The clam before the sturm

[pameladean]

In my summary yesterday I failed to mention one really important change caused by the need to stay home and avoid as much human contact as possible. Eric doesn't live with us -- there isn't room -- but we had been in the habit of having a 24-hour date once a week, mostly on the weekend, mostly over Saturday night. We've had these dates both at his place and here; when this interruption occurred, he was coming here for them. We had a fairly regular date the weekend of March 7th, taking a bus to Trio, a newish plant-based restaurant on Lake Street near the former (and perhaps future) site of It's Greek to Me and then just hanging out together until we got hungry on Sunday afternoon. We went over to Nighthawks for a late brunch and parted still hoping we'd see one another the following weekend, while perhaps knowing we wouldn't.

We did see one another, me standing on the porch and Eric at the foot of the steps, when he came by to pick up some useful things I had for him, including a long-misplaced birthday present. But I don't know when we will again.

David and I go out for dinner together every other Thursday night. Tomorrow is one of the regular Thursdays, but the restaurants are closed. We could get takeout, but I don't know if we will. Of course I can see and talk to David more or less whenever I want to, barring differences in sleep schedule, but the ritual dinner, like the dates with Eric, was pleasant and important.

These changes, minor though they are compared to possible future ones, or to what people in the medical profession choosing to isolate themselves from their own families to protect them must endure, are not great for my emotional stability.

I was home so much of the time anyway and sometimes wished I had fewer commitments. I was in the habit of having lunch with my friend Pat every Tuesday, a writing date at Pizza Luce; and with my mother every Wednesday, when we would go to the Zumbro and have the best iced tea anywhere. I hated having to get up early for these dates, and my mother also hated having to get up, so that we sometimes agreed to skip lunch. We'd discussed having a later lunch, but she didn't want to hit rush hour traffic on her way home. She is 89 and still driving, so of course she will make all these decisions. I was thinking, before this plague came upon us, of trying for a week of neither lunch nor cooking dinner to try to get longer stretches of thinking time for the final revisions to my book. Well, I am free of lunches now.

My mother had almost stopped going out except for the lunches, but says that not being able to do so feels very different. I'm sure that all of these minor insights are very widespread among people who could stay or work at home if they so chose.

I have great plans for cleaning up some of my clutter and sorting out obects to give away when that becomes a thing again, but am paralyzed by a desire to just leave everything as it is, as if that might stem other change that has already happened or is already determined. I will probably get over this eventually, but in the moment it amuses me, since the clutter was nagging at me even though I never felt I had time to reduce it.

I looked at the Minnesota DNR's website. They are cancelling face-to-face activities and closing visitor centers, and asking the public to do as much through their online portal as possible, including buying daily and annual state park passes. Bathrooms and vault toilets throughout the parks, they say, remain open, with increased cleaning protocols. They also remark that getting outside is good for social distancing. So if we are incredibly lucky, we might have a hiking season. I looked at Nerstrand Big Woods State Park's DNR website. To wit:

Icy Trail Conditions

Trails are ice covered. Hiking on the trails north of CO Rd 29 is not advised unless temperatures have been above freezing for several hours. This includes access to Hidden Falls. Traction devices and hiking poles recommended on all trails.
High Water - Crossing Closed

The crossing at Hidden Falls is closed due to high water. Visitors wishing to hike complete the hiking club trail or access Fawn, Hope, or Beaver Trails must take White Oak Trail. Please do not attempt to cross at Hidden Falls when the crossing is under water.

This is comfortingly normal. Nerstrand has impossible numbers of spring ephemerals, but they generally start in April. We haven't been able to hike there the last few springs because of flooding, but this spring might be drier. It's a comfort just to read the familiar trail names.

I need to relearn how to post photos on Dreamwidth, in anticipation of being able to hike.

Stay safe and well as best you can.

Pamela

Comments

[halfmoon_mollie1]

I have yet to figure out the picture posting interface. Maybe you can help me with that.

[pameladean]

I used to do something very weird and complex that did get easier with practice, but I'll have to recreate it. I think it involved putting photos on a gallery on Dreamwidth and then linking to them, which would make them show up in the post; but there was some kind of trick to it. I also want to look at the FAQs again to see if they've fixed anything. Once done I will certainly let you know how I do it.

P.

[graydon]

There are three steps!

While logged in, under the Organize menu select "Manage Images".

This takes you to page with a Bulk Edit Images title, and there are two important links at the top.

upload new images takes you to a page that lets you add images to your Dreamwidth storage.

You then probably want to refer to the Manage Images page to add metadata, particularly the part that sets who can see it, the Security dropdown. (If your posting default is private, for example, all your images get the default. So no one can see it unless you change the security on that image, but you can always see it, so reports of missing images may feel especially inexplicable.)

View all your images -- the other link at the top of the Manage Images page! -- takes you to a page that offers Image embed and Thumbnail Embed (and lets you select the thumbnail size); you can copy these little strings of HTML and stick it in a post you're composing to add the image.

This awkwardly manual but it's also challenging to automate so spammers mostly don't bother. And it does work.

[pameladean]

THANK YOU. If I can collect my scattered wits I should do a test post well before the ephemerals are up.

P.

[graydon]

You are most welcome!

