BS: stay afloat while others don't

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Mar 25 - 01:21 PM

Interesting post, Keb. And it is never too late to do that mentoring, should you choose.

Sharing your experiences here, and in particular, your participation in musical performances in your area have been very interesting, and might just encourage someone to go try out to join a chorus or choir in their area.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 18 Mar 25 - 11:54 AM

Recently I have been on a nostalgia kick of sorts.
I've been looking up, online, the people with whom I associated
some thirty years ago, in a different part of the country.
During that time I was giving up music as a livelihood
after having studied nothing else for years, and
I felt lost and adrift much of the time.
I looked outside myself a lot for strength and positivity.

I looked up both people whom I shied away from and people whom I felt safe with, and learned a few things.
Thirty years ago the internet was not what it is now, for one thing.
People have websites now who didn't have them then.

My baptismal sponsor -- I entered the church as an adult --
died at the age of eighty-seven; I had lost contact with her.
The performance troupe leader whose group I quit, because the leader had such a toxic attitude,
is still out there, although no longer touring.
Then there is the theatre person who let me live in her house
after I rejected an offer to tour with an opera company;
this latter is still around, and responded positively to my e-mail.

These people provided examples, positive or negative, of how to blaze one's own trail and go outside conventional livelihoods.
And in their own way they were generous to me
and acted as mentor figures.
Today I do not mentor others as I was mentored,
although when I was young I had that ambition, to teach others.

But I can reflect today on what I was taught and how I learned.
And it is pleasant to remember that part of the country,
where I had some happy years
and a big change from where I grew up or went to school.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Mar 25 - 07:04 PM

Well, there is a rainstorm forecast to come this way soon,
so it will be "mud season" in earnest.
But until the storms come,
we are enjoying the light in the evenings from daylight saving time,
and the temperate clear weather in which to enjoy the evenings.

And it's going to be rain, not freezing rain or snow anymore.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 08 Mar 25 - 01:25 PM

There is a chest cold/flu thing running around my area, that is dropping people for weeks at a time. I have dodged it so far.

Weather warming, we change our clocks tonight.

Some creeping anxiety is also being kept at bay...

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 07 Mar 25 - 06:15 PM

My sinuses and nose are free at last,
it's been two and a half weeks of this infection.

This just as March winds are blowing at high speeds
and the nights are gradually getting warmer.
All that ice has nearly melted.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 04 Mar 25 - 09:03 AM

>> So very not watching any news.
>
> I wish I could persuade Herself that watching the TV news while
> eating is bad for the digestion, especially these days.

Herself turned on the news today,* saw five seconds of the current blethers, said "I can't bear to watch," and turned off the TV. *Result*.

* Oh boy.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 03 Mar 25 - 07:58 PM

I have reached a compromise with the chorus director.
I'm going to drop out of the concerts that happen in less than two weeks
and feature Broadway musicals.
My cold symptoms have kept me away from three rehearsals.
I'll attend as a member of the audience, with cough drops.

And I will plan on singing in the concerts at the beginning of June,
which we will rehearse following the Broadway concerts.
This takes a little pressure off of me
and gives me more time to recover.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Mar 25 - 04:57 PM

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. The Seattle Public Library has it as an audiobook, so a lot of others probably do also.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 01 Mar 25 - 03:50 PM

--- Rats: When we helped clear out my late father's house, I clean forgot to bag his copy of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. That (had it not been ditched along the way) would be pertinent reading today, for the same reason as Gibbon's Decline and Fall.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 01 Mar 25 - 02:51 PM

I'm not happy, but I'm not surprised either.
I keep thinking of Gibbon's
HIstory of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire.
We have a president who has a Caesar complex.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Mar 25 - 01:09 PM

Deer in the headlights here.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 01 Mar 25 - 06:57 AM

I found myself nurdling around the house this morning, unable to do anything much. Then I realised: I'm in shock from last night's shitfest in the White House. *Then* my mind changed up a gear, and I could get on with what I was supposed to be doing.

