Category: Adulting

Making masks fun

It seems like we’ll be wearing masks for a while, since studies have shown that the the Coronavirus is primarily transmitted through airborne particles. Wearing a mask primarily protects other people from particles you emit, but can also help protect you from theirs. Given the sudden need everybody has for masks, lots of companies are now featuring them on their websites, in stores, and in online ads. Some of them look quite lovely, given the variety of fabrics involved. Even political campaigns have jumped on the bandwagon, even those where the candidates disavowed the pandemic or refuse to wear masks in public themselves.

But I don’t really want a mask that says “Keep America Racist” (OK, it may say great, but it means racist), or any other mask that makes me a walking political advertisement. I’m fortunate to both know many crafters and own a sewing machine myself. Early in the lockdown, I ordered a couple masks from a friend, and grabbed some of my spare fabric to make some masks while waiting for those to arrive. Since then, I’ve purchased more fabric, including snagging some Avengers fabric in the remnants bin, and received a couple masks as gifts.

Assorted masks including Avengers, cats, Harry Potter, and science symbol fabrics

I find the different styles fascinating. My masks are all using the same pattern from CraftPassion.com, and were initially made with elastic – yes, I had spare elastic lying around. It’s like spare fabric or yarn, it just happens when you craft too much. The masks we ordered have ties, which are easy to maneuver, and bypassed the sudden rush on elastic everywhere. The masks from my sister-in-law, which includes the chibi Harry Potter one, all use cord and have beads to adjust the tightness. Cassandra and I both prefer those, and the pattern I’m using is flexible, so I’ve adjusted to something similar, just with a thick yarn. (Did I mention having spare yarn?) And my one mask with cats on it is also my only mask that hooks on the ears.

On my morning walks, I prefer elastic, so I can wear the mask around my neck except in the rare cases where I cross paths with another person. For grocery shopping, any of the styles will do, though I try to save my cat mask for vet appointments. As a fringe benefit, the masks can also be worn while cleaning house… it helps suppress the bathroom cleaner smell, which is quite intense.

I suggest finding a style or two that suits you, and definitely a color or pattern you like, since it seems masks are going to be around for a while.

“It must be mine!”

There isn’t a lot that I need or want to buy most of the time. If anything, I need to clear things out of my house to declutter. So it’s a fairly rare occasion when I see something that makes me channel Dork Tower’s Igor and say “It must be mine!”

I’ve always liked the “Hate has no home here” signs, but they didn’t quite call to me as something I needed on my lawn… until the sign turned up on my Facebook feed with translations in Elvish, Klingon, and Gallifreyan. And that called to my inner geek, which as we all know, is not generally limited to the “inner” part. But my Google-Fu failed, I couldn’t find the sign.

As it happens, a friend of a friend had recently added one to their yard, so where my Google-Fu failed, social networking succeeded, and found me this Tweet:

Hate has no home here - in Elvish, Klingon, Gallifreyan, and English

The sign isn’t being commercially produced, so it’s not available to purchase. The PDF, however, is available if you provide a record of donating $5 (or more!) to a local food bank. It can then be printed as a yard sign by your local FedEx shop, or assorted online options. Part of the appeal, to me at least, is that these are coincidentally my earliest fandoms – we started watching Star Trek (re-runs) and Doctor Who as young children, and I started reading Lord of the Rings late in elementary school.

Today in particular, I think it’s important to remember that we all share a planet and as a species, we should appreciate the cultural differences spread across the globe. And across fandoms, obviously.

Voting by mail

I’ve never voted by mail before, largely because Illinois offers early voting about a month before each election, which has allowed me to vote without interfering with my work schedule in several elections. But this election is different. There’s a pandemic, with numbers still rising both in Illinois and across the country. And while I’m not high risk – having none of the pre-existing conditions thought to increase the chances of catching it, and already working from home before this outbreak – I recognize that most of the poll workers tend to be older, and likely to be in those high risk categories. I have no interest in putting myself, my family, or anybody else at unnecessary risk.

