Half a Year Gone By!

Thursday, September 17, 2020

Here we are 6 months in! While I have been out of the house occasionally with my snazzy Dawn Oman artsy mask, it is still kind of odd to go out among real people other than my husband and our dog. I’ve been keeping in touch with relatives and friends via email, Facebook and now Zoom.

I have also been paying close attention to our municipal election slated for October 17. I will be the Deputy Returning Officer for 2 days of the Advance Poll and the Deputy Returning Officer on Election Day in one of the Districts. [I had to decline as my health made me unreliable.] This will be a new experience for us all here in Annapolis County. We’ll be voting electronically – phone or online. If you don’t know how to vote online, you can go to the poll in your district and there are people to help you out. No paper. No staying late to count ballots! I’ve done that a few times over time.

I had call from my sister to ask me (as the keeper of the family history and Matriarch now) for ancestor information for her grandchildren for a school project. I spent a lot of time filling in the Family Tree  and it sure is handy to have. I haven’t looked at it for a while and was surprised to see over 2,700 people on it. I may have gone a little overboard but it is for me and 2 husbands so that makes it interesting.

I belong to a small group called the Parker Mountain Wind Turbine Society. Once a year, the owners of the Parker Mountain turbine gives 1% of their annual earnings from the turbine back to the community. We were formed to disburse those funds. After 3 years, we have given out almost $40,000 to small non-profit groups in our area. This year, we delayed the disbursement because of the pandemic and finally were able to get together and make our decisions. It is hard because all are hurting and finding it difficult to do their regular fund-raising events. We had many applications but only so much to give out.

In this Time of COVID-19, I came across a piece in an interesting book I’m reading – PRESS ENTER TO CONTINUE: Scribes from Babylon to Silicon by Joan Francuz (2018). Ms. Francuz lives in Annapolis Royal and has written a most engaging account of “the history of our digital age through the words of the people who described things – the scribes and technical writers of their time.” Here is what struck me this morning –

“The people living during the period that we call the Renaissance didn’t use that word to describe their age. It wasn’t until the 1830s that the word Renaissance was even used. Their story begins in the aftermath of a plague, and covers a few hundred years when the very idea of the individual was born, and maps of the known world were expanded to include whole new continents.

“Ironically, it was death that made this change possible. During the Middle Ages, everyone was part of a community, and any individual yearnings a person might have were trumped by the goal of helping their community survive.”

I could go on quoting this delightful book kindly loaned to us by good friend Bob Maher.

I am keeping busy.

Onwards!