It was the realisation that I was in shock, and that this was a waste of time, that helped me get past the shock and reboot my mind. Hope this helps, folks.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Feb 25 - 07:43 PM

I use a neti pot to soothe and clear sinuses. The warm water with a blend of table salt and baking soda (never do just water, it really hurts) works well.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 27 Feb 25 - 06:54 PM

Ginger in your tea, keb!

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 27 Feb 25 - 06:18 PM

This virus has gotten hold of my sinuses and won't let go.
The cough is nearly gone, apart from post-nasal drip.
I just wish I could breathe freely through my nose.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Feb 25 - 03:37 PM

My cold has gotten to the point where
I feel better and sound worse;
the cough is loosening things up at last. It was tight for a while.
I don't have much of an appetite,
but I'm drinking water like crazy.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 22 Feb 25 - 01:50 PM

Current fear is that they're going to rescind my passport (gender=X), and probably refuse to renew it. Driver's licence too has X as my gender, but that's state-issued. They'll likely just not allow it on renewal, but that's not for a while, it's pretty new.

Dad died working for USAID. That part isn't making me too happy either.

Argh.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Feb 25 - 12:19 PM

I can understand Mrrzy staying away from the news; it's quite a roller coaster ride emotionally. I'm writing and calling my representatives several times a week now. Sending postal mail and faxes also. What's old is new again.

Hoping for a good outcome of whatever that meeting was about, Keb. Get over that cold quickly.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 22 Feb 25 - 08:59 AM

The case conference is over. The chairperson was actually very kind and gentle, and eased me through my interview well.
I will know more about the proceedings from a formal letter that will be written to me, and my therapist and I will have days of discussion about it.

Now I just have to get over this wretched virus,
my nose and chest are swimming in congestion.
Although with the meds I have been using at night,
it is starting to feel better already.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 21 Feb 25 - 12:00 PM

> So very not watching any news.

I wish I could persuade Herself that watching the TV news while eating is bad for the digestion, especially these days. Then she complains about the state of her stomach. *Sigh*.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 20 Feb 25 - 10:29 PM

So very not watching any news.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 20 Feb 25 - 05:54 PM

Tomorrow I have a second "case conference" to attend.
My anxiety is so great that I am too nauseated to eat supper.
I need to get some rest.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Feb 25 - 02:46 PM

Mrzzy, you live in a state that is about to get a lot of attention, with so many federal employees and a governor who is term limited so there is an election this year. How are you doing in that environment?

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 19 Feb 25 - 01:18 PM

On Sunday night I came down with the viral cold that is going around.
I've been tested for COVID and 'flu; both negative.
Since I live in "congregate housing" at the moment,
I have to wear a facemask -- they insisted, as I guess they should.
In the meantime, drinking fluids and sucking cough drops.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 17 Feb 25 - 10:37 AM

I have nurses' orders to stay home from chorus rehearsal tonight.
Thankfully I tested negative for COVID.
So what I have is a persistent cough which keeps me awake.
So it's rest and fluids and stay off the hazardous road conditions.

Mrrzy, how's the weather in Virginia??

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 13 Feb 25 - 07:22 PM

Maybe I am wrong about this, but there are things about the current US situation
that remind me of Brexit, of all things.
I've been talking with one of my friends about this,
my friend sees things a little more clearly than I do.
He has pointed out that one outcome of current decisions and directions
is to put the US in a state of isolation in the world.
And Brexit has had an isolating effect, to be sure, upon the UK.
I have a new appreciation for the British mudcatters
and the circumstances that went out of control for them.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 07 Feb 25 - 04:53 PM

Sorry about the news triggers, Mrrzy, but
glad that you got off the meds in one piece.
Keep on keeping on.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Feb 25 - 04:04 PM

For even the most robustly healthy among us these are the times that will try men's anyone's souls. Thomas Paine wrote a pamphlet that had huge circulation in its day and is credited with encouraging the colonies to form the US. It feels like someone needs to write as powerfully and spread the word.

