VIRUS TIMES (from Pat Hodapp)
Virus Times Vol XV
Libraries and Post Offices
Things in Santa Fe are opening up. Driving downtown, shop doors were open, albeit with “monitors” at the doors to regulate restrictions. People sitting individually on benches in the shade, temperature had hit in the 80s,
The Library is taking back our checked out books, drop off times are limited, but good to get the DVDs and read books out of the house. To check out books, put the on hold then the library calls to let you know they are ready. Drive to the library and call the number posted in the parking lot sign in designated parking spaces and the staff bring them to a table by the parking spot. Books that are returned are held for a week before shelving. Hurrah, my eclectic reading interests are being satisfied.
Sitting in the parking lot for the brief wait for book delivery I could hear the bells at the Cathedral.
The threat of Post Offices being closed due to political posturing is all too real. Post offices like libraries are community hubs in many small towns. Even in Santa Fe, the lobby is a place to see many friends and acquaintances plus celebrities waiting in safety of 6 foot distancing, but nodding hello and smiling through masks. In small towns, the postal service is more personal. Our small town Michigan post office would call when the baby chicks my mother had ordered arrived to let her know to meet the post man at the mailbox by the road. In Eagle, CO the post office had been moved into a new brick building, but the ranchers coming to get their mail brought the aroma of manure, mud and leather to the small building. Conversation was the order of the day on Saturdays when ranchers and towns people sat on the benches out front before going about their business. Old trucks and horses took up the parking spaces. Even in this online world, the snail mail is a vital part of our connecting.
Heading along St. Francis Drive toward I-25 in Santa Fe a huge lit-up sign proclaimed that all employees at the Speedway truck stop at the next exit were Covid-19 tested. Clever and wise advertising. I expect to see more of such signs even as the threat of the virus subsides.
Virus Times Vol XIV
Magic Every Day
Friends reported seeing a man riding a high wheeler bicycle around the City. You would recognize the bicycle, a huge oversized wheel in the front and a smaller one in the back. The bicycle is best known as a Penny Farthing and was an early bicycle before our modern ones took over. The man was dressed with a fancy vest and bowler hat. The bicyclist turned out to be Doug, the minister at a Lutheran Church who said he just wanted to bring some unexpected pleasure to those isolated in their homes. Good show.
I put eggshells outside to work into the soil under a tree in my front yard. I got busy and left the half shells intact, not crushing and burying them. A neighbor who walks with her young daughter told me that her daughter confided in her that the shells were from dragons that had hatched. I need to find the painted, hand–carved dragon I purchased in Oaxaca to put among the shells. Love the imagination of this little girl who sees magic in something as ordinary as egg shells.
An artist in Santa Fe wraps smooth river stones with raffia and other natural wrapping materials. They are simple and elegant. I think I will wrap some and place them in the garden area by my sidewalk. Someone asked if I were afraid someone would take them. My reply? That would be wonderful. We all want to find a bit of magic on an ordinary walk, like when you find a sand dollar washed up on the beach.
My hummingbirds are slow to appear this year at the feeders I have put up. They are not really mine, but I feel attached in particular to one broadtailed one who does aerobatics and flies from the front of our house to the back to protect his territory. He/she waits for other hummingbirds who dare try to get to “his” feeders, hovering in the covering branches of an apple tree before launching an attack. Sitting quietly with a straw hat on, I attracted some of these magical birds who explored my hat! Just learned that a flock of hummingbirds is a “charm.” How well-named.
Several years ago I coordinated events at the Library and other non-profit events in town. I loved to engage the local Wise Fool’s circus group’s creatures on stilts. With costumes often creating tall birds with long feathery wings, the 12 foot tall stilted performers only needed to appear to create a sense of magic. Adults as well as children were enthralled. Maybe we should all wear stilts on our daily walks.
Look for magic and create it everywhere in your everyday life. It is not as dull as we believe in this locked down time.
Virus Times Vol XIII
Connections with the World
I was the recipient of dozens of emails and cards for my Mother’s Day birthday. Who knew Hallmark made a Happy Mothers’Day birthday card? My family, friends, and Facebook friends came through making it a special day.
Then this past week my email was spoofed, not hacked thank heavens as I went through that a few years ago and could not convince the powers that be that I was “me” and I had to change my email.