I realize several politicians, many of whom vote by mail themselves, are claiming that voting by mail increases incidents of fraud. There is, frankly, no evidence of this. It is, as far as I can tell, something they’re making up to scare people, much like the unsubstantiated claims of massive voter fraud in the 2016 election. That said, given the opportunity to vote by mail, I wanted to break it down to look at the realism of the possibility.

First, there’s the envelope the ballot application arrives in. It’s addressed to me, at the name and address I registered to vote with. (I moved mid-2016; I immediately updated my voter registration since there was an election coming up.) The important thing I noted on the envelope was “Return Service Requested” above my information. I double-checked with a local letter carrier (that’s the official title for your mailman/mailwoman), and that means that if that name is not valid for that address, the letter gets returned to the sender. This is different from Address Service Requested, which would return the envelope and provide the forwarding address to the sender. So flat out, if you’re not at that address anymore, the letter gets returned.

Application for ballot - General Election, November 3, 2020

And what if it accidentally gets delivered anyways? Well, let’s look at the application. Name, street, city and zip… those are all available on the envelope I received. My birth date – which is part of my voter registration – is not. Nor is my signature, and a mismatched signature is one of the common mistakes on absentee ballots – not generally because of fraud, but because of older voters whose motor skills are changing, or signatures recorded on that stupidly oversensitive electronic pad when you renewed your driver’s license. (I’m left-handed, and most of those pads are meant for right-handed people… the last time I had to sign for my driver’s license, it took me three tries to not bump it with anything other than the special pen.)

So even if you accidentally receive somebody else’s ballot application, you’re not likely to know enough information to request their ballot. Some states, like Oregon, had already switched to only vote by mail before the pandemic. Illinois allows all registered voters the option, and is now actively encouraging it because of the pandemic. I’ll post more on this topic once I’ve received my ballot, with a look at what checks are in place to prevent fraud on the actual ballot.

Set a goal, find a buddy.

I’ve discussed some of the goals I’ve set in multiple posts. Some goals are quick and clearly individual, like creating a garden plan for the year and writing a blog post every week. But some of the ongoing goals, like staying fit and learning a new language, are long term goals, and those can be aided by finding a buddy with similar goals.

For fitness buddies, I keep in touch with my karate friends, and Centr.com has a Facebook community where we all encourage each other, particularly when participating in the same challenges, like the 6-week bodyweight challenge that many of us just finished. (It started on May 18th.)

My Duolingo goals, while accomplished (in that I did a lesson every day), were stagnating. With a big project at work, I was frequently logging on just long enough to repeat an earlier lesson, and catching just enough extra lessons at the weekend to stay in whatever my current league was – the top 10 in a league advance; anybody below 45th drops a level. I’ve never dropped a level, but I sat in the same league for an awfully long time.

And then Cassandra started pushing forward through the leagues with her Hawaiian lessons. She caught up to me, and passed me by a couple leagues. Suddenly, I have an accountability buddy for my language lessons. Coincidentally, I’m now in the top 10 for my league a second week in a row, and have added about 10 more vocabulary or grammar sections in the last two weeks. There’s still a ton to go, but having a buddy gave me the right motivation to surge forward in my lessons.

When life gives you lemons, make lemon meringue pie.

I know, that’s not the traditional saying, but I generally march to the beat of a different bagpiper. I think it’s safe to say that 2020 has provided a significant number of lemons to every day life, and there’s only so much lemonade you can drink. So I like to look for something that takes a bit more effort. After all, life went to the trouble of giving me something.

The latest lemon to hit my life was when the support rail of my bed broke last week. It wasn’t unexpected, as it’s the second time one of the wooden rails broken, but the first time was a tiny break near the bolt. This is a full-fledged, half the length of the bed break.

Broken wooden support rail in a bed frame.