Keep your head down and stay healthy, and when you do come up for air, make it matter. Write a letter, send an email, make a call, and count that is the thing that you can do for the day that will contribute to making a difference. Pace yourself. I have worked out diet and supplements that help me feel better, and that includes the limit of one alcohol per day if at all. This is not the time to deploy crutches.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 07 Feb 25 - 02:23 PM

Hmmm. Noticing a lot of free-floating anxiety running around behind my sternum, and my shrink just came down with the flu... I was going to tell him about it this afternoon.
Dad was working for USAID when he was killed. Not reading the news much these days.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 05 Feb 25 - 07:55 PM

I'm back off the meds, at least. Handling the world, mostly.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 02 Feb 25 - 05:12 PM

My meds are strictly controlled by the treatment program I'm in.
Can't even take vitamins without their say-so.
I'm allowed Vitamin D for its impact on depression.
I get my meds dispensed to me in a two-week supply, twice a month.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Feb 25 - 11:20 AM

I have some of the small pill caddies here, in the bathroom with my morning prescription, and in the kitchen with vitamin supplements. In the last year I've explored what Dr. Daniel Amen calls "nutraceuticals," one I particularly like is derived from green tea. Because things are as dramatically stressed these days I got out another small caddy and put the daily recommended dose (with food) of a couple of those so I don't lose track and overdo. Even with those things you want to pace yourself. And in the next four years, we'll be pacing ourselves mightily. (Hopefully in two years we can put the brakes on the worst damage by flipping the house and the senate). All of this because alcohol is too destructive a product to use to self-medicate. #StayAfloat indeed. Not awash.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Feb 25 - 10:38 AM

I must say I am not being entirely satirical
that you are here today because of thousands
to near-impossible-infinite miracles.
Some you can remember but most are secret.
It's just accidental you are not an egret.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Helen
Date: 01 Feb 25 - 05:51 PM

OMG. What a freaky coincidence!

"You don't know this music!"

Our amateur Irish/Celtic music session group has been together for over 40 years and in the last few years we have had two new members who have put the music out of sync, mainly because they don't actually like Irish and Celtic music, and they don't "get" (i.e. understand) the rhythms and feel of the different types of Irish and Celtic tunes and try to impose their musical conceptions onto the tunes to the point of ruining the actual tunes. My plea for them to rethink their understanding of the music has been, "You don't 'get' this music!"

A small few of us have broken away from the main group and started a more caring and sharing group, with good communication and negotiation, and an appreciation and understanding of the music we like to play.

I created a little motto: Music COALESCES.

Creating (an) Open Active Learning Environment. Social, Cooperative, Enhancing Skills.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 01 Feb 25 - 02:54 PM

Lip-synching by the illiterate bass?
He does more than lip-sync.
Sometimes he listens to the melody in the soprano section
and sings it an octave or two down. Other times,
He listens to that other bass, the literate one, then follows him.
Literally follows, vocally, so he is a split second late.
And the bass section is divided between
those who follow the literate bass
and those who follow the equally loud illiterate one.
It makes the bass section rhythm really sloppy,
and the director has to call the men out several times in the course of a schedule of rehearsals.
I've known the director, during the rehearsal, to look
the illiterate bass in the eye and say, in front of the group,
"You don't know this music!"
Calmly, he says it, but it gets said.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Helen
Date: 01 Feb 25 - 01:38 PM

keberoxu, I agree:

"From the First Nations standpoint, the world has been out of balance ever since the European colonists showed up in this hemisphere." And for the southern hemisphere as well.

SRS, I've done the same. I started wearing an old Amnesty International t-shirt in the week of Invasion Day (aka Australia Day). I'll have to get some more relevant t-shirts.

