Cloister Commentary, Day 331: Valentine’s Day Cold Massa-cree

We didn’t really need another challenge, but we received one. The frigid temperatures plus a mess of snow just made my nerves twist and tighten, as we will be needing to be on the road soon, so I had to fight to just let it go. Can’t control it; gotta accept it. How many times have I said that to myself over the last 11 months?

Valentine’s Day, in spite of the winter blast, was nice. My mom is still struggling post-severe-UTI–but she’s inching her way back to health. Nicole made a terrific chicken stew for lunch (a perfect combatant against the weather), and I whipped up bacon and eggs (scrambled in the grease) and English muffins for dinner. We all read a bit in the afternoon, and enjoyed our usual PBS Sunday Night via an episode a piece of The Durrells and All Creatures. I’ve never read the latter’s source book by James Herriot, but–call me a sentimental old fluff–I think I’m going to have to. I’d hoped to catch the Lakers-Nuggets game but the wind had died behind my sails. Bottom line: I was locked in with my two favorite ladies on February 14th, and that was just right.

But…in a different reality…this morning it would have been nice to wake up in The City That Care Forgot. Happy Lundi Gras.

Streaming for Strivers:

I’m sending this, the first commercial recording to feature Mardi Gras Indian chants, out to Marsha and Tom. Bon ton roulez, y’all–two more days til ya gotta clamp down!

Cloister Commentary, Day 330: Light Entertainment

Our normal Valentine’s Day is an “Overeem Special” from Shakespeare’s (red onions, mushrooms, pepperoni, pepper cheese, and green olives) and a good movie. That isn’t going to happen this year; we are eating healthier, for one, and we’re out of pocket, for another. But Nicole and I will be together with my mom, chicken stew is on the menu, and I believe they are going to treat me to an episode of “Men in Kilts”….

Yesterday, we spent a day inside because we are sane. I made grilled cheese sandwiches for everyone, we ate a thousand of Nicole’s homemade cookies, Mizzou dropped one at home to The Nouveau Border War Adversary, and we took in the first episode of “Clarice” (not horrible, other than the subject matter) and Promising Young Woman (it definitely sticks with one, and I never thought I’d see Carey Mulligan pull that kind of role off). As you can see, we enjoy light entertainment on our family Saturday nights.

Streaming for Strivers:

Smokey: a Valentine’s Day secular kind of muezzin. I just stumbled upon this “stripped” collection; I don’t know if it was a true release, but let’s not quibble.

Cloister Commentary, Day 329: The Drive

Nicole and I were on a drive last night, and started to reflect on this trying journey. In 36 days, this commentary will have stretched to a full year. We speculated on how difficult it is to tell how permanently the isolation will affect us, and just how those effects will manifest after we reach a clearing. The only relatively large gathering of people in which we’ve been in the midst since March 13 was my dad’s funeral service in June; that was ill-advised, but his passing was so sudden and unexpected I felt I was in some other existence (at least everyone was masked, and no one seemed to have gotten sick as a result). I haven’t spoken to a student in person since February, or even held a class since July. Nicole spoke of the relaxing experience of just gliding into a restaurant, ordering some good food, and taking our time, and of the fun of planning a trip in excited detail, then living it out, with old friends along for the ride or at the end of the road. And just being able to celebrate occasions, life, relationships. We miss that stuff in our bones.

We fell silent, and punched up “Night in Tunisia,” “Queer Notions,” that double-standard-hit-double-whammy “Runaround Sue” / “The Wanderer,” the Stones’ “Happy,” “Looking for a Kiss,” a Patti Smith “block party,” then closed the drive down with one of our all-time favorite albums (Nicole kept turning it up, and up), Dramarama’s Hi-Fi Sci-Fi. I believe we’re gonna make it (with a little luck, Joe Tex, you may be right).

Additional pulses of joy: my mom’s feeling much better after a severe UTI (her chosen family tended to her in our absence, thank the stars), and the other student teacher I’m supervising (I reported on the first in yesterday’s commentary) was hired to teach English at my old place of business, David H. Hickman High School, the Home of the Kewpies!

Accompanying foreboding: more extremely frigid temps–and possible snowfall. Our outdoor cats are now housed in the garage.

Streaming for Strivers:

A great drummer has passed. He left the world more interesting than he found it.

Cloister Commentary, Day 328: BiPap Boy

Both of the student teachers I am supervising for Mizzou this semester seem extraordinarily ready. I observed one of them yesterday (via Zoom, but that was more than adequate), and she was passionate, professional, knowledgeable, firm, challenging, and kind. The lesson focused on James Baldwin’s essay “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?”, African-American Vernacular English, and code-switching–it was the highlight of the day. She’s already ready. I can’t wait to watch her next lesson.

I visited my pulmonologist in the afternoon (I now have quite a roster of health professionals to check in with), who informed me that I will be wearing a BiPap mask due to my sleep apnea. Google one; they are not sexy.

