1. With the arrival of a couple of packages and a trip for a few things from Yoke's today, my food preparation options increased a bit. I now have a modest supply of coconut milk and can make Thai curry again. Two bags of wide noodles arrived, augmenting my dinner options. I like having plenty of coffee on hand and now I do. After my trip to Yoke's, I have what I need to bake a batch of Morning Glory Muffins.
During his Tuesday night Tree House concert, Bill talked a bit about the summer he worked alongside Ray Robertson for the Forest Service and they used to stop in at a bakery, Cinnamon Twisp to purchase coffee and Morning Glory muffins. His story triggered a flashback to about thirty-two years ago when, for a relatively short period of time, I loved baking muffins. Then, for reasons I can't fathom or remember, I stopped (aside, in recent years, from the occasional batch of cornbread muffins). It'll be fun to get back into it.
2. I had fallen a bit behind in watching Billy Collins' poetry broadcasts and caught up today, watching three of them. Recently, because he's included in the anthology, Billy Collins has been reading poems from Staying Human: New Poems for Staying Alive. It's the fourth in series of anthologies edited by Neil Astley and published by Bloodaxe Books. I pre-ordered a copy of Staying Human today along with the other three anthologies in the series: Being Human, Being Alive, and Staying Alive.
I ordered these books from bookshop.org, a book shopping site I feel compelled to keep mentioning as an alternative to you know who.
I also shopped at other bookselling sites. I ordered Charles Simic's New and Selected Poems from Powell's Books in Portland. I also submitted an order to Better World Books for poetry books by Billy Collins, Sharon Olds, Carol Jane Bangs, and Ruth Stone plus I ordered the anthology, The Battle Rag, edited by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes.
I am not anti-YouKnowWho. I have an echo dot, a fire stick for my television, and make any number of orders, especially for kitchen items, from the Behemoth Who Shall Not Be Named.
When it comes to books, though, since I'm not in a big hurry to have them arrive, I like buying from these other outlets -- and, many independent bookstores and sellers of used cds/dvds sell through A*z*n and I buy, on occasion, from them.
It's all good.
3. I enjoyed talking with Debbie on the phone for about an hour today. We had a little business to take care of and Debbie described what she does day to day to help out with Jack's remote learning at school and with tending to Ellie. Oh! And let me add that Gibbs is adjusting beautifully to being a New Yorker and he and Ellie have become great friends.
We have no idea when we'll see each other again. We are taking each day and week as it comes. Debbie is making an immeasurably positive contribution to the life of Adrienne, Josh, Jack, and Ellie. My days are full of things I enjoy, even as I spend about 95% of my time in the house. Neither one of us is eager to travel right away. I don't even try to speculate when our current arrangement will change.
Coincidently, Stu is thinking about what might be upcoming in the future in a similar fashion, as you will see below!
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