Shine On, You Crazy Diamond

David Gilmour, David Crosby, Graham Nash

The short story is that we survived the winter storm.

Arkansas didn't have it as bad as Texas, as you probably know. I have kin in Texas and it was pretty bad there. My brother and my aunt live in what Texans call the Metroplex, the area between and around Dallas and Fort Worth. They had power outages but their water was unaffected, as far as I know.

The driveway to my mother's home is a path about half-a-mile long, single lane, hilly, and winds through the forest. On Monday of last week it became vividly clear that we would not be able to climb the driveway to the road. My mother has a Honda Accord with front wheel drive and it was not able to contend with the climb up the icy driveway until this Monday a week later. Because the driveway winds through the forest, it's shaded and the ice was reluctant to melt.

On the top of my list of things to do after we were able to escape was a trip to Walmart to pick up prescriptions and refill our larder. We had mined my mother's pantry and I was staring at a lot of macaroni and cheese and powdered milk. Oh, there were fishsticks I found in the freezer and some turkey breast. So we weren't suffering.

Mom doesn't get out anyway, but I do, even if it is just to Walmart to have some teenagers drop grocery bags in the trunk of the Accord and pull away. Sometimes I stop at Smith's Donuts on the way back. It has a drivethrough and pretty good apple fritters. I did that yesterday to celebrate our freedom.

I finished reading Ali Smith's How To Be Both and very much enjoyed it. I've read her "seasons" quartet and like those a lot so I approached the book with a lot of positive energy and was rewarded. How To Be Both is a fascinating book. Among other reasons, the book can be read two different ways. The book is two novellas from two different times and are connected. The reader is invited to either read the Renaissance novella first or the contemporary novella first. The order doesn't really matter. Highly recommended.

Now, I'm starting to read The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis. Of course it's the book the Netflix series is based on. Yes, my romance with chess continues unabated. I've read the first chapter and was surprised how much the television show added to the book. The producers/director of the television show hired a chess consultant, Bruce Pandolfini, who was the coach for Josh Waitzkin, the real life inspiration for the book and movie Searching for Bobby Fischer. In the movie, Pandolfini was played by Ben Kingsley. And, yes, I've watched the movie and have two books by Pandolfini. Perhaps this is an interesting point: Tevis also wrote a book called The Hustler and yes, it was the basis for the movie that starred Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason.

I'm also reading The Zohar, as annotated and explained by Daniel Matt. The Zohar is the central text for Jewish Mysticism, the Kabbalah. I was introduced to the book in the Kabbalah class organized by my synagogue in Madison. Based on what I learned in class, I will be leading the synagogue's men's group in a meeting scheduled in March. The topic is Judaism, Sex, and the Kabbalah. I'm hoping for an enthusiastic audience. There will be handouts and visuals. I'm still actively participating in activities at my synagogue in Madison and have started attending the men's club meetings from the synagogue in Fayetteville. It seems that the demographic at the synagogue in Fayetteville is much like that of my synagogue's in Madison.

And, last but hardly least, I finally received the new Stoppard biography by Hermione Lee. I've waited almost nine months for this book. I've read the first chapter and am enthralled. As some of you know, Stoppard is the finest living playwright in my estimation and my esteem for him dates back to 1977 when I saw a production of Jumpers at the University of Missouri. I've been smitten ever since.

In real life, my chess studies continue. I've discovered the best internet sites for me that offer lessons, drills and puzzles. I've also played a computer a couple of times, (successfully he bragged. Of course the computer's level of play was set at the simplest possible setting.) I started playing computers due to my experience playing a real person. I played two simultaneous games with a real person and was absolutely spanked in both. In one of the games, my opponent used only his pawns and one knight to crush me. All his other pieces were left in the starting position. My ego took a hit.

I watched Anna (2019) directed by Luc Besson, one of my favorites and I don't know how I missed this. A bit like his film La Femme Nikita, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I've also watched The Trial of the Chicago Seven (Aaron Sorkin) and Judas and the Black Messiah. All three are highly recommended.

I finished watching Bridgerton and Lupin. Bridgerton, which is a cross between Pride and Prejudice and Dallas. Bridgerton ended with some significant closure on some of the threads and appropriate cliff hangers to sustain interest in season two. And I'll watch season two. Lupin is still a bit of a muddle to me. The French production keeps reminding me that the US has an earned dominance in these type of stories. In Lupin, nothing was tied up at all. And the cliffhanger involves the safety of a child and I always resent that type of cliffhanger. It feels exploitive. ("I know, let's put a child in jeopardy!")

I took Mom to the dentist a couple of weeks ago and it did not go well. This was a follow up appointment to her general exam and cleaning. There were four cavities to fill. Mom was very ... uncomfortable. Thankfully, given the current state of her memory, she was over the experience by dinner time.

I've enrolled Mom on two separate Covid vaccine waiting list. I received an email this morning that one of the waiting lists is 13,000 names long. We are wishing a Biden a lot of luck getting that number reduced. I'm not eligible yet.

Mom and I watched the disgraceful Senate trial of Trump's impeachment. The experience put me off CNN for a bit. The television is tuned to Hallmark more often these days. I think Mom enjoys watching the Hallmark movies and the series on the channel. For some unexplained reason though, she was fascinated with the almost tragedy of the jetliner and how it's engine blew up but was able to land safely. She is focused on the fact that the engine uses hollow titanium blades. --I don't know why this focused her but there it is.

As it is winter in the Ozarks, the animals around us are getting bold. The deer are a regular attraction now and I've spotted foxes too. Thank goodness, the feral hogs are absent. I've also spotted some cats and dogs wandering around the property. I don't know why they're out all of a sudden, but they seems to be having a good time. The squirrels are thriving.

That’s all for now. I’ve been an especially isolated period of time for us. Always more to come.

Lots of love,
brian.