Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Snow! Xmas card! Helpful Meatballs!

I. Meatballs & Bears

It's snowing this morning--lightly, but enough to whiten the grass.
I'm glad that last night I'd lined up a ride with Big Boss to take my hot lunch to work this morning.

Yesterday, the food shelf had a big bag of frozen Impossible Burger "meat"balls (soy, but very like ground beef), and I made so very much spaghetti and sauce, I didn't want to carry it in.
BB lives about 3 miles away--near the store, but he always drives--so I felt free to ask him to swing by.
He's good like that--will pitch in and help people move or whatnot.

Also, it turns out to be a good morning to test-print one Xmas card. Messy.
I like the bear a lot, but is it too simple? Maybe some green behind, instead of black?

I used red oil paint, which is okay but not tacky enough.
I'm mad because if I want oil-based color block-printing ink, I have to order it online. I went to Michael's and Blicks in nearby suburbs, and the art college supply store closer to me... nope.
And that's it--the other big art-supply stores have closed.

I just checked, and the shipping cost is more than the price of a small tube. So oil paint it is. Or hand painting!

II. Surfing the Chaos.

I'd rebounded emotionally enough from the election to read the Economist issue last night on "what to expect".
I LOVE their tone-- never hysterical, they say things like,
"So-and-so worked for the KGB. This is worrisome."
I can take that in.

I live in such a liberal area, the election results feel unreal.
This sign a few blocks away shows results (I'm not sure if they're for  the neighborhood
or the whole city, but they'll be similar):

But we remember in our bodies how it went last time. Up close and personal, Covid, Black Lives Matter. And plenty more remote events that still impacted like body blows.
You know.

In our homes, a mile from George Floyd Square, we breathed in the acrid smoke of burning auto-parts; lying in bed, we heard the helicopters overhead.
Walking down the street, we saw the National Guard standing with machine guns...
(I was living a mile the other direction that year--same difference.)
This wasn't directly down to Trump, but it reflects his world of chaos and force.

I dread a repeat, but I'm going to focus on getting better at surfing the chaos. I'm grateful I'm in a good workplace to do that.
Make lunch!

8 comments:

  1. We started grocery shopping in a different place and that meant I was never near the good art supply store. Fortunately or unfortunately I already had enough watercolors and paper for what has turned out to be several years. So frustrating not to be able to get exactly the supplies you need!

    I also live in a blue bubble with similar voting stats to yours - hence the big old shock 2 weeks ago!

    Thanks for the info on how you are transporting today's group lunch, I seem to have developed a fascination for your commuting arrangements. Hopefully not too creepy.....

    Ceci

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    1. Where do you live, Ceci?
      Well, now I wish I taken a picture of Big Boss in his car, so you could see exactly how I was getting lunch to work. It’s funny because I didn’t have a big enough container to carry the spaghetti and meatballs, so I put them in two big plastic bags! So inelegant! But it did the trick – – I only had to transport them to the crockpot and dump them in

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    2. I'm in Virginia.....for my sins. I hope everyone enjoyed their lunch!

      ceci

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    3. Thanks Ceci—I’d forgotten

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  2. Possibly green at the back would be good. A little more festive

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  3. We won't be making it up as we go. What they try to normalize, we denormalize. Resist. Even MAGA's are becoming upset.

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    Replies
    1. Yes indeed—we have done this sort of thing before—in various ways and times. Vietnam, Civil Rights, AIDS, Occupy, BLM, etc.
      I’m sure you know T Snyder’s book “On Tyranny”

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