I’ve also been advised to quit caffeine. I only have a cup and a half of coffee and one cup of tea a day, but I guess I will wean myself off (I just typed that looking into the bottom of my morning cup). Also, alcohol–I already completed Dry January (not counting the first three days), so I guess I’ll keep that rolling. I guess 2021 will be my year of self-abnegation.

One of my best friends is a pharmaceutical rep who, amused but seriously curious, has been following my sleep apnea saga (he suffers from it on a less serious level). After I reported my mask prescription to him, he said, “Well, you got your COVID shot, right?” I replied, “No, I —-ing have not!” Exasperated, he said, “You’ve got atrial fibrillation issues AND severe sleep apnea–that qualifies as a heart condition!” Sometimes I’m slow on the uptake; I re-registered for a shot, so maybe my wait won’t be until after April Fool’s Day.

Streaming for Strivers:

A great example of Mary’s many great ideas.

Cloister Commentary, Day 327: Cookies for Breakfast, Cookies for Dinner

Ate cookies for breakfast.

Went to work, where it was quiet.

Facing a great degree of challenge and apathy, updated my music blog.

Kept abreast of my mom’s ongoing, relentlessly shifting health issues and wished I lived closer. Thanked the stars she has a “family team” in her hometown.

Came home and escaped into Nicole’s hug and smiles, and a book.

Prepared for my own next health “interaction” by filling out paperwork containing the exact same four pages of questions I filled out last week.

Ate “greens ‘n’ garlic” ravioli from Pasta La Fata…and more cookies.

Vegged out to The Durrells of Corfu, though the science vs. seance episode was deeply welcome.

Another COVID day.

Streaming for Strivers:

A Black history musical griot.

Cloister Commentary, Day 326: ‘Castin’ and Cookin’

I woke up at 3 with nothing that stress-inducing on my mind–nothing specific, which is usually what sends my mind too wakefully searching–but I was totally alert and unable to even imagine going back to sleep. I just got up, performed my morning rituals, and tip-toed around so Nicole could catch up on her shut-eye (I hate it, but she doesn’t sleep well when I’m gone). Fortunately, the cats cooperated, Tux and Junior delaying their daily thunderous hallway wrasslin’ until later in the afternoon.

Chase Thompson, one of the many excellent educators at Stephens and truly among the most enthusiastic, curious, and creative teachers I’ve known, invited me to visit his class and be interviewed in podcast style. He’s teaching his students to construct those, but he’s also making his own with fellow Stephens folks as subjects. I was very humbled to have been asked, since I am so low on the academic totem pole I’m under ground, and we had a blast. We talked about masks, Facebook threads that last multiple months, mentors that find you rather than vice versa, ground-breaking musical moments in our youth that change everything, and so much more. Speaking of those far-unfurling Facebook threads, Chase made me relive one that happened on my wall (“Pick one and justify it: Otis Redding or Wilson Pickett” is an example–remember that one?) by letting his students interrogate me: Pink or Ariana Grande? Genesis or Rush? Pink Floyd of Tame Impala? None of those are my particular cuppa, but I survived!

When I got home, I found Nicole in full-on cooking mode–she had a kind of snow day, as her school’s heating system was down and they were needing time to install a part. She made some delicious hummus, some dangerous oatmeal-cherry cookies with raw sugar crusted up on top of ’em, and a belated crockpot full of her famous Chiefsburger Soup. That’s the kind of cooking I love cleaning up after.

Closed out with The Durrells in Corfu and All Creatures Great and Small and crossed my fingers for 7-8 hours of sleep.

Streaming for Strivers:

Her voice, guitar, and spirit have rung out eighty-plus years and show no signs of slowing.

Cloister Commentary, Day 325: Miles to Go Before I Sleep

I’d driven about 1,000 miles over the past five days, and finally came to rest back home in frigid-gettin’-more-frigid Columbia. Left Mom in Monett with some ideas I hoped might help, and maybe they did: after eight months–that was a smart delay–she boxed up my dad’s clothes (with the help of Phyllis and Mike Garrett) and took them to Crosslines. Few things are harder to do after the death of a loved one, but few things are (at least eventually) more necessary. I am very proud of her! And grateful: I’m perpetually underdressed for cold snaps and she sent me with one of Dad’s big coats. The roads were fine, but freezing drizzle had been forecast, and she didn’t want to see me trudging up a shoulder of I-44 in worn ol’ hoodie.

Nicole was at work when I arrived, but homemade peanut butter, chocolate chip, and oatmeal cherry cookies were waiting for me, as well as some of her famous sweet-potato-enriched enchiladas. I got caught up on my reading, filled out some endless paperwork for my upcoming pulmonary appointment (I tell ya, it never ends!), and had an enjoyable FB Messenger convo with the mentally energetic Adam Sperber regarding The Five Royales, Tony Williams, Sonny Sharrock and other geniuses.

