Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

cattitude, adrian_turtle, and I visited with nineweaving this afternoon. We sat on a patio drinking Burdick's chocolate (hot for Adrian, iced for the rest of us) and talking. I had a very good time, and Nine and I agreed to do this again soon, or at least not wait a year. I had last seen her in spring 2021, when we were vaccinated and a lot of other people weren't yet.

I suggested getting together a few weeks ago, when Greer decided it wasn't safe enough for her to go to Montreal for Scintillation next month. I already knew that her and my risk tolerances differ slightly—in particular, I'm willing to ride uncrowded buses and trains when the covid numbers are low, and she's not. So, we were in Harvard Square, which is walking distance from her place and near the buses from Arlington and Belmont.

It was a wide-ranging conversation, including eyeglasses and theatre and movies, and visiting very old buildings, and a bit about our respective pandemic precautions.

When we sat down, Nine reached into her bag and gave me the flashlight that I had lent her at a convention in 2019. I'd lent it to her because there was a construction trench near where she was staying, and I carry a flashlight in my daypack just in case I need it, which happens rarely but unpredictably.

I’m sitting in a nearly empty airport concourse, with two hours before they board my flight.

There was no wait at security or US customs, just staff waiting for travelers. Most of three concessions in the US departure concours are closed, and lunch may be a Starbucks sandwich.

The Canadian border is now open to Americans, and the US has been admitting Canadians by air for at least a year, but few people are traveling today.

This isn’t a problem, exactly, but I want expecting it, or I wouldn’t have allowed so much time for travel this morning.

I probably wouldn’t be flying from Montreal to the US now if I didn’t live there, given the respective vaccination rates and case numbers.

rysmiel and I went to Juliet & chocolat this evening, for savory crepes and chocolate desserts. The Quebec vaccine passport rules came into effect yesterday, so I showed the host the picture of my vaccine card on my phone. She looked at it, said “oui,” and then started trying to scan rysmiel’s vaccine QR code from a paper printout, which took several tries, but it worked. We had a fine dinner, and a buckwheat crepe with mushrooms and bacon feels like a step toward normalcy.

I am also impressed at the extent to which Montrealers are maintaining social distance outdoors, on line for the bus and when waiting for traffic lights to change.

A bus ad I saw this evening promoted vaccination with “we can all help grandparents hug their grandkids again.”

cattitude and I just had sushi for the first time in 16 months, having decided that (at least this week) in this part of Massachusetts, I was willing to eat indoors.

It wasn't astounding sushi, but it was sushi, and reasonably good, and hey, raw fish! nori! And then we went to the farmers market, so I have raspberries and peaches and lettuce and cherry tomatoes, and bread and local honey. (Genki-ya, in Davis Square.)

Now I am home, and glad to be in an air conditioned room. (Weather Underground says the air quality here is "155: unhealthy," but the weather app on my iPhone says "70: moderate." I wore a mask indoors and part of the time I was outdoors, and the air seemed OK.)

Tomorrow will be a day to stay close to home and not over-exert myself, because I am trying to be cautious after being sick for several weeks, including a relapse or two.

adrian_turtle, cattitude, and I had lunch at (outside) a barbecue place today. I had hopes of sushi, but the tables I thought I'd seen in front of the sushi place turned out to belong to the restaurant next door.

I spent a couple of hours proofreading a client's statements in support of her application for tenure. This is someone whose book I edited last year; she emailed last week to ask if I was available this week, and I said yes.

I felt oddly sleepy after the first piece of proofreading, so I took a break. Cattitude and I played Scrabble, after which I started feeling more focused, and went back to work.

My peacock hoodie arrived today: this was a custom order, from the person who made my moon-and-cats hoodie, which I've been practically living in for the past several months. This one is bright and colorful and gorgeous. Having two will also be useful, so I have something to wear while one is in the wash.

One of the buses we rode this afternoon was crowded enough (by current ideas of crowded) that I thought I was going to stand. A woman offered me the seat next to her, and I thanked her, adding that this feels a little weird even though I'm vaccinated; she assured me that she is too. I wonder how long it will take until sitting down next to a stranger on the bus feels normal again.

The lettuce and cucumber plants I got at the garden center in the past few weeks are doing well. However, the tomatoes and cucumbers I pre-ordered last fall are now going to ship "in the next 1-2 weeks." This is a bit late for planting here, and also annoying because last week I got an email saying they would ship by Monday (three days ago). This message says they "are still running behind on shipping," which is little comfort.

I may go Pemberton Farms tomorrow or Tuesday and see if I can buy a tomato plant that's already in a container with supports for the plant. They had them last week, but last week I didn't think I needed one.

cattitude and I want to go to the wetland/park near the Alewife T station. Tuesday we decided that yesterday, with a forecast high of 91 F (33 C) seemed like a good day to stay indoors with my air conditioner. Today we're a bit low on initiative, with minor physical things that wouldn't stop us from going but make us feel sensible for staying home. Tomorrow's forecast high is 61F, which means I'll wear a jacket or hoodie (depending on when we set out), and it may rain. Fortunately, while some birds may try to stay out of the rain, it's fine for frogs, which cattitude wants to look for.

I've been reading, a little, despite the lack of reading posts here. I now have three hardcover library books (not the best timing on my book requests), and am reading one ebook on the kindle, and another in bits on my iPhone, where "in bits" means I hadn't looked at it for a couple of months, and then my loan on the other book i was reading that way expired.

