Author: Allison Thurman

Raised on a diet of Star Wars, Monty Python, and In Search Of, Allison Thurman has always made stuff, lately out of words. She lives in a galaxy far, far away (well, the DC metro area) with too many books and not enough swords.

the plague diaries: pleasures and wayward distractions

So, week 1 of full-time telework + social distancing and I’m hanging together.

It’s not been total lockdown – I’ve taken a couple of walks in the park though it’s tricky finding a time when everyone isn’t having the same idea. I think everyone is still sorting out the difficulties of keeping 6 feet distance (the entrance to the park is narrow enough that really only one person can go in or out at a time, so pauses to sniff the roses hold up everyone). Also it’s still rainy and chilly. So I’m still doing a lot indoors. But I’m making good use of my time (because anxiety hates idleness).

Yes! This is biweekly links with a theme! First off, keeping active:

Rockville Fencing Academy coach Aklesso’s at-home workout (YouTube): the footwork in particular works up a sweat. The blade work I’m not sure I have enough room to do – I risk both my basement wall and ceiling trying the “around the back” infighting seen at 18:00.

Vermont Fencing Alliance’s cat toy fencing drills #1 (YouTube): because I have cat toys…everywhere. Though I will likely make a tennis-ball-in-sock target of my own I may well find my cats chasing it because it’s in the house, so it must be theirs.

Keeping my brain moving:

Masterclass: Neil Gaiman Teaches the Art of Storytelling: this link probably shows up on your social media all the time and so may not need more props from me but 2 lessons in I think it’s worth the hype. This is also social – I’m taking it with a couple of friends. And if it goes well there are any number of other writing classes to take (hey, look at that, I posted a writing thing!)

Helping out:

Calling All People Who Sew And Make: You Can Help Make Masks For 2020 Healthcare Worker PPE Shortage: there are some mask patterns floating around out there for homemade PPE. At first I was skeptical as there’s no way I can make something equivalent to the protection of medical-grade filters. But, a friend who works in public health (hi Lydia!) assured me it’s necessary due to shortages – something is better than nothing. And sewing is something I can do. I’m using Mark Lewis’ pattern because it includes a pocket for additional filters. Not sure where I’ll send them yet but there are plenty of options.

rectangles of scrap fabric with chalk marks 7 and 8
Just waiting on the rest of the supplies.

MarylandUnites: I have reservations about Governor Hogan but overall I think he’s handling the coronavirus crisis well—in part by consolidating ways to help on this one handy page. I’ve made two donations: cash to my local food bank and blood to the Red Cross (which is safe and desperately needed). I’m sure every state will come up with similar efforts in the coming weeks if they haven’t already – Google is your friend.

Round red sticker: I make a difference. American Red Cross. Allison, 1:27.
The first time I’ve donated since 9/11. I should get into a regular habit.

the plague diaries: that escalated quickly

Yeah, I know – even as I type this I’m tired of coronavirus as well.

At the same time I realize I’m witnessing history in the making so I feel like I ought to document it. And that history is happening really damn fast. Most of the time coverage of a news story consists of the original story followed by hours of tail-chasing analysis but Covid-19 gives us something new several times a day.

So I feel like I ought to document some of this. As I finish this post on the evening of St. Patrick’s Day it’s remarkable the dramatic changes in just a week, not just in the news but in my own life and the attitudes of people and organizations around me. I’m not a super social person, so most of my observations have to do with work and fencing:

3/8: Participated in 7 person fencing competition with generous slatherings of hand sanitizer. U.S. cases: 504*

3/9: Still going to the office, though washing my hands and sanitizing. Psychologist appointment, at which she advises me of her efforts to keep her office disinfected and contingency plans if she or I get sick. Start taking work laptop home at night, just in case. U.S. cases: 663

3/10: Went to the office. Planned to take a fencing lesson after work but my coach canceled (nothing to do with coronavirus). U.S. cases: 949

3/11: Went to the office. Considered and decided against going to fencing practice as Wednesday is always the busiest foil night (definitely something to do with coronavirus, because WHO finally calls covid-19 a pandemic**). Around half my Facebook friends are starting to this as seriously as I am so I feel less like I’m crying wolf. U.S. cases: 1,248

3/12: Still going to the office, with increasing doubts. Dentist called asking for my recent travel and health history for an appointment next Tuesday. I checked out so my appointment is still on. Governor calls a state emergency. Among other actions he closes the ports, forbids gatherings of over 250 people, and mandates telework for MD state employees. U.S. cases: 1,625

