10/30
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| Two days to go |
A cold and wet day. The coldest yet. Under 40 degrees. A day when walking outside just won’t happen. A day that makes it clear that winter will inevitably come and our bucolic outdoor life that has lasted through the first month of fall can’t go on. Tents are appearing, but everything seems empty.
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| a good day for the farmers' market |
I get the word that a good friend from Pittsburgh, one who encouraged my music there, who heads my Pittsburgh band, who was just in my show on the 22nd, is in the hospital with Covid and pneumonia. No corner has been turned.
10/31
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| Farmers' market art |
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| farmers' market art |
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| Halloween |
Halloween. The sun is out. And warmer. A good day for the farmers’ market. And a sit on the bench with coffee and fresh baked cookies.
I also dropped off three shirts I ordered online as part of my random online covid shopping. They took three months to arrive and were at least two sizes larger than I ordered. The thought of trying to return and exchange them is laughable. Part of a bitter lesson I learned about items that pop up on my Facebook page. I'll never trust them without double checking again.
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| Hanging out on Halloween |
Take a long walk into the Upper West Side to get some prescriptions. It’s Halloween, but in a minimalist kind of way. Only a few houses with decorations. A few individuals on their stoops with candy for the intermittent small family units of scattered trick or treaters. Usually this child friendly neighborhood is awash with a steady stream of roving bands from 4 until 9 or so. Blocks vie to outdo each other with intricate and clever spooky decorations and environments. Some arrange with the police to block off streets for free range roaming from building to building. Several of our church members love decorating the entry stairs and narthex of the church and dressing up themselves for hours of candy giveaways, just another way of connecting with the neighborhood. But not this year. I kind of respect the few parents doing their best to keep some semblage of one of those moments that mark our year at least present in some vestigial sense.
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| community garden |
My neighbors do their best to decorate our community garden and set something out for the kids, but they are few and far between.
This Americanized commercialized tamed throwback to something deep in our pagan past, touching on some collective memory. I feel sadness at the missing buoyancy I always experience on this night.
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| masked friends |
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| live gig |
My friend Steve has a live gig at my neighborhood club. I’m shocked they are open. I plan on going early because with the occupancy limits, I’m sure tables will be at a premium. It’s Halloween after all, we’re all anxious to get out. There’s Steve, his bass player Kevin, another 3 to 4 musicians waiting for their set and a couple of other people. That’s it. Steve announces this is the first live mic he’s faced in seven months. He keeps his mask on the whole performance, and so do we all. I jokingly ask if he used a mc condom and he says, I brought my own mic. No way I’m using someone else’s.
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| Ready to roll |
Avoiding the subway he has traveled by his new electric scooter. In his helmet and jacket ready to roll he looks like spaceman or alien.
So the story continues …except for the carefree ..and careless…young adults still floating free in Astoria, the Village, Lower Eastside and select Brooklyn neighborhoods; the rest of us are staying close to home. Risk averse. Each with our own unique set of commonly accepted public health precautions, superstitions and rituals.
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| Go Vote |
It’s two more days until the election. which brings thoughts and anxieties so much deeper than Halloween’s ghosts and goblins.
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