[Magdalen] Safe?

[Marion Thompson]

I think, speaking personally, that this  time out has broken the old mould
and so much no longer seems  of all-consuming importance.as it once did.

Marion a pilgrim

On Tue, Aug 11, 2020 at 2:28 PM cady soukup <cadyasoukup at gmail.com> wrote:

> Enjoying hearing from everyone,
>
> Chicago - what a flash point for weather and emotional turmoil (the
> sparking of riots and consequences thereof). We are at such a series
> of spark points, at every possible level.
>
> Chicago / Illinois weather: I remember a spring summer on the
> quadrangle at U. Illinois in Champaign-Urbana (or "Shampoo-Ipana" as
> my father called it - he & my mother met there in chemistry graduate
> school) when a massive (hail?) storm rolled in and changed the
> temperature from around the 90's to much lower (40's?). There were
> towels and suntan lotion abandoned on the grass while scantily clad
> students scampered into  the various buildings for shelter! Let's see,
> it could have been around 1969 or 1970?
>
> We now have son #2 living with us after a misdirected life adventure
> in Florida. He is working as a manager for several pizza places in
> northern Virginia (Gainesville-Warrenton area), but he has been good
> about wearing a mask and maintaining his distance. Every-other
> weekend, we have his son, our grandson, visiting us as well. Their
> summer project has been to resurrect the "ancient" video game systems
> we managed to keep (we had resident teenagers from 1991 to 2014,
> having failed at family planning).
>
> My spousal unit mostly works from home but is in the office today (he
> goes in almost once a week for planning meetings).
>
> I work entirely from home and am waiting for my job either to end or
> to be transformed into something unrecognizable. It is difficult to
> maintain any kind of enthusiasm either way.
>
> In my area of IT, employment & promotion now heavily depends on
> certifications. IT / tech management classes are now all online, and
> are paced at a rate (overdubbing sentences so as not to waste a
> portion of a second) that can only be understood by reading along with
> the transcript, even by a native English speaker. It would be a really
> good idea for me to get official certifications but my ability to get
> excited about online classes is ... a sign of my general lack of
> enthusiasm for technology at the moment? Bad me.
>
> At least we have live hummingbirds to entertain us, along with our
> usual native visitors (deer, turkeys, bears, etc.), our cats and
> parrots, way too many books to read, and a relatively stable internet
> connection. Lots of weather, few riots.
>
> hugs - blessings - Cady
> in flyover country, Virginia
>