Head First Dive-In

After a too-long hiatus, this unprecedented pandemic has actually delivered a tiny silver lining: less commute time and more home time, which means more blogging time, if I can manage it all properly.... These crazy COVID-19 days have just about everyone working at home so we can collectively try to flatten the curve.  So, pour Moi, that means the dining table, looking out toward The Jardin.

The view has its own charm, even if it’s not the sweeping cityscape of a high story HY view.  I’ve often wondered if working from home might help tip the balance a little bit more toward non-work life; well, now we’re all doing it - so the trial run begins!

Distractions are definitely an issue.  Particularly when they come in the form of young pigeon visitors to the terrace.  Yesterday’s observation: Young pigeons don’t spread their wings to launch - they apparently put their heads down and fall into flight...

... At least, I assume it turns into flight (rather than death). There were three pigeons originally, and each of the other two did it the same way.  Mother Nature can’t have designed them to launch that way if it leads to harm, right?

Maybe there’s something instructive in that - to trust instinct, and dive in head first, and go with it.

Radical Changes Afoot

Contemplating big life changes.

Changes are hard to make, so sometimes it is a blessing to be forced to change.  Hopefully the changes to come prove to be blessings.  Right now, it is hard to say.  Other than that they will be pretty radical.

There is a proposal on the table to reduce my work hours, to bring them more into line with the billables I can manage.  I didn't realize this was even an option without an actual family obligation.  How helpful it could be to get me to that goal - of having an actual familial obligation.  After giving so many hours for so many years.  The question now is by how much...  Lots of numbers to crunch.

Christmas 2019 in the Rear View Mirror

Christmas 2019 at the Mother Ship in Queens.

Before more time passes, some images to record the day ... a mish mash of Mother Hen hobbies (that’s right, the plants have taken over the upstairs bathroom), Papa Rooster eccentricities (juxtaposition of scale model of house and erratic holiday lighting of actual house), and my hobbies/just being...

Wooden Snoopy, painted at a classmate's party sometime during the latter half of elementary school.

Santa socks, snow globe pajamas.

Mama's African violets.

Papa's model of the Mothership.

Papa's lights for the coming year.

Burlap wrapped gift with recycled ribbon and card tag.

Haphazard tree lights.

A lot lamp post.

Mama's amaryllis.

Bathroom jungle, by the only southern exposure upstairs.

Christmas cactus, blooming on schedule.

More African violets...

... in different shades.

Classic poinsettia.

What’s to be drawn from this?  Interestingly, my interests seem to be a mix of theirs.  The green thumb is definitely Mother Hen.  The shelter interest would seem more Papa Rooster, though, truth be told, he hasn’t a particularly strong interest in home improvement - his has more to do with blingy-ness of whatever is on hand or has caught his eye at that moment.  And the overarching theme?  A high tolerance for some messiness and coziness and relaxed, non-neat, non-minimal, non-streamlined existence.

[Edited February 8, 2025 to add photo captions and delete "compromised" tag.]

That Man Woman Work Thing

We think we're enlightened, but men and women still revert to traditional roles when making use of workplace leave policies.

So, we've come a long way, but not far enough.  Women are still supposed to be nurturers and men are still supposed to be breadwinners....  So employers offer all these great policies that are supposed to support families, and then corporate America thinks it has done all it can do.  But men don't actually utilize the benefits.  And women do; more like, women are stuck utilizing the benefits.  So then women get dinged, and men don't.  And so the cycle continues - women make less, so then it makes more sense for them to step away from the workforce.

Argh!!  It's a giant hamster wheel, gentlemen - jump the heck off it once in a while!  Help out the ladies, won't you?  Take your full paternity leave, for heaven's sake!

Too Small to Fail

Making changes can be hard.  But Arianna Huffington breaks it down - first time I have heard the term "microsteps" - all with the goal of "how we can actually be more productive when we prioritize our well-being and take time to unplug and recharge."  The very essence of balance.

It's not a new concept, but nice to get an additional take on the whole process and approachable phrasing to go with it.  As the article says, "behavior change ... is built on the idea of microsteps. These are small, actionable and science-backed steps you can take to make immediate changes in your daily life. It’s the idea that if you make the steps small enough, they’ll become too-small-to-fail. And as research has, starting small makes new habits more likely to stick."

She lays out a plan of ten microsteps.  Happy to say that some are already part of what I do - sitting down for meals, getting away from the desk at work.  But there certainly is room for incorporation of the others - lots of room.

And the approach works for other big goals too, which I have been trying to implement - weight loss and health, activism, many areas where microsteps can be applied.  Maybe those can be the subject of future blog posts - pathways to more content!

In From the Cold

As a caterpillar fattened itself for the coming Winter on the petunias, ...

... it was time to rescue the tender bonus hydrangea...

... and geranium...

... and strawberry plants, ...

...and do some seed gathering along the way. 

Their indoor home will be the planter vacated by one of the old mandevillas that got consolidated. 

Unorthodox gardening tools?  Perhaps slightly unorthodox....  Yes, that is a sled, liberated from the sidewalk piles, great for containing stray soil on slatted tables (and if we ever get our sledding hill back from the bulldozers behind Gracie Mansion, great for use by petite adults!).

And yes, disposable chopsticks wrappers repurposed as seed envelopes. 

And, yup, all of these plant transfers done on the convertible bench table used as half-table while the wooden table awaits repairs.  Repurposing and multitasking!

Marathon Sunday Captivity Activities - 2019

Yorkville life on Marathon Sunday.

Living on the east side of First Avenue, every first Sunday of November means we need to plan on staying put in the neighborhood until much of the New York City Marathon is over.  So, with the sun out yesterday, what better day to plan to transition the tropicals indoors?

But the day started with hauling out to cheer on a high school friend running in the marathon. In years past, sometimes I have missed my tracked runners altogether - easier now that there's a tracking app, but still, there are lots of runners to scan and locate. So this year, a sign was in order. And, drawing inspiration from all the other runners to get up and move...

... off to walk and check out the Smashing Pumpkins event at Andrew Haswell Green Park on the East River Esplanade ...

Finally, back to the task at hand. The old mandevillas did not grow much over the season, and some departed for plant heaven, so one got dug up and consolidated into the planter with the other old timer mandevilla; the interwebs say the tubers aren't really necessary to the plant, but just in case, I decided to move them too and delay any experimental trimming for next Spring. The baby apple trees grown from seeds of a delicious apple moved into the same planter - all a bit crowded, but they can keep each other company New York City style.

Happily, the Thai lime recovered from my neglect of last Winter. Not sure how it will do without a main leader trunk; we shall see. Bringing it in made clear there are little offshoots that will be too close to the main growths, so I decided to try to train them to grow a little more outward.

By dark (earlier now with the end of Daylight Saving time), everyone had been settled into the "Winter Greenhouse" - a.k.a. the unoccupied windowsills in the guestroom.

[Edited February 8, 2025 primarily to intersperse text with photos and remove "compromised" tag.]