Monday afternoon things

 * Well, the D'agostini replacement came but it was the WRONG SET. I said I was missing "part 8 on the stove from set 7" and they sent me set 8.

I called them this time - got someone with what sounded like a heavy Central European accent - and hopefully it's resolved but I hope none of my other sets are missing parts.

I now have an extra Snorkmaiden (they didn't want me to send the wrong set back) so I don't know if I figure out someone else to pass her on to, or just take her over to my office as a desk companion.

I hope all the rest of the sets are 100% complete; next time I might just consider trying to rig up something myself.

And I keep forgetting to get clear finish for the floorboards, I have to do that. Maybe if I make the time tomorrow to run errands (the battery in my Minnie Mouse watch died and I can get it replaced at one of the local jewelry stores for just a couple bucks).

* tomorrow is my last fully free day. Wednesday I'm in a "convocation"  all day, Thursday is a departmental meeting, Friday I have a dental checkup. 

I spent today posting my schedule on my door and filling out the paperwork for that for the secretary, and then updating powerpoints for my classes. 

* Saw a "new" cat today - there was an enormous black cat sniffing around the opening of my crawl space and seeing it from the front/side I was afraid it was a pregnant queen and I thought "I really hope she's not thinking about having kittens in my crawl space" and then I heard Rosie (a diffuse longhair calico belonging to neighbors) growling at the black cat. I walked towards Rosie to drive her away and the black cat started making those "I am just a little baby, just a wee innocent babe" meows at me.

then when the black cat turned around I realized it couldn't be a pregnant queen - just a very large, fat, sleek-furred intact tom, which makes me wonder if it's someone's pet that got out because the semiferal toms are a lot more beat up. He ran off though, so I don't know. 

And I don't know what it is about some toms but they DO that, those tiny pitiful baby meows at humans. I don't know for sure what he wanted, food or attention or what. I am a lot more leery about touching/approaching cats now after learning they can carry COVID, though. Also some cats will shred your hand even if they seem like they want to be petted. 

* LOTS of online Disk Horse today

First up: "People are meaner, why are people meaner" and I have THOUGHTS about why but I think actually people have always had that in their hearts and the past few years of politics and the pandemic and the increasing atomization of society has brought people to a place of  "I don't have to pretend to be polite any more" and it does make society worse. (And the whole "saying the n-word" thing - when people claim it "slipped out." I have never thought that word in my life to refer to someone so it's never slipped out and it never would. The word "s**t" might - and has* - but that seems different. I try not to swear because there are still people who are bothered by it, but slurs feel to me like a whole other level of bad beyond four-letter words. 

(*One memorable instance when I was out in the field with a colleague and research students and I stuck my hand into a fire ant nest by mistake. I think if you're ever justified in screaming "S**T" while shaking ants off your hand, that's probably when)

But whatever. I try to be kind, for whatever good that does, even when it feels hard and frankly a lot of the time I do feel like the only one. 

the other topic was a discussion of eating solo in restaurants because apparently some Michelin starred places now charge double prices for solo diners. (Because, I guess, a two-top is the smallest table or some such). And yeah, I will probably NEVER eat at a Michelin starred place, but.....as someone who navigates life solo it does feel a bit like a slap, like a "no, not you, you're not wanted"

And I HAVE had bad restaurant experiences from restaurants humble (being ignored totally at an Applebee's when I just wanted a late lunch, to FINALLY have a server say "Oh, I thought you were waiting for someone!" when I finally got up to walk out) to not-so-humble (A place in Hot Springs, years ago, that a friend had recommended, where I was put back near the bathroom on a non-busy early evening, and got distinctly cool service). (And yet: some places here in town, when the little group of 6 or 8 church ladies eat there, they add an automatic gratuity charge, even though we are all fairly generous tippers)

 And some talk about "oh solo diners are pathetic/they tip badly/they occupy a table a party could occupy"

But yeah. If I get a whiff of being unwelcome in a place I will often bounce rather than stay and try to make the best of it. But it does hurt - especially now when I finally went back to going to restaurants after nearly 3 years of not doing so - to wonder if places even WANT  me eating there. 

(And I will probably soon go back to carry out only, as Eris spreads. I hate this timeline)

And yeah, maybe I don't need to worry, the little mom-and-pop places, the coffee shops, the little bbq joints where I eat seem not to care. But it does bug me to be reminded that there are places I would be unwelcome simply because I am not out on a date.

* The Lahaina fires. I sent some money to the Hawaii Community Foundation (one of the recommended ones). And I realized looking at a map of Lahaina online - very likely the art gallery where my parents bought some prints (and one actual painting) of Hawaiian native birds came from there, I remember the gallery now, and them wrapping the paintings to be shipped back to the States (CORRECTION: mainland! this was after 1959, in fact, it was the mid 80s. I don't know why I still think of Hawaii as its own nation seeing as it's been a state 10 years longer than I've been alive). My mom still has them; they are still up in her entry hall.

It's just all very sad. So many things being lost that will never come back, even beyond all the human loss.