3/13: Work from home to help test network capacity but leadership doesn’t make telework mandatory. Supporting the closure of county schools my fencing club stops classes, but not free fencing. U.S. cases: 2,157

3/14: Today’s competition postponed until May. Picked up a sewing machine from the repair shop, only because sewing machine repair is such a niche business that I’ve usually been the only person in the shop other than the owner. U.S. cases: 2,830

3/15: Dentist cancels my appointment and will call me when they open up again. Governor closes casinos and racetracks. U.S. cases: 3,553

3/16: I telework – it’s mandatory starting tomorrow but highly recommended to start today if possible. Governor closes restaurants, bars, movie theaters, and gyms. U.S. cases (as of 6 pm): 4,287

3/17: First official day of mandatory telework. My fencing club formally closes, though in reality no went to open fencing over the weekend. U.S. cases as of 7:30 pm: 6,330.

*All numbers taken from Worldometer except 3/16-17 because it has archival data. I pulled today’s numbers from Johns Hopkins’ Coronavirus tracker , which is damn near up to the second but doesn’t keep a history (that I can find).

**I’m not commenting on the U.S. federal government’s (mis)handling of the crisis because it’s been adequately covered elsewhere.

the coronavirus post

I’ve been following the news of the coronavirus since mid-February or so – whenever it became apparent that it was spreading beyond Wuhan, China. I have a casual interest in infectious disease, developed over several years contracting to different parts of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and reading the news releases that crossed my desk.

So, I kept up with the news coming out of China and was surprised when Wuhan put the entire city on lockdown.  I was aware that HHS agencies had disaster plans in place for pandemics but the possibility of it hitting Stateside seemed vague and distant, very can’t happen here.

But my husband is a risk management professional and was on high alert. He stocked up on hand sanitizer and masks as early as January. I scoffed a bit, but as guidance came out of CDC I started washing my hands for those carefully counted 20 seconds (pft to happy birthday! Calling back to my teenage goth years I’ve been counting my “hey now now”s). But what really brought it home was my competition this weekend.

Understand: fencing is not a full-contact sport. Indeed, the objective is to not let your opponent get that close (infighting notwithstanding). I was sanguine. My husband was not. Though the US Fencing Association has suspended the handshaking rule you’ve still got a lot of people breathing hard and sweating in a relatively confined space.

And though it chafed, I had to admit he had a point. The virus continues to spread and we can’t be confident just how far because of the Trump administration’s message mismanagement.

I went. I fenced incredibly well. I slathered hand sanitizer on my hands, my glove, my mask, hell, even my body cord and reel plug. And I am fine.

But much as I want to keep this good roll going I probably shouldn’t. Not because I’ll get sick—even if I do, I’m healthy enough to weather it—but because if I do I might unwittingly pass it on to someone more vulnerable.

I’m sure half of you reading are rolling their eyes. But it’s just like flu, I hear you say. You’re being paranoid. Bring back the weird news and writing tips! And I get it: nobody wants to be that wild-eyed doomsday prepper. And none of us have ever had to seriously consider the spread of a disease for which we have no vaccine or treatment, save keeping patients alive longer than the virus.

black and white photo of early 20th century hospital ward with white cots in rows
I could invoke the 1918 pandemic but it’s all but outside living memory now. Via.

So I’ll be the Chicken Little.

I sure as hell never expected to see an illness so severe it would demand event canceling and self-quarantine, either. But here we are, and even though WHO and CDC aren’t calling this a pandemic yet they are clear that it’s a big concern. Already I’m bringing my work laptop home every night in anticipation of being told of the first infection at my office. And though it makes me want to tear out my hair I’m considering avoiding fencing competitions and even my club as well.

It’s not a question of if Covid-19 going to disrupt my life, it’s a question of when, how much, and for how long. And I hope I’m wrong! And we can all have a good laugh at my alarmism.

But be careful out there, just in case.

decade

Ten years! Tenyears
Via.

I’m so late to the decade challenge I can’t even find the correct hashtag for it anymore. But here goes.

Between 2010 and 2019 I:

  • Written a book
  • Bought a house
  • Celebrated my 20th wedding anniversary
  • Realized someday is now
  • Turned 40
  • Aged into veteran fencing and won several national top 8 finishes
  • Loved and lost two cats, and gained and loved three more
  • Started this blog
  • Had a health scare but got lucky
  • Lost and made some friends
  • Read a lot, but never enough
  • Traveled inside