Stormy Weather!

I love The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel. It’s a brilliant T.V. series on Amazon Prime set in the heart of Manhattan’s wealthy Jewish community during the 1950s. The heart of the show is a wonderful central character played by an extraordinary actor—a wealthy young woman who becomes a standup comedian. The score is fabulous and they’ve assembled a delicious smorgasbord of actors/characters.  

I’m barely into it; I speak from the experience of only two episodes. But I Googled it and discovered the writer and the lead actor won an Emmy last year for their roles in the show and the show itself won the best comedy Emmy.

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Chris and Frani wrote to say that they are coming for two nights. They arrive tomorrow (instead of next week). 

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I used to love to think about an impending excitement as I lay in bed awaiting sleep. I always had something “extraordinary” to look forward to: A guest or guests, a date, a now project or a transformative change to a creative project on which I was working, a trip … or whatever. 

This Autumn, so far, has been the stillest period of my adult life. I don’t do, or seek to do, much of anything. Summer imposes responsibilities on me but Fall/Winter on the island is an idle time and Chris.2 is fine with a minimalist approach to living life.

Today is extremely wet. The predicted storm is here but without wind. It’s dark and ominous looking outdoors but I love the sound of the rain on my tin roof. I’d rather just stay home by the fire but today I’ve an arts council fundraising meeting to attend after a dog walk. Today’s community dog walk is cancelled; that’sneverhappened before. That’s how wet it is here today!

I’m glad the postal workers are being legislated back to work. I’ve several things stuck in delivery including all my New Yorkers.

Stormy Weather

I spent Saturday been binge watching Mozart in the Jungle. It ain’t great but it’s fun to watch a soap opera about an orchestra. Plus, there’s the fabulous sound track. Next I’ll binge watch The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, about an entertainer. This is how I pass Fall/Winter alone in the country while I wait for eye surgery.

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Tonight through until Tuesday morning we’re expecting our first real storm of the 2018/19 season. Chances are good there’ll be a power failure.

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A Good Reason to Live on Gabriola: 

Two thousand schools in the United States use textbooks from Abeka,BJU Pressand Accelerated Christian Education(ACE), including tax-funded charter school. Students who learn from these texts are taught that:

• God wanted Protestantism to flourish in North America; 
• Catholicism is not a true faith;
• It was better Africans to be enslaved and come to "know Christ" than to be free but not Christian;
• Evolution is untrue;
• Humans and dinosaurs lived together (and that Noah brought baby dinosaurs on the ark)
• The Loch Ness monster is real;
• "Abortion, gay rights and the Endangered Species Act" are part of a "radical social agenda;"and
• Students of colour are inferior. (60% of the tax-funded scholarship students at charter schools come from minorities and are thus taught that they are racially inferior to their white schoolmates).

The materials are created for people without teaching credentials—many charter schools do not require teacher accreditation. All instruction is delivered through easy worksheets that standardize the educational experience. In Florida, students who attend charter schools on scholarships are not required to take standardized exams that might uncover gaps in their education.

This is “fake news” at its worst! No wonder America has so many sociopolitical problems! They’re perpetuating ignorance.

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Another Good Reason to Live on Gabriola: 

American John Allen Chau. His story is all over the Internet: He traveled to an isolated sanctuary island, North Sentinal Island, that’s off-limits to outsiders. Its primitive residents are isolated because they want to no contact with the world and to protect them from Western diseases. But that didn’t stop John. He wanted to convert the island residents to Christianity. Oh please! I loathe the arrogance of Christian proselytizing so I can’t help but like the irony of the ending of this story: The Sentinelese killed him. It was an outcome everyone with knowledge of the islanders expected.

Be A Racist: Get Rich Quick!

Megyn fucking Kelly worked at Fox News where she displayed sensationalistic headline -grabbing conservative views (or so I’ve read in news coverage). She has blonde hair and is photogenic. NBC hired her to be part of their news division (sic). She defended blackface prior to Halloween and NBC fired her—in my opinion, “for cause.”

In my world of little people, a person fired for cause gets no compensation. Megyn fucking Kelly had a three-year contract that NBC has paid out. Megyn fucking Kelly is being settled with sixty-nine million dollars to go away.

Get a job on TV, make racist slurs and get rich! Not on this island.

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Last night the bright moonlight was awe-inspiring. 

I went spelunking once, in Czechoslovakia, and when we were deep into a cave, they turned the lights out so we could experience true eternal blackness—a total light void. That’s what it’s like here every night without moonlight. I have dull nightlights in order to be able to get around at night and in such blackness, the light of a full moon is truly spectacular. Were it not so cold, I’d have been drawn outside.

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Chris.2—post “breakdown” me—is enjoying improved relations with people. That’s my impression. 

Before my hospitalization, I raised funds for a charity in Vancouver over a ten-year period. I could not bear to work as part of their fundraising committee. I did my own thing and worked with my own long-time associates. 

Here, I love being part of the arts council’s fundraising committee. 

I find everyone is pleasant and effective—the opposite of my experience in Vancouver. I am having fun. And I really enjoy walking with my little dog-walking group. We walk three times a week; they were all strangers when I joined them. As we walk, I spend time with different members of the group each time we go out. We’re about seven people and I like every one of them.

It’s a sweet positive change.