183 days since we went into lockdown. Exactly half a year.

Don was doing some digging yesterday. It was just light work because, frankly, the bottles and things he’s finding are not that old and they’re not worth anything, which means they’ll be recycled. Most of the little treasures I’ve found on the property over the past 15 years have been spontaneous finds; something coming up from below the surface, some clearing of leaves that reveals a little object, or digging for something specific, like a new garden bed, which results in a discovery or two.

That being said, he found something interesting yesterday on top of an old foundation that is on the edge of our property. It’s now in my little Dish of Curiosities.

Do you see the little hand? And, to the right, a piece of a limb? There are touches of red on the finger nails. So it either comes from a doll or a figurine of some sort. They were just lying on the surface of the foundation. That might be my second favorite find, right after my antique red transferware plate.

You can see the green teacup handle I found a few years back. A couple of ironstone shards. Another piece of pottery with a blue stripe. Shells, feathers, colored glass, fossils, pods, part of a robin’s egg, and an old hose nozzle. All of it on top of a beautiful brown transferware plate, which I just cleaned the other day.

We may go over and look at the foundation later today.

Don’s already made a quick run to the store for a few items. I finished The Starless Sea  this morning (because I had plenty of time, waking up at 4:30) and I’ve just started All the Devils are Here  by Louise Penny. Best cover of any of her books, in my humble opinion, and the endpaper art is gorgeous, as well.

I have mixed feelings about The Starless Sea. I really loved The Night Circus. This one, however, wasn’t as compelling, it was harder to navigate and understand and, in the end, I found myself rather confused and just slightly underwhelmed. Morgenstern has a magical and vivid imagination and the worlds she creates are wondrous. Her stories are fascinating. But this one didn’t quite do it for me, though I enjoyed the read and have no regrets about tackling it. If you’ve read it, I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts.

Normally, I deliberately put off reading the newest Louise Penny until about November but I find that in this year – which has been unlike any other in my life – I desperately need to read her words.

We’re laying low this weekend. The world is too much with us (a nod to Wordsworth) and we need to take some time for peace and a bit of healing, if that’s possible.

I hope you are able to do the same.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

The book I’m currently reading (almost finished) and the next two in line are curiously color coordinated. That rarely happens, so I had to take a photo of it.

I didn’t respond to your comments yesterday because I know you know how I feel and letting you express how you  feel without my running commentary seemed to be the right thing to do. I read every one of them. I’m with you. And for those of you who live with a partner who is a Trumper, I simply cannot imagine how hard that must be for you. Sending you love and a big hug. I am ever grateful that Don and I are on the same page.

A lovely guy that I coached at Hartford Stage and who remains a friend lost everything he owns in the Oregon fires. He is an actor, but is also an educator and he had moved out to Ashland, Oregon to work at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in that capacity. His apartment burned to the ground. Another friend, who is a stage manager at OSF, is currently watching the fires which are frighteningly near her house.

It’s devastating.

Our friend Bob Hays (of Airplane  fame) lost everything he owned: his house, his belongings, all the memorabilia from a long career in theater and film, outbuildings, his son’s recording studio, in one of the California fires a couple of years ago. He barely got out with his life. Fires aren’t discriminating. They don’t care who you are.

(Don and Bob were roommates when they were just starting out. They remain quite close and I had the pleasure of working with Bob in a production of Mister Roberts  at the Old Globe.)

Climate change is real.

My heart is with all of you who are seeing this firsthand, who are worried about the air you breathe, about loved ones. I can’t imagine the devastation to the landscape, to wildlife, to homes, property and to lives.

My god, it’s a beyond-frightening time.

Yes, I know it’s September 11th and I certainly remember the horror of that day. We were living just north of the city. But there is an ongoing horror NOW. We are nearing 200,000 deaths from COVID, a number almost too big to comprehend. People are dying in hurricanes and fires. Our country is being run by a fascist who wants to be a dictator. Children are still in cages (have we heard anything about that lately? Not enough.) A corrupt and soulless man holds the office of Attorney General. The GOP has zip to say about the revelation that the OM knew.

One could surely wonder if the world is going to hell.

Don and I had a conversation about it yesterday. We are desperately trying to remain hopeful about our future, even in the face of no work for who knows how long. We are trying to remain hopeful about the state of the world, of our country, hoping against hope that masses of us can bring about change.

I’ve been taught not to hate. It’s deeply imbedded in my spiritual beliefs. But what I feel toward that disgusting excuse for a human being is awfully close. In fact, I could simply choose a synonym: loathe, abominate, detest, despise, abhor. Combine them all together and add a few more.

Then we might come close to what I feel.

I revile him. I have fantasies about what I wish for him, which shall remain unspoken. If there is such a thing as an Antichrist, we may well be looking at him.

Who would have thought the Antichrist would wear orange makeup, a badly dyed combover, and lifts in his shoes?

Let’s all try to find some beauty this weekend. Some lightness, some laughter. Escape into the pages of a book. Take a long walk. Watch a butterfly. Sing. Listen to music. Eat something sinfully delicious. And pray for our country and for the world.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

I don’t know what to say today.

We mowed yesterday morning and by the time we finished, the news had broken that Trump knew – knew  how horrific the coronavirus was and deliberately kept that information from the American people. It’s on tape. As this unfolded, I was glued to Twitter, then Nicole Wallace and then, later in the evening, we watched Rachel.

And no matter what Trump pathetically offers as an excuse, he did it because he didn’t want the markets to fail, nor did he want it impacting his reelection campaign. I cannot contain my anger, though I’m going to try to keep it tamped down for the sake of a coherent post.

How many lives would have been saved had he shared this information?

It’s really simple. If he had told the American people what he told Bob Woodward, we would be looking at a very different death toll. That is most important. But we would also be looking at a very different landscape concerning jobs, the economy, the toll on health care workers – the list is endless.

He is vile.

He is worse than vile, but try as I might, I can’t come up with a better word. Feel free to contribute.

We have fires consuming much of the western part of our country. It’s a nightmare of epic proportions. Orange skies, fires everywhere, loss of life and property and vegetation.

We have tropical storms that might turn into hurricanes.

We have Barr using the DOJ to take over the defense of OM on a rape charge, using our taxpayer dollars to defend a serial sexual predator.

We have a whistleblower complaint by a senior DHS official stating that he was told to stop providing intelligence analysis on the threat of Russian interference in the 2020 election because it made the Orange Man look bad. He was told, as well, to modify intelligence on the threat of white supremacists so that it fell into line with OM’s statements.

And on and on it goes. But the one I can’t get out of my mind is the first.

He wasn’t too dumb to understand the ramifications of this plague, like some of us (including me) thought. He understood all too well.

And he kept it from the very people he is supposed to protect.

My friends, as always, feel free to vent and discuss.

Stay safe.

Happy Thursday.