Things in Massachusetts have been reopening at what seemed like a reasonable pace--I sat at a table outside Quebrada Bakery with a pastry on Tuesday. And tomorrow almost all the restrictions except for masking on transit (which is federal, from the CDC) and in medical facilities and congregate care facilities. People who aren't vaccinated are asked to continue masking and distancing, but it's on the honor system--and at this point, a lot of the people who aren't vaccinated don't plan to be, and many of them also object to masks. [I will spare us all a rant, since I assume my readers here don't need it.

I've been doing a bit more text banking, a mix of political campaigns and Covid-vaccine-related. The latter started with telling people they were or might be eligible, and now it's "please get vaccinate. it's free, here's a link to locations, do you need help getting there?"

I went to the edge of the ocean, and got my feet wet, and enjoyed the faint salt water/ociean smell. The water was cold, of course--this is Boston Harbor, and May--but fine for a little bit of wading with my pants legs rolled up.

A few days ago, I was thinking about how long it had been since I looked at the ocean, and I remembered adrian_turtle talking about having been near the beach while tutoring students who lived near the red line in Boston. I asked her for more information, and after telling me that there are beaches near the Andrew or JFK station, she suggested that we go there together. We woke up to a warm day, with nothing else planned, so we went after lunch.

I had fun, despite not being dressed for the beach. I rolled up my jeans, put my shoes and socks in my backpack, and left it on the sand near the water. I stood in ankle-deep water for a bit, looking at the water and the sky, and it was good. I ant to go back soon, dressed more appropriately, and without a backpack full of stuff that I didn't want to leave at her place for several days. (I tried that a couple of visits ago, and the weather shifted, and I wished I hadn't left my jacket there.)

It's been a long fourteen months, and also I hadn't been doing as much exploring (random or otherwise) of the area as I intended to when we moved here. This is a bit of that, and a good (re)start.

On my way home from the supermarket, I stopped at the convenience store and got a cup of blue vanilla Italian ices. Blue vanilla because that looked like a fresh container, and there was a noticeable puddle at the bottom of the watermelon ice container.

This feels significant, because the last time I went in there for ices was in March 2020, and my post that day was titled "a surprisiong touch of normalcy." I was thinking "I won't be doing this for a while," but had no idea how long that while was going to be.

On my way to visit adrian_turtle yesterday, I bought a seven-day transit pass. I don't know if I will take enough trips between now and Saturday afternoon to make it a bargain, but it seems possible, and I like not stopping to think about the bus fare when deciding whether to walk two stops or wait 12 minutes for a bus. Other than feeling like an expression of hope (as we return to something resembling normal), I think I may be making a bunch of short trips on the 73, for various bits of grocery shopping, and to visit lilacs and other flowers.

I then, surprise, walked from the supermarket to Adrian's apartment yesterday, and from the drugstore home this afternoon. The latter was less about bus timing than about wanting the exercise.

This afternoon, Adrian and I went to Spy Pond and sat for a while, maskless, looking at the water and talking. Adrian and I have been visiting Spy Pond together, on and off, for as long as we've known each other; this is also the first time in over a year that I've gone somewhere just to wander around outside (rather than walking around Belmont, or across Cambrdige Common on the way home from shoe shopping.

My plans for the next couple of days made more sense with the forecast as of this morning, than they do with what's now predicted, but it will be OK. In particular, I left my jacket at Adrian's, rather than either wear or carry it with the temperature around 70 F (21 C), planning to get it when I stop by on Tuesday to retrieve our kitchen scale. When I decided to do that, the forecast for Tuesday was similarly warm, but rainy; they're now saying a hip of 53 (12 C) and rainy. I will manage, probably with a sweater or fleece under my rain jacket, but it will be less convenient.

I am now caught up on my exercises, meaning that I've done all of the things I try to do regularly at least once in the last seven days.

I had a very nice visit with nineweaving this afternoon: a bit over three hours of chatting in a garden near Harvard, unmasked. We bought pastries and hot chocolate at Burdick's, then walked to the garden, and settled in for a long conversation about all sorts of things, including past and hoped-for future travels, how we've coped with the pandemic, and how rushthatspeaks, gaudior, and their kid are doing. I would have happily talked longer, but I needed to go home, stopping for groceries on the way, and get caffeine and then dinner.

This was the first serious in-person socializing either of us has done with people outside our respective bubbles in over a year, though I've had a few brief, outdoor, and masked conversations with a couple of adrian_turtle's friends from Havurah Shalom, mostly when I was at her place when they showed up with groceries. And talking with one of my own friends is more satisfying than talking with friends of friends, even when they're nice people.

While I was waiting for a bus home after buying groceries, the stranger at the other end of the bench asked me "did you hear the [Chauvin] verdict?" Having gotten messages from a couple of different activist groups, I was able to say "yes, guilty, on the most serious count." We were both pleased and a little surprised; after talking about that for a couple of minutes, he asked me "are you a musician?" and, when I said no, commented that he'd thought I might be because of the hair.

I haven't missed that sort of unexpected conversations with strangers nearly as much as I've missed talking to my friends, but I have missed it. (A month ago, before I was fully vaccinated, I would have hesitated to ask him to move down the bench to make room for me.)