Seven Quick-ish Takes-- Venturing Out

1.) We're finally "allowed" to come back to mass this Sunday.

Corpus Christi Cathedral
Image Credit: Creative Commons

It really is a wonderful Mother's day present. It is. I've missed getting to go to mass.

But it's going to be really weird. They're only allowing 25% capacity, everyone is encouraged to wear masks, we all have to receive communion in the hand (or make special arrangements with the pastor for after the mass), and there's supposed to be a clean up crew after every mass sanitizing everything.

Some of the larger parishes are coping by having 4 or 5 or even 6 masses in a day. Our parish is just keeping the two: Saturday night mass at six and Sunday morning mass at nine. I'm wondering if mass attendance will increase -- I wouldn't be surprised if we end up absorbing some overflow from the larger Churches.

The obligation to attend is waived until the end of June, and they've said in several places that we need to STAY HOME if we're feeling at all sick, so I think the diocese foresees some of the logistical stuff too. I'm glad our Bishop seems motivated to open things back up despite that.

There are some really beautiful things about living in a majority Catholic area, but in this case I think it's going to lend itself to some logistical challenges.


2.) A post of mine "took off" on social media, which is exciting-- except that its opening sentence is really poorly done. It's clumsy, and awkward, and weird. 

The existentialist crises of poor writing...why didn't I do a re-write? Why?
Image Credit: Creative Commons

Usually I consider a post to have performed well if it gets around 70 views. I'm still heading a teeny tiny blog, and I don't put a ton of time or effort into promoting it. (Frankly, when it comes to the business side of blogs I'm absolutely clueless as to how to do it in a way that reflects my actual writing style -- all the advice I've seen is aimed towards those with a specific marketable niche. But that's a post for another day).

Once in awhile though, I'll end up writing a post that I'll share to a group on Facebook, other people will like it, it'll get shared around some, and I'll end up getting a few hundred views. This past week, I wrote a post on finding and maintaining appropriate boundaries with priests  that got shared on a couple groups and shot up to 300 something views.

Which is great and exciting...except that I really hate the opening sentence of the post.

There's nothing grammatically wrong with it per sey, it just comes off as the work of a know-it-all high school senior trying to work big words into their college application essay.

And now, since it's already been read so many times and it's been a couple of days since I wrote it, I'm not totally sure I should edit it. I edit stuff all the time when it only has a few views, but when it's had several, it sort of feels like revising a historical record.

I dunno. How do my fellow bloggers handle this?

3.) Zucchini. So MUCH of it. 

The "Brother Beater", king of the squash

I've heard stories of gardeners being snowed in by a sudden deluge of the baseball bat shaped squash, but I've never actually seen it until now.

Our garden is actually doing pretty well this year, which is exciting. The addition of an irrigation system has done wonders.

But the zucchini has gone bonkers. We're out there at least every other day picking them; one a few days ago had a massive size and thick, voluptuous shape that earned it the title of being a "brother beater" (what my family of origin dubbed any large squash or other vegetable theoretically capable of being used as a bludgeoning weapon).

I've been trying to incorporate it into meals as much as I can, and we've been giving it away, but it keeps on coming. It's looking like I might have to shred and freeze some for future batches of zucchini bread if this keeps up.

4.) Dress shopping during a pandemic is kind of complicated and really stinks. 

Elusive creatures, these things.
Image Credit: Creative Commons

In California, the governor is saying that they're going to have to keep a tight watch on how many people they allow to gather for quite some time. This means that my brother's wedding to a girl from Los Angeles, a long planned for affair involving a lot of people and an epic trip across half the continent, will no longer be possible.

This has resulted in my being battlefield promoted to bridesmaid in the wedding, now moved to Indiana, where he and his fiance met and have been living.

And that has resulted in my suddenly needing a navy blue dress (thankfully not a particular dress, just a blue one), preferably one that actually fits and looks nice, by this time next month.

Here in Texas, Governor Abbot has started the long, gradual process of re-opening the state, so some retail places have opened. Chris agreed to watch the kids, and I grabbed my mask and travel bottle of sanitizer and set out.

Seeing the difference between the different stores was really interesting. Goodwill was surprisingly the most cautious of any store I visited that day. There was a sanitizing station by the carts, every employee was wearing a mask and gloves, the changing rooms were closed, and there were clear plastic partitions in front of all the cashiers and tape on the floor showing appropriate distance.

There was a Burke's Outlet and Hobby Lobby I visited (the Hobby Lobby was at the end of the day...I was starting to give up hope by this point and decided to price making a dress...which, with all new material and a new pattern, would actually run me as much as a nice new one. So probably not going to do that) that were pretty comparable, with employees wearing masks and clear partitions in front of the check out counters.

One or two stores I tried to visit were still completely shut down altogether. Ross even had huge hurricane shutters down over the door.

And then I walked into a locally owned boutique that seemed to ignore the pandemic altogether. No one was wearing a mask, no tape on the floor, no plastic partitions, and the changing rooms were open. It was the only place I went that day where I felt out of place wearing my mask.

And, incidentally, the only place I found a dress that I liked. And it was two sizes too small and they didn't have my size.

Like I said, pandemic dress shopping stinks.

5.) There is a mountain of cardboard boxes in our hallway, and I'm not sure what to do about it. 

Behold my Shame.

Evidently we're collecting them now?

I sometimes use them to keep grass down around the garden or as a work surface for kids' crafts involving paint and or glue.

But they've been building up and slowly taking over the hallway until it looks like something from an episode of Hoarders. Sometimes they even all fall down and block the path to the bathroom.

The horror.

6.) I played and beat a video game by myself for the first time in my life (not counting educational PC games like Math Blaster or Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego when I was in third grade. And I never actually beat Math Blaster).

Image Credit: PlayStation

It's called The Lost Legends of Redwall: The Scout. 

I'd rate it challenging, fun, really reminiscent of the books written by Brian Jacques. Chris bought it for me for my birthday, and I was surprised at how much I really enjoyed playing.

Pretty big jump from this at age 10:

Image Credit: Acme Detective Agency (YouTube Channel, Screenshot)

To this at age 20 something:

Image Credit: PlayStation, used under fair use

Really made me want to re-read some of the books, and really really made me wish the libraries weren't still closed.


7.)  I'm finally running out of stuff to do. 

A certain ennui surrounds me...though I don't know why it surrounds this lady. She's outside without a mask and she has that cool fence with all the ribbons.
Image Credit: Creative Commons

Today I cleared out the laundry room of random clutter, but I only arrived at deciding to do this after wandering around the house feeling glassy-eyed and lost for awhile.

I guess I should blog more...?


 See the rest of this week's takes here.