Brave Roo World

  800 years in the making.  The 2020 Great Conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon.  A cosmic spectacle, they say.  I can't even remember what day it is or if I took my pills, so I add this event to my Google calendar, which manages my life these days. The day has arrived.  December 21, winter solstice.  The shortest day of the year, and as expected, my Google assistant reminds me to check the skies.  Several times I check the back yard, standing out in the snow without my coat and accompanied by my dogs, who wonder what I'm looking for.  They don't see any rabbits in the yard, I don't see any stars, so we all go back inside. My half-glass full husband sweetly offers to drive me somewhere that it's not cloudy.  Seems reasonable.  I check with my Facebook friends in New York to see if anyone else can see the blessed event.  Nada. Then I Google (there's that company again) "Syracuse NY and Great Conjunction" and find this doom and...

Jenga is a great metaphor for the year 2020.  According to Wikipedia, Jenga  is a  game of physical skill  created by British board game designer and author  Leslie Scott , and currently marketed by  Hasbro . Players take turns removing one block at a time from a tower constructed of 54 blocks. Each block removed is then placed on top of the tower, creating a progressively more unstable structure. Like most people, my husband Dave and I are not getting out much during the pandemic, so it seems our weekly grocery shopping has become one of our only forms of entertainment.  It also feels like security to have a freezer full of food. If we are unable to get out, we have at least a month's worth of food to keep us going.  The only time this could backfire is if we a) lose power or b) receive a gift of food or c) have left overs.   Today we received a very generous gift from my mother-in-law.  A box from Omaha Steaks.  Filet mignon,...

 2020 is Trash:  Observations from suburbia 8/12/2020 There is a sunny side of the street but I prefer the shady side. I was silently admonished for not doing enough by a Lowe's lawn and leaf bag. The slogan on the bag, "What did YOU do this weekend?" My first reaction was guilt. Instead of toiling away at lawn work, I was eating blackberry ice cream (which dripped on my Winnie the Pooh dress, which is ok because Eeyore is already purple) and wandering aimlessly through a sunflower field where most of the heads had already been lopped off. Then my second reaction to the bag: F*** you. I'm 55. How much longer do I have anyway? One street I walked down today had a medium sized mutt tied in the yard while his handler read a book. The pup yipped at me. Obviously it had no idea that my love for dogs far surpasses my love for people. The owner commanded "leave it" repeatedly, as if I were on the same level as a chicken bone that fell out of the trash or a d...