on. When the music started, we could not leave until it was done. It is simply gorgeous. You can walk up to each speaker if you want and hear individual singers in the 40 member choirs. It is an 8 choir piece with 5 members per choir, look at the score. http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/images/5/55/Tallis_Spem_in_alium_full_score_PML.pdf

Current Location: Ottawa
Current Music: Tallis Spem in alium

I seem to have started going to Ad Astra again, at least for the second time in two years, after a hiatus of some years. This year did not seem quite as dynamic as last years, but it was also a new hotel. I loved the hotel, lots of exhibit space, free wifi (yay) and free parking. What I did not like was it was in Markham a good distance from downtown, and my own sister. That's the
price to be paid for free parking and wifi in the GTA. A downtown location would have meant it would be an easy walk from Union station, but very likely would have had to set up my own Internet or pay through the nose for hotel services.

I was happy to see a younger crowd gradually taking over from us old fogies, Toronto is doing something right. I noted the retired (Gord) masquerade MC being hassled in the masquerade crowd by the new MC's. I also spent a few moments talking to Lloyd Penny, sans Hawaiian T shirt, about his retirement from Ad Astra, how SciFi groups in Toronto were doing and generally catching up with him. I also saw few others from the Ottawa area, we are an elderly and staid bunch aren't we! I did talk to Molly Moo (Cindy Ufholz) of early Apaplexy fame over lunch. Unfortunately, I had spied
'fingers' in the restaurant but he had left before I managed to introduce the two.

Steam punk is still a recurring theme, many hall costumes utilising goggles, pith helmets, Victorian dress, and, rather complicated looking 'weapons'. The dealers room was somewhat complicated. As this was a new hotel, there was a miscommunication between the CONCOM and the hotel, (isn't there always though?) and the room sizes quoted weren't what they really had. Some dealers ended up scattered through the hallways. I loved the small number of panels I did manage to make. I have been wanting to learn a bit of book binding and ended up making a very simple book at one panel/workshop. I found the masquerade this year had less meat to it than last years, the audience seemed small to me as well compared to last years. I also found the room parties were not as numerous, at least on Saturday night. It's quite possible high gas prices impacted this years Con. That might make it a good idea to reconsider a downtown venue again.

When I resurrected this blog from LJ, I thought perhaps I should update it a bit more often. It seems I have failed, so far anyway.

In any case, what have I been up to?

Managing my mother: My mother had a TIA (Transient ischemic attack or grossly simplified a mini stroke) months ago. I have been having to take her into the hospital or for doctor trips, since I am the only one with some free time during the day and in Ottawa. This has had the upside of some reconciliation with my mother. It has had the down side of making some days incredibly long.

Concert 1: I managed to make a live concert of I Furiosi (http://www.ifuriosi.com/) As I just happened to be in Toronto on the Friday night of April 13 2012. Conveniently. (More on this later)

Concert 2: We were at a rather nice concert of Ottawa Baroque last night (Saturday April 21 2012), with a guest artist from Norway, Liv Nordskog. (http://www.ottawabaroque.ca/english/concerts_en.html) Very nice singing and a great performance by this quartet as usual.

Being (not) geeky: I know, I know. It's a silly schtick I have been having for some number of years, but it serves to remind myself and others I have an incredible number of interests, not just computers.

non geeky part 1: In any case I built myself a superhet from scratch. If you don't know what that is, you can ignore the rest of this comment. No biggy eh? http://www.db.net/~db/superhetview1.jpg Yes, it's now in a box. Yes, it works. I only managed to win the Peoples choice award for it at homebrew night. (http://www.oarc.net) I get the keep the award though. That's something.

non geeky part 2: I have been working on a *maker* type website for amateur radio. It has been slowly coming together, see *non geeky part 1* for why it has been slow.

non geeky part 3: I went to Ad Astra last weekend (April 13,14 and 15) http://www.ad-astra.org/

I did a review of the Ad Astra convention for Apaplexy (http://www.apaplexy.org) I'll copy it here in a later blog post.

P.S.
Oh, I forgot to mention the time I had to spend writing my latest Apaplexy, didn't I!

I imported what I had on LJ last night, this morning I took some time to fix links on the older entries. and just delete posts which had no links. That will teach me good and proper not to do cross site links unless it is my site. Anyway, I've done a rough first pass, still dead looking links back around 2004 or so. I suppose I could have left the dead posts as place holders, but they are still there on LJ.

I see the last posting I did was on LJ in 2007. It has been a while eh?
I doubt I will be very active here either, but I figured I might as well move my LJ here.

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dianora

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