I have slowly had it stick to my brain over the last couple years, though it was only while writing it down that I realized that they do provide the link to the image upload page from "Manage Images". I have historically always googled it. :)

[minnehaha]

It took me 30 minutes of fscking around to post a picture recently, but graydon's plan outlined above seems like what I might have done. I have to re-figure it out every time.

K.

[pameladean]

Yes, I did too when I was successfully posting photos. There is something counter-intuitive about the whole process. P.

[graydon]

It might help to think of it as "load, annotate, reference"?

I agree that it's counterintuitive; nigh-everybody else subsumes the load and annotate steps into their interfaces' reference action.

[graydon]

I very much hope you get oodles of spring ephemerals.

The whole "when shall I see you again?" thing is just miserable.

[pameladean]

Thank you. I'll be glad to know the ephemerals are there even if I can't go see them, but I look forward to being able to see them.

As for the other, oh I know. And just iterated and reiterated.

P.

[graydon]

Yeah. It's not the division of history that I expected in my youth and it's not as awful as it could be, but yikes! on personal scales.

Currently hoping faintly that Pentax will manage to ship their planned camera; I haven't had a DSLR body for awhile and the camera fund is so far doing pretty well. (He says, making various signs against ill-luck.) There are definitely things to take pictures of hereabouts.

[pameladean]

I do hope you get your camera. P.

[graydon]

Thank you!

This whole thing is going to be unnecessarily expensive in a whole lot of ways. I am feeling far more hopeful overall than I was a few days ago, mostly because I keep getting reminded that biotech is much, much better than my emotional understanding of it.

[sartorias]

I've got a friend a quarter a mile away, same age. We go to a tea shop every month for a writing talk date . . . and now that has to end. I hope the tea shop can survive. It's one of my favorite places, but like so many around here, run by first or second generation immigrants and living pretty close to the margin.

Well, enough of that. I hope that the hiking can continue at least!

[pameladean]

I've seen suggestions that one buy gift certificates from favorite businesses to use later on, but depending on exactly how one is being hit by this catastrophe, that may not be possible.

If I do get to have social events again I will appreciate them more, I tell you what.

P.

[sartorias]

YES.

[lcohen]

i have friends that i am used to seeing at least once a week--a standing board games get-together. we were supposed to go to the theater last saturday and when the play was postponed, we all went out to eat then back to one house to play board games. i literally have no idea when i will see them in person again. you don't (okay, i didn't) realize how much these things are part of the fabric of your life until they are .... postponed. i don't know what ways this time will change all of us and our lives. i hope you get your visits, your outings back soon. i hope i get mine.

*hugs and love*

[pameladean]

I hope we both get them back soon! Any one of the things I did regularly might have been cancelled once, and sometimes there was even a run of cancellations, but eventually we got it together and did the thing. And now, we have no idea.

P.

[elisem]

I’m sorry for the upheavals and rearrangements, dear Obelisk.

“... am paralyzed by a desire to just leave everything as it is, as if that might stem other change that has already happened...”

Oh, that one I know. It can happen with a reluctance to unclutter. It can also happen with a reluctance to let go of a not-so-good-for-one job or relationship. Clinging to something for stability is apparently a human thing, whether it makes sense or not.

I hope a good hiking season happens for you.

[pameladean]

Another thing, not weekly or monthly, that I didn't mention was getting together for tea with you. I want that back as well.

Your comments about reluctance are eye-opening and wise.

If a good hiking season happens I will report on it abundantly. Be well, my obel.

P.

[laramie]

Theoretically, I've had plenty of time to deal with clutter over the past year or so, but yes to that feeling of being paralyzed.

There comes a point when too much change is too much change and things may not be ideal, but it's the best of all possible worlds that they are what they are and they are reassuring in the solidity of their being that.

[carbonel]

I have lost all but one of my weekly human contact events -- no gym three times a week with Pat, no Tuesday bar trivia with arkuat and others. lydy and I are still doing our Monday thing (carefully), but that is of course subject to change.

Once the weather warms up, Pat and I can walk around a lake if the weather is clement. We may have to be less fussy about what constitutes "clement," though.

[pameladean]

I'm thinking a lot about what can be done outside when the weather is better, yes.

Perhaps we'll all be less fussy about a lot of things. Or more; I suppose it depends.

Trivia doesn't seem possible without crowding, alas. Though I may just lack imagination.

P.

[carbonel]

Tomorrow is supposed to be 24 degrees F at 9 am. I don't think I'm that adaptable. Normally 40 degrees is about where we consider it walking weather. I was considering saying I'd be up for it as long as it's above freezing. But 24 degrees, while fine for most things, is a bit cold for walking around a lake where there's usually a stiff breeze.

Trivia isn't particularly crowded, but it is five or six people sitting around a table. But all the bars are closed, so it's a moot point. Our current place gets a good portion of its income from pizza purchased for delivery, so it might not be taking all that much of a hit. I don't know if Eric has told you about our trivia travails, but this may be the final straw for the company that runs the games.

[pameladean]

I am not that adaptable either. It'll be warmer soonish, though, and then, of course, it will be too warm.

Eric has told me about your trivia travails and I have been sorry to hear about them. I suppose at some point new things will arise, but it's very hard to predict anything right now, and I'm sorry you guys are without that source of intellectual pleasure and social contact.

P.