I suppose I could tell a funny story about how it broke… an epic battle between Arwen and Cassandra, which the bed lost. But it wasn’t that epic – Cassandra was holding Arwen, and fell back onto the bed when the cat struggled to escape. I heard the crack from the next room.

My lemonade approach would be to order new support rails, or finally get around to ordering a new bed, which I had been looking at for a while. I can honestly say I wasn’t surprised that it broke; the previous break was a couple years ago. I was more dismayed at the timing, since shopping is a bit difficult at the moment. I have ordered a new bed, figuring it’s a good use of stimulus money.

But what about the bed frame? I can’t exactly donate (even if places were open) or give away a broken bed frame, even after gluing it. That wouldn’t feel right. Our spring trash day, when we can put bulk items out at the curb was cancelled… and if it hadn’t been, was actually the day the bed broke, so the break would have been after the pick-up anyways. And to be honest, it’s a reasonably nice (if broken) bed… a pretty wood color that was originally a crib, converted to a toddler bed, and now a full-size bed.

And then I realized what my lemon meringue pie approach would be. With the feet planted into the ground, the support rails will be the right height for a raised garden bed. The size is just about right to reach into every part of the bed for gardening and weeding, possibly with pavers, or even by splitting apart the support slats from the bed itself, and rejoining them as walkways. And the head and foot of the bed are effectively built-in trellises.

Of course, this takes time to set up. Even though I’m not digging deep, I submitted a dig request to mark the utility lines, just to be sure. I need landscaping fabric to reduce weed growth, and a mix of dirt and compost to fill the bed once that’s all done. I’m looking forward to planting sunflowers in it this year, as the spot I’ve chosen is remarkably sunny.

I bought a furnace.

I can’t say that’s a phrase I ever wanted to use. A furnace certainly wasn’t on my top ten things to shop for list. But I knew it was coming.

I had hoped my boiler would limp through one more winter. Last winter, it gradually lost water over a period of three to four weeks, with no obvious leak. That implied the leak was somewhere in the pipes to the radiators, but those pipes are buried in the foundation throughout the house. I learned how to bleed the system – drain the water and the build-up of air into the garage work sink to allow the water to replenish – buying functionality for another pair of weeks, until the room temperature variances started again.

As with all home improvement projects, I did my due diligence and requested estimates from multiple companies. Ultimately the one I chose was not just because they included a maintenance package and removal of the boiler, but because their sales representative explained what he was looking at in the house and attic, and what they needed to do for each piece of the puzzle.

Unassembled pieces of ductwork along with my stuff in the garage

Switching from a boiler and window air-conditioning meant there was no ductwork in the house yet, so we spent four long days with people crawling around in the attic and hammering away in the garage. I pulled what little I store in the attic down, moved furniture around in the garage, and parked outside for a week in December.

When they were done, I had a working furnace, a smart thermostat, and more importantly, peace of mind.

And an air-conditioner. Because I have ductwork now, and it will be far more efficient than window units.

Three meals and a workout at Centr.com

One of the many generous offers that appeared online during this stay-at-home time was a free six-week membership to Centr.com, a fitness website run by Chris Hemsworth’s team. Yes, that Chris Hemsworth, better known to many as Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Centr can be accessed via a web browser or their app; the daily planner shows the same selection either way. There are recipe suggestions provided for three meals each day, at least one workout (some days more), an article to read, and a podcast or meditation to listen to. Any item on the planner can be swapped out by searching through the appropriate category and selecting a different one for the day.

The sign-up process allows users to select their fitness level and goals, and meal plan choices of Regular, Pescatarian, Vegetarian, or Vegan. The introduction also mentioned that you can make adjustments as needed, either due to dietary restrictions (for example, recipes that includes bread list Gluten Free as an alternate) or limited availability of ingredients.

