Stage 3 Arrives

 We are the last county in Ontario to be allowed to move to Stage 3 (Stage 1 being the most severe).  It makes little difference to us, since one of us has an auto-immune disease.  And though I am really starting to miss my visits to Detroit, and it seems highly doubtful that I will get to New Mexico this autumn, I am still fine staying home.  Reading and practicing are all going well, and the movies from Criterion just keep on coming.  Deb is deep into her latest Shakespeare film, and my 2nd Valeria novel is nearly done its rewrite.  So it will be status quo around the Homestead.  Maybe a day trip or two once the kiddies are back in school, and if we can get Deb's cough fixed.

I got a phone call from my M.D. this morning, informing me that my latest blood work results were nothing less than perfect.  I am happy to hear it, and have just started Week 10 of the indoor fitness program.  I am anxious for a long walk outdoors, but it's still too warm and humid anyway.

On Sunday afternoon Randy G. stopped by for a visit.  It was scorching hot, but we sat underneath the trees on our front lawn, with a lovely breeze off the river, and sat around and talked for nearly two hours.  Randy is a fellow astronomer I have known since about 1978, and a music lover and loyal attendee at my concerts.  I showed him the new eyepiece set, which has really taken my observing to a new dimension.  These eyepieces give the impression of actually being in space, rather than just looking at it from afar.

As I write, some fierce storms are about 3 ours west, and heading our way.  Chicago just got socked, and looks as if Detroit is next . We are currently playing Middle Earth The Lidless Eye card game, a second try at learning the new game.  We will continue later; now it's time for some dinner.

In movie news, we watched Museum Hours, the 2nd time we have seen this wonderful little film.  It's more an ode to Vienna than a real film, with an extremely thin story backed by plenty of images of the city, and especially of the Kunsthistoriches Museum, and especially the Bruegel paintings.  The city images are not glamourized at all, and Vienna doesn't even seem all that attractive.  It's just a city with working people, and it's December, an off season for tourists.  More than anything else, this film was responsible (after our first viewing several years ago) for finally getting me to book flights to Vienna, and see the city and the Bruegel paintings.  We have now visited twice, with at least one more visit planned, and have now seen almost all the extant paintings by the master.

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

I reconnected with Taeko S. on Facebook, after thinking about her on Hiroshima day.  Of course we have a standing invitation to stay with her in suburban Sydney.  They are currently doing huge renovations on their house.  Her husband is Australian, whom we met in Windsor at a dinner party, but I would love to meet her daughter, who is a music major!  Who knows, it might happen.  I would give a lot to have a dark sky view of the southern constellations.

 

Mapman Mike