Also for a number of years, to commemorate First Nations people who served in the military but were not fully recognised compared with white people, I have crocheted Remembrance Day poppies in the Oz First Nations style, black over red with a yellow circle in the middle Australian Aboriginal flag. So I have pinned one of those poppies on my shirt every day during the week of Invasion Day.

I have noticed that the black, red and yellow are in some of the US First Nations symbols too.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 01 Feb 25 - 12:43 PM

Lots of atheist shirts, for that reason.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Jan 25 - 03:01 PM

I've refreshed my t-shirt collection with messages from the Alt NPS folks, from the Planetary Society, and from the Internet Archive. I'll have to see if the ACLU has shirts also. It's a small thing, but it's out there when I'm at the gym or in the store, and on occasion someone pauses and steps back to comment "great shirt." Message delivered. We need to not hide these interests when the boogeyman is in office. The only time I don't wear a message t-shirt is when I'm at work or giving a tour at the museum.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: The Sandman
Date: 30 Jan 25 - 01:53 PM

Trump and Greenland is ridiculous, he seems to want to have europe as an enemy

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 30 Jan 25 - 01:33 PM

Helen's post reminds me of Koyaanisquatsi, or however you spell it.
It means world out of balance,
and it's the name of a film from maybe twenty or twenty-five years ago.
The word comes from an indigenous language.
From the First Nations standpoint,
the world has been out of balance ever since
the European colonists showed up in this hemisphere.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Helen
Date: 30 Jan 25 - 12:30 AM

Yes, anything could happen in the next four years. The world might be back on its correct axis again. Wouldn't that be lovely! :-)

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Jan 25 - 11:59 PM

Mine has to be renewed in 2026, but who knows what the state of the US government will be by then. Nothing remarkable on it so probably no difficulty. If yours is good until 2029 or later you might not have a problem.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 29 Jan 25 - 03:27 PM

My passport already has X as gender. It hasn't been rescinded yet but I bet it'll be bloody difficult to renew, being personae non gratae and all that.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Jan 25 - 12:44 PM

Yesterday a group of four friends, all former university employees, came over for lunch. In the group disabilities are represented and there are members of the LGBTQ population, and we were verbally tripping over each other in the pleasure of being able to freely vent and share ideas about moving forward in this most recent Trump era. Our lives are all fairly stable, but we fear for friends and family and are planning how to help them and how to be politically engaged (without getting doxxed by the MAGA crowd).

Stay safe, everyone.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Jan 25 - 11:29 AM

Might be a big circle! I hope the new space accommodates it.

Staying afloat in the US just got more difficult. King Donald wants to take apart the social public and private network. I guess he hasn't taken a drive down the main drags in many American cities now to see how many homeless are already out there (largely due to the extra funding that came about during COVID not being renewed by the GOP congress last term.)

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 20 Jan 25 - 11:52 AM

Sing in a circle facing away from each other, was the covid-era advice

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Jan 25 - 03:22 PM

We think the publicity did it, we work hard at getting the word out locally.
What I so often hear is that someone attends a concert, likes what they see and hear,
and then joins the group.

It's only too true about contagious illness and choral singing.
A lot of us are taking our chances doing this.
Especially now the rehearsal room is getting so crowded.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Jan 25 - 02:58 PM

That's good news - what do you suppose sparked the interest in all of these new participants? Good publicity about the program, or did all of them decide they needed to get out more and this is their chosen activity? Either way, it is good news. I hope everyone goes in healthy and all are vaccinated to the eyeballs to avoid spreading colds, flu, Covid, RSV, etc. in those crowded quarters. Singing is one of the activities most likely to spread contagious stuff.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 13 Jan 25 - 08:53 PM

Indeed!

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 12 Jan 25 - 07:40 PM

Another chorus rehearsal tomorrow evening.
The chorus has a happy problem: there are so many new people
that there is hardly enough space for everyone
in the rehearsal room.
Actually our director is beating the bushes in town
for a different place to rehearse that won't cost the earth.
But too many people is a fortunate problem to have,
far better than too few.