Sadly, I did not carol on the winter solstice. Happily, I still got together with Katherine. We met at the Union Square holiday market. I’m such a sucker for those; I don’t know why but I enjoy them. Part of it is that the people that run the shops are interesting, they live nomadic live moving from festival to festival. They create their own vision for a business. We chatted with a few of them. One is a photographer that puts his beautiful photos on old LPs. One made folding baskets from used bamboo chopsticks held together with fishing line. When you turn the basket upside down it looks like the Oculus. I should have taken a picture. Another guy turns historical scrap metal into jewelry and art objects. Some are made of shell casings from World War II. Others of old coins. We had an enjoyable conversation with him about wartime adjustments of what metals were used in pennies. I never knew why post WWII pennies were made of brass, not bronze. It’s because they were made from the surplus of melted down shell casings. Katherine talked to the woman from the Catskills that made her own botanical skin creams from plants she finds in her area. I suggested that she watch or read the Brother Cadfael mysteries as hat’s how he spent much of his time.
My food adventure was not as exciting as the last time, I had a bratwurst, which was excellent but not duck poutine. The German Hot Chocolate from the same stand was not special. I should have gotten one of the others. Most of all it was an opportunity to spend quality time with Katherine. Quality time with a friend is precious. I’ll be doing something similar with Erica on Christmas Day. We are getting together to get together.
After the market we walked around the neighborhood and ended up in a vegan restaurant. That was for Katherine’s dinner, remember I had bratwurst and I’m a meatan. I did have an espresso even though they spelled it expresso. That was almost a deal breaker. I always have to watch my tendency toward pedantry, the boundary between it going from virtue to vice is hard to see.
An unfortunate topic of conversation now is friends that got COVID-19. All were vaccinated and none seriously ill but we both know people that tested positive. I suspect one was infected the day I saw her; there were many unmasked people. I was not one of them. I was tested on Monday and both the rapid and PCR came back negative. I was just reading that New York like the rest of the country is experiencing a surge but we don’t have a crush at the hospitals as such a high proportion of the population is vaccinated. If everyone was this would not be a public health crisis. People will get sick, but it would be less dangerous than the seasonal flu. Of course, if everyone got vaccinated for seasonal flu that would be far less dangerous. People underestimate how dangerous flu is. My life is not a good model for others, I have many issues, but I have a good attitude towards risk management. Grab all the low hanging fruit, don’t smoke, don’t drink and drive, get all your vaccinations, wear a mask, then live your life. If everyone took those precautions, everyone would be safer from each other.
Today is beautiful and I’ll walk to Stop & Shop for some groceries and then have poutine for dinner. Now it’s time for my weekly Wednesday celebration, watching Hawkeye while eating breakfast.
Wise Madness 