Cloister Commentary, Day 15: Your Trash Ain’t Nuthin’ But Trash

We have been worried to death about the nation’s health care workers, small business owners, mail carriers and kids–but I’ve heard little talk about sanitation workers. They’ve had some local struggles here in the best of times, but these have to be exceptionally trying. We need to do our best to make their jobs as easy as possible, and not just sling our trash sloppily to the curb.

I’ve written before about how live music on social media is helping everyone stay sane. I watched this and I was motivated the rest of the day.

I had never been to a virtual happy hour until yesterday, when I was a fly on the wall at a gathering of Columbia Area Career Center folks. I apologize for not being more camera conscious and eating chips and dip right in everyone’s face.

My parents’ order of Chinese toilet paper arrived yesterday. It was not quite what they expected; in my mom’s words, “It doesn’t have the hole for the roll. Dad said it is 3-ply.”

Chinese Toilet Paper

Sometimes you just need to blow out the cobwebs. We chose to have a date-night DVD double-header, and watched LOST IN AMERICA and THE ARISTOCRATS. We feel a little more relaxed this morning.

Streaming for Shut-Ins: a great unsung jazz album from the Sixties, featuring alto saxophone Sonny Criss a West Coast take on East Coast “cool” by songwriter and arranger Horace Tapscott.

Cloister Commentary, Day 16: Calling Matt Foley

I didn’t do jack squat today. Perhaps I merited a visit from Matt Foley, but I ain’t no dad-gum machine!

I ate. I read. I had a cocktail. I took a nap. I resumed reading. I ate again. I watched some movies. I went to sleep. And–oh yes–I bathed. Even though I have not sweated since maybe February? Another reminder how fortunate I am.

Actually, it wasn’t quite that bad. Nicole made some killer black-eyed peas, collard greens, and cornbread, and I had to put in considerable effort not to have two helpings of each. And we did something for “the greater good,” Jason Summers: we watched SHAUN OF THE DEAD and HOT FUZZ. Yarp, we really do like that cinematic team’s style, and narp, neither movie gets old even if you’ve seen them multiple times.

Streaming for Shut-Ins: The long-running Aussie trio The Necks has a thing they do that no one else does, and they are VERY good at it. If you enjoy being put into trance states by very, very focused music that disrupts said states with subtle shifts of gears that can seem like explosions, I have a band for you.