When Nicole got home, we cooked a pizza and some spinach, got under the covers, lounged, read, transformed into cat furniture, and hit the sack early (well, the time was normal for one who awakens when we do). There’s no place like home, especially right now.

Streaming for Strivers:

Speaking of Black musical history titans who left us too soon and are too little known to the general public, the inventor of chainsaw jazz!

Cloister Commentary, Day 324: Books for Groceries

Yesterday was a long march to a disappointing Super Bowl. Mom is a big Patrick Mahomes fan but it was not a good evening to be that (though he did prove tough). In other sports news, I finally had a chance to watch Luka Garza play on the tube, and that, too, was underwhelming.

While visiting here, I bought groceries and dinner for us, and Mom was concerned about paying me back. I told her that wasn’t necessary, but we worked out a deal. She “bought” me some books for about the same amount, thus allowing me once again to get around violating my resolution (which I actually violated the day before–see Commentary 323). I know you’re on tenterhooks needing to know what tomes I chose: U. S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo’s new anthology of Native Nations poetry, Drs. Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha Blain’s “community history” of African America (titled 400 Souls), and New York Times columnist Charles Blow’s new book The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto.

I also researched ways I can get Nicole and myself vaccinated against COVID-19 since, as Missouri teachers, and according to state leadership, we are not considered in urgent need. Governor Deputy Dawg: friend of public education.

Streaming for Strivers:

Bird lives. As does Black excellence.

Cloister Commentary, Day 323: Wally’s World of Books

Headed out in the morning to drop off Mom’s recycling, grab pre-Super Bowl groceries, and swing by Wal-Mart for some meds I left in Columbia. I do not mean to sound condescending or snide–though I’ve never quite been hopeful, I have been cruising Wally’s book section for many, many years–but I was stunned, then happy to see Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Anti-Racist and Robin DeAngelo’s White Fragility displayed right next to Bill O’Reilly’s new Killing Trees. I grabbed a copy simply to mark the auspicious occasion, then remembered my resolution to refrain from buying books this year (and just read what I have)–then came back five hours later and bought it anyway. (Yes, I was masked as were most of the customers.)

Viewing: Mom and I watched Mizzou’s cage squad temporarily crush the Crimson Tide, then almost cough up a loss. Later, we looked for a series we hadn’t tried, and, remembering friends’ recommendations, sampled Peaky Blinders. Is watching three straight episodes “sampling”? I don’t know about Mom, but I’m in. Now to convince Nicole….

Ultra-cold weather’s moving in. Winter and mourning are a devastating mix, but we are fighting through it. We talked through some strategies and it made a difference. Jigsaw puzzles, books, hardwood and historical dramas did, too.

Streaming for Strivers:

Wisdom of the elders. A classic Black history document.

Cloister Commentary, Day 322: Merging

The past two days have been a bit of a whirlwind. Fortunately, I returned from my sleep study in time to have a breakfast of black bean and salsa tortillas (courtesy of the Tortilleria El Patron group) with Nicole before she took off for work. I did some house-tidying, buzzed over and renewed my drivers license (the Real ID renewal went relatively smoothly, but I damn near flunked the vision test–I only wear readers!), made some appointments for a couple felines at the vet, finished a book…then hit the road back to Monett again. I’m going to spend a few more days with Mom and watch the Super Bore with her–and with luck dodge any bad weather. Unfortunately, I bustled out without my backpack–how will I survive without my styling mousse, my new copy of The Week, and my just-found-after-weeks-missing bamboo toothbrush?

Listened to more late-Columbia-period Billie Holiday on the drive back and finally satisfied my Rascals craving that must not have been too intense since I kept forgetting it–but damn, that group was good! I can listen to “Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore” on repeat for an hour–a long-time favorite. Also, I deeply enjoyed (as always) the greatest album of the most dissonantly catchy indie rock band of all-time: Archers of Loaf’s Vee Vee. A dude who should have already changed lanes to let me in off the Highway 5 off-ramp to I-44 STOPPED COLD on the interstate to let me in AS I REACHED THE VERY END OF THE RAMP AFTER I’D ALREADY STOPPED. He and probably I are lucky to be alive.

My mom and I had her quick and delicious recipe of Parmesan chicken (plus peas and roasted Rosemary potatos), then suffered through the very bad opening episode of Netflix’s Firefly Lane (Mom says read the book). We switched to the Nets – Raptors game to witness Kevin Durant removed from the bench due to contact tracing and NBA health protocols and see my observation that Brooklyn should never have traded Jarrett Allen further validated.

I then did the impossible: I slept nine hours.

Streaming for Strivers:

I’m not sure what’s up with the thumbnail, but I tell you what–take a chance and click to hear one of the greatest compilations of African music ever released.