Clockwise from the top left: Chilli mushroom & eggs toast, Dukkah salmon (& bok choy, not pictured), Greek chicken & lemon soup
Clockwise from the top left: Chilli mushroom & eggs toast, Dukkah salmon (& bok choy, not pictured), Greek chicken & lemon soup

The workout selection is pretty varied, from boxing to pilates to HIIT to dynamic yoga, and some insane training that Chris Hemsworth puts himself through. The recipe selection is equally varied, and frankly, quite tasty. I had a chai-spiced oatmeal the other morning, and there’s a variety of smoothie recipes available. I’m definitely enjoying the added variety in both my workouts and meals.

The things you notice working from home

This isn’t my first work from home rodeo. You’re going to notice things in your house and neighborhood that were outside your scope of awareness before: the thunk the washing machine makes as it switches to the spin cycle, the water running through the pipes if you have a boiler, the creaking as a strong wind pushes the house, the way one cat announces before she uses the litter box and the other howls as she prepares to produce a hairball (typically while I’m working out).  You may wonder why the small cat makes a thump when she jumps onto the counter, but the large one only thumps coming down.

Even in these strange times, you’ll notice things about your neighbors too.  You’ll find out which ones hire a lawn service (and wonder why everybody on the block hires different ones), notice when the truck that always leaves at 5am is home or gone, and wonder why the curtains across the street are still closed this morning when they’re usually open before you head to work.

You may hear the guy who talks to himself – loudly until he notices somebody outside – as he rides his bike, or see the couple that takes morning walks year round, even in our winters.  You can watch the birds at the bird feeder as they alternate with the squirrels, observing the different visitors as spring advances.  If you look carefully later, you may see the evening visitors… woodchucks, raccoons, and skunks.

When you inevitably return to normal office settings, you will know so much more about your home and neighborhood if you take the time to look and listen now.

Quiet, but for the birds.

On a normal Monday morning walk, half of these cars would be gone from driveways. Some others would already have the spattering of snow cleared off, preparing to leave. Instead, I saw only a handful of cars on my way to the park, rush hour diminished by the Stay At Home order that went into effect Saturday night. As I walked, I listened to the birds.

Snow notwithstanding, the robins have reemerged in northern Illinois for the spring. The couple inches of snow that landed on Sunday had, for the most part, melted itself off the streets and driveways by Monday morning, but remained on the lawns and trees, a fluffy white layer made more pleasant by not needing to shovel it.

The cardinals never left for the winter, but now they’re singing. There are a couple woodpeckers in the neighborhood; I never see them, just hear them as I’m walking. That’s an improvement over the one woodpecker at my old house that started pecking on the wall outside my home office. Occasionally, I hear an owl, and frequently the crows.

For now, I hear fewer cars. They’ll return, after this crisis fades, but for now, I’ll enjoy the birds’ sound effects.

In times of trouble, find your family.

For most of us, the world has shifted immensely in the last week.  More people than ever are suddenly working from home, and parents who never considered homeschooling are finding themselves with children underfoot and educators scrambling to produce online lessons.

The initial wave of panic shopping should be done, I hope, allowing grocery stores to return to the new normal – encouraging social distancing as people move through restocked stores.  And the kindness may continue… people offering to go shopping for anybody in the neighborhood that can’t or aren’t comfortable going at the moment, photos of goods in a front yard saying “take what you need,” relatives dropping of food for family members in the vulnerable groups.  Whether they’re technically related or not, these are the families that hold our neighborhoods together.

Our karate family is similar.  Classes are either cancelled are reduced in size at the moment, so karate schools are turning to technology to make sure people stay active and keep training.  Many of the schools are streaming classes through Facebook Live, and opening them up to everybody instead of just their students.  That is how I attended a local class online on Tuesday, part of a class at Legacy Martial Arts in Pennsylvania last night (I had a meeting rune late), and am prepping for a kickboxing class at Double Dragon Tang Soo Do in Michigan tonight.

Stay active, stay upbeat, and if you’re able, take a moment to help somebody during this mess.