CONTENTS 5/27/2020
COVID Testing Available
Betsy Brown MD
Preparing To Chalk?
Music Venue Closed
Radio Free Flip: Cherry Street & Apple Pie
COVID TESTING AVAILABLE
Widespread testing is now possible in Whatcom County. In recent weeks, the Whatcom County Health Department has said that there are enough supplies and equipment locally to expand testing so that even those with mild symptoms could, and should, get tested.
https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/coronavirus/article242942181.html
BETSY BROWN MD
Grief is real and here to stay for a time. The official count of COVID-19 deaths in the US passed 100,000 today, less than 3 months after the announced first death on February 29. . . Funerals and weddings are two of the biggest culprits in transmissions, so aren’t options right now. People yearn to grieve together. . . How to respond and grieve with our hurting loved ones? As Parker Palmer points out often just the gift of “presence” and “being with” them, not with advice, but just being with them, is the best thing. This presence can be done with a regular phone call, a video visit, a physically distant meet up in a park. We can’t fix their pain or what caused it, but we can be their witness. This is a gift we can give.
https://betsybrownmd.substack.com/p/may-27-2020
PREPARING TO CHALK?
I’ve been digging around online, and found some good advice for Chalkers:
Bring protection for your knees and your skin – back of neck & hands. You might want to plan your masterpiece in advance. Make a sample and draw a grid over it. Then draw a big grid on your chunk of sidewalk and copy your artwork to each square, like paint-by-numbers. This will help with keeping things in proportion as you increase the size. Start drawing and coloring from the top and work your way closer to your body to keep from smudging your work.
Here are tips from Mayme Seaton of Forest Grove Oregon in 2014 (I found her online) quoted in https://www.oregonlive.com/
- Take comfort seriously
- Don’t take your art too seriously
- Darker colors last longer
- Make chalk paint
- Prepare to ruin your clothes
MUSIC VENUE CLOSED
The Firefly Lounge at 1015 N. State St. announced in an email and on social media that it will not be reopening.
https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/business/article243007621.html
SONG: CHERRY STREET & APPLE PIE
A reader reminded me of this song last night, and I dug up a link for you. After Zeke’s sonnet about our house, this seemed like a good next song to post (Tangents R Us). I thought I had posted it not that long ago, but I can’t find it on the blog. Anyway, it’s a true story about our block of Cherry Street. When Zeke and I wrote The Heart Of It All for Bea Doran’s 50th birthday, one of my neighbors pointed out that I had left out the big pie escapade. That story required its own song.
http://www.breskin.com/flip/CherryStPie.mp3
Love/Fl!p 360-671-4511 cell/text flip@columbianeighborhood.org