Cloister Commentary, Day 358: Squeezing Some Fun Out of Life

Top 10 Things Yesterday That Made Up for Losing an Hour Today:

(randomly ordered)

1) Nicole decided to make corned beef and cabbage for St. Pat’s and found a head of cabbage as big as mine.

2) We had an unplanned chat with our neighbor Shireen as we finished our and she began her walk.

3) We listened to classic reggae all day, but the highlight was taking in The Wailers’ stunning live-in-the-studio “Burnin’ and Lootin’.” Stopped us both cold as it usually does–a more frightening, intense, and real song I know not of.

4) It was chilly enough for it to be a perfect day to slurp ramen noodles for lunch.

5) At two different junctures, our cats (or more accurately, different units of our cats) seemed to form phalanxes for us. We were never in danger or on the attack.

6) My bangs had started tickling my nose, so Nicole gave me a perfect haircut. I had threatened to shave off my beard, but after 6-7 years the result might have been doughy and disturbing.

7) I read an exciting chunk of James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux novel Heaven’s Prisoners. How many are there, Hardin? I may have to read them all after all; this may be my favorite.

8) Donnie Harden Jr and I had another of our Facebook Messenger music gabs, this one about the crashes that claimed Otis and Skynyrd. We also turned over in our minds the complications of those Southern rockers.

9) After talking about it for months, we finally watched Anthony Hopkins’ KING LEAR. Hopkins and Jim Carter were stellar; Florence Pugh and Karl Johnson were underemployed. Also, the endings of the First Quarto and the First Folio were combined, which was either a stroke or a cop-out, I’m not sure.

10) Trying their oyster mushroom Cabernet ravioli and red gravy, we confirmed once again that Pasta La Fata is still the thing around here.

Extra credit: we pretty much fell asleep laughing through two episodes of Kim’s Convenience. And Tux was foiled in one of his ongoing attempts to block our goodnight kiss.

Streaming for Strivers:

Still celebrating the great jazz drummer Roy Haynes‘ 96th birthday up in here.

Cloister Commentary, Day 338: Zoom Birthday Party

I’m hard to surprise. The multiple early birthday wishes should have been a hint; I assumed it was a social media glitch. But yesterday–the day before my birthday–Nicole set up an open Zoom from noon to five for my friends to pop in and say howdy. I had no idea what she was up to, but it was perfect, because, as I mentioned yesterday, a TV scene had really made me miss the (live) feeling of being in the midst of a bunch of interesting, funny, lively humans. I “saw” a great cyberfriend for the first time; I enjoyed a mini-reunion with two fond high school friends; I received a birthday serenade from Jacqueline Kelly; I convened with counselors and principals (one of the latter interviewed the other back in the day, didn’t hire him, but I guess he showed her (😂)–they were in the Zoom at the same time, so that was a wonderfully but gracefully humorous moment!); I hung out with my brother, aunt, and uncle; the first people to arrive were a wonderful couple of old marrieds who we’d be pestering every week if they lived here in Columbia; a fellow teacher and I reminisced about our very different teacher training activities; my most rock-and-rollin’ former student got to meet my most rock-and-rollin’ best buddy. I could go on–it was definitely one of my favorite birthday presents of all-time, and I recommend it! (We didn’t get Ken and Charles in the same room–they get the magic of birthdays, believe me–but there’s always next year.

We had so much fun were almost too tired to eat dinner! I usually mentally lash myself if I don’t read or listen to a record or two each day, but I was too pleasantly drained to even skim the paper, so “Men in Kilts,” SNL, and “All Creatures Great and Small” had to do. Especially “Men in Kilts”….

Streaming for Strivers:

…it’s my birthday, too (continued from yesterday). Into the morning.

Cloister Commentary, Day 119.5: Splash, So Long

I have had a decent portion on my plate lately, so I was happy to hand a very healthy certified check over to good ol’ Sharon Dothage at Hickman for deposit into our account for remembering our departed friend George Frissell. My first experience managing a GoFundMe campaign was pretty positive, but also nerve-wracking. Would I do it again? Depends.

Thanks be to McKnight Tire for bringing my ’93 Ford Ranger (formerly known as a Splash until I had the evidence removed–didn’t quite go with my image) up to long-distance travel-speed. They have treated that vehicle lovingly for almost 30 years, and after the new owner has them put a set of tires on it, they shall see it no more, and will eventually meet my Chevy. I hope they get along.

How many hours in a day can you read? Providing my damn phone is buried somewhere, I can get seriously lost in a book, but I happened to have my nose in an in-demand book I’d checked out from the DBRL that was, um, five days overdue, so I had additional motivation. Finished it with time to spare, which I used to…read another book.

The dark side of the day was learning that 30 fellow Stephens employees lost their jobs. I’m pretty convinced the leadership did everything they could to prevent taking that measure, but COVID-19 gives no quarter. Had we done a much better job refusing any ourselves–say, starting in January–we’d be in a better place now. But more and more it is appearing we are in a hell we had a hand in making.

Random shout-out: I was delighted to see one of my favorite administrators and edumacational wizards, Dr. Andrew McCarthy, yesterday. Andy’s smart, dedicated, hard-working, funny, positive, patient, and nice. What else could one require in an educator?

Streaming for Strivers:

How ’bout some snap, crackle, and pop?