A scam request went out to my entire email list asking for your assistance in purchasing a gift card for my “nephew” as I was too ill or disabled to do it.” Yikes! Clever scammers, but you all were too smart to fall for it.
The great news is that I heard from hundreds of friends from all over the world, including many I had not been in touch with for years. The responses were touching and humorous.
A nephew wrote and asked when he would be getting the gift card.
Another friend asked what to do with the $1500 gift card he had purchased. Hah.
The man whose stucco company had redone our house three years ago called to check on me.
My Woman’s Club members checked in on me.
My best friend from Kindergarten got in touch with me as did several grade school friends.
My mother would have been proud, as many said they knew the email was a scam because it did not have my good English and grammar in the message.
It was time consuming to change passwords and delete undeliverable mail, but honestly the scammers gave me a great gift. I had such wonderful messages of support and concern from so many people. The world came to me in a surprising way. It really was a gift.
Thanks to all of you, in this Covid19 lock down, we can still stay in touch.
Virus Times Vol XII
Our Neighborhood
Tonight, May 13 our neighborhood is celebrating the 95th birthday of John V. The sing out will welcome walkers, bicyclists and even drive bys. The celebration will be held on the sidewalk in front of his home. All social distancing will be observed, plus masks. Happy Birthday John!
A response to my story of the sourdough starter from my friend E:
“Your sourdough starter story makes me recall my foray into making Friendship cakes. Back in '83, fresh out of college and living in Silicon Valley, I had a starter living in my small apartment counter. One time I overfed and when I came back from work it (literally) had overflowed and crawled across the counter top, onto the floor and was making its way to the front door.” Was the last time she tried it.
Our neighbor F has been diligently identifying birds this Spring. He found a website, Cornell University’s All About Birds, which has bird pictures and bird calls to make identification easier. It also has plans for bird houses and lots more. He has found that when he has the bird calls turned on to play in the yard more birds come. He has not tried the Condor call yet. I would be worried about playing a vulture call.
My email was “spoofed” today, thank heavens not hacked. Asked all of my contacts, that includes you, to purchase gift cards for my nephew. One of my first calls was from one of my seven nephews asking if the gift card was for him. Hah.
Virus Times Vol XI
My Sourdough Starter has Become Demanding
Friends blithely start sourdough starter, after all it is so easy. Flour, water leave on the kitchen counter and just feed it twice a day with more flour and water. How hard is that?
But once they begin, the starter is like a science fiction creature, like Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors. “Feed me,” it calls out to you. More than once I have jumped out of bed to feed the starter that I had forgotten to feed that evening. But how many loaves of sourdough bread can you make in a week? Friends start to look for other recipes, pancakes, pretzels, coffee cake, and, and, and… It is so demanding.
In the 1970s there was a fad, like making sourdough bread today, that ran through communities. It was a recipe for a Friendship Cake, sometimes called Amish Friendship bread. The concept was that one made basic starter (often with added sugar), then made the cake and presented it to a friend with the requisite starter so they could make the cake. Like a chain letter, the a cake and starter was to be given to another person.
The cake was delicious, but all of a sudden some of us were the recipients of more cakes and starter than we could handle. If you gave a dinner for friends you had to be explicit and say, thanks for offering to bring dessert, but, NO Friendship Cake! Rumor was some church bake sales banned them as they were so ubiquitous.
One recipe has a fruit component where you mix a brandied fruit filling that you let sit on your counter for 30 days—it is more than a cake, it is a commitment! Hearing of the 30 day type, a friend commented that was longer than a lot of his relationships!
There are lots of recipes online, choose one that looks good to you. Traditionally the Friendship cake is baked in a bundt pan, but loaf pans will do.
In a children’s book on pioneers, a young girl making her first batch of bread with starter that had been in their family for over 100 years, carefully fed and cared for. She finished baking the bread and could not find the thick flour ball of starter dough she had put aside. She was devastated. The bread was a part of their family history and had its own flavor. Then when moving the baking bowl, she found she had put the bowl on the thick starter she had saved. All was well. I think the story was Caddie Woodlawn and I still remember the importance of that starter to their pioneer life and the tradition that was almost lost.
With that in mind, is it really so hard to make starter and feed it? Share it with friends, bake more and keep a tradition in your own family. Oh, my starter is calling me, time to make bread.
