National Native American Veterans Memorial

It was on our usual weekly drive in to town that we stumbled across a new memorial. I knew it was being constructed because we couldn’t take the usual path by the Smithsonian American Indian Museum as it was blocked off over the last several months. But this time, on a very windy morning, we found that the Native American Veterans Memorial was almost complete. There were a few workmen working on the last finishing touches - putting in the five insignias of the armed services. Where there was a pond on the east side, a walking path bridge now takes you across it to a platform where the memorial rests. You’d never know you were right across from the Capitol building. A sign describes the five concepts that are important to native cultures - water, fire, earth, air, and the circle - an opening to the sky and the spiritual world. One can tie prayer cloths to the lances posted around the site. The museum itself is distinctly different from DC buildings. Viewing it through the circle made it even more distinctive. The city is still very desolate except for building renovations and street repairs. At least it gives us something to do since we can’t attend any programs and everything remains closed. So we park the car in our old neighborhood and check out what has changed since we left a year and a half ago. It’s a nice change of scenery. 

Chalk Comments on the Path in the Park

Someone was trying to get someone else motivated and energized. We drove over to the park this morning to dispose of the glass bottles at the recycle dumpster, then continued on our morning walk. As we started down the usual path I began to notice chalk messages - arrows, turn to the right.... some of them were harder to read than others. The messages weren’t there yesterday and it hadn’t rained, but the idea and the attempt to make the walking path a bit more interesting should be congratulated. Yesterday we saw three deer - one buck in the rear - wandering along the stream. Today we saw the encouraging words of a female youngster spurring on her friends or perhaps unknowns to find their way along the winding walk. Perhaps it was a challenge or just something to just keep busy. The pink, blue and yellow letters seemed a bit out of place among the fallen leaves and rustic surroundings. It’s more like something you would see in a suburban or urban neighborhood. It’s funny to see things re-emerge from the 50’s and 50’s - board games, jigsaw puzzles, home cooked meals. Here’s another example of staying active. Not such a bad idea. 

52 Frames - A Commitment to Photography

I was always in a hurry to get photos from the drugstore or photo store. Taking pictures was fun. When the swinger instant camera came out it was immediate gratification. I always had some kind of camera - Canon, Sony... but when the iPhone came out it couldn’t have been better! I do a daily photoblog and participate in a lot of social media. So when a friend of ours mentioned 52 Frames, I was interested. The idea is to get you to take a photo of a defined subject matter every week, give it a title why it inspired you. I signed up yesterday and just so happened to have a photo (that has to be taken in the week - not an archive) that would meet the requirement for this week - circles. We took a ride to DC yesterday and walked to the American Indian museum and saw the new Veterans Memorial where a large ring, representing the sky, was recently constructed. So that photo was submitted and the rest of the information for my “site” was completed including a short bio, type of camera used, link to my Twitter and Instagram sites, etc. I also started to follow our friend’s site and am looking forward to any comments and feedback - which is the idea. One needs to make comments and provide feedback, submit a photo every week, and be consistent as much as possible. Anyone can join, but you need to be committed. They also have Facebook and Instagram sites to follow. So we will see how this goes. I don’t have a fancy camera and may not be able to comply with some of the weekly requirements, but there may be workarounds. This “hobby” goes along with my digitalart painting. It’s just another way to be creative. And at this time, it’s a great way to spend time. 

Wearing the Same Clothes Over and Over

It probably didn’t matter anyway. The clothes I wear around the house are the same as before - but they are about the only clothes I wear these days. At least before we would wear other clothes for going out to lunch or attending programs at the Library of Congress or meeting with my family members for brunch or packing them to take trips. But no more! I do wear LLBean shorts and pants and shirts and jackets every morning for a walk based on what the weather dictates. But from the minute I wake up to the time I change for bed it’s shorts and a T-shirt. The shorts must be thirteen years old as I got them when we first moved to DC to wear while I worked in the patio garden. They are really cheap and have an elastic waist band and I got them them in five colors. The T-shirts are Amazon Merch shirts that are samples of my custom pet portraits. Since I sell them on Amazon I wanted to see how they actually turned out so I had ordered a few in different sizes - two of them are used for night shirts. They aren’t as wrinkled as they appear when they are worn! All I can say is that they are comfortable and who cares? I may need to break down in winter and add a long sleeve jacket and/or long pants, but so far I haven’t needed anything more. In some ways it feels strange, but strange has become normal. 

Vida Mask

It’s been going on since March 13. We have been trapped in the house. Our only activity is a morning walk, a weekly drive to DC for a change in scenery, and picking up groceries curbside. And with each of those activities we do not leave the house without a face mask. Being in the “at risk” group, and having been in health care as a physician and a nurse, we obviously take more precautions. We haven’t seen anyone since it all started except via zoom or FaceTime. My idea of a good time is not hand washing face masks every day, so we have a two week supply each. Some of the three ply original masks are starting to disintegrate. One of the first cloth brands I got was from Vida. They are comfortable, have a filter option, wire nose piece and adjustable ear loops. I ordered another four pack and they arrived last week. They always look much better before they get washed because they tend to shrink a little and come out very wrinkled because I put them in the washer and the dryer. They serve the purpose even if they aren’t ironed! Even with a vaccine there will probably be a need to be cautious. Hopefully that will happen sooner than later. 

Apple TV, Verizon Cable and Internet Out

It was around nine PM last night. We were watching cable tv and changed the programming to Apple TV so we could watch BritBox. There was no signal. It’s happened before but always starts up. This time was different. I noticed that the Apple TV light was not on the little black box. So we made sure all the cords were tight, etc. Still nothing. Then I went to the Verizon app to see if a diagnosis could be made - as now both the internet and the cable were out. I get so frustrated when these things happen because the only way to get to the back of the TV and the wall plate connections is to remove everything on the bookshelves and pull the unit away from the wall. This, even though there is a power strip at the bottom of the cabinet where everything is plugged in because rebooting isn’t the only solution. The instructions were to check the cable from the router to the wall. I tried this maneuver several times and nothing happened. We then realized that a plug was dangling from the back of the cabinet and I put it back in to the outlet. How it got there one only knows! I was dusting earlier in the day, but can’t believe that would have made a difference. Besides, we were watching tv and using the internet after that. After fooling around with this for two hours it all started working again. We put everything back including the furniture. We watched a bit of Apple TV but the light keeps going out. When I unplug the power cord and plug it back in the light goes back on. It’s off again as I write. That means more wasted time investigating why this is happening. We got the Apple TV and the LG TV about five years ago. I can’t believe it would quit working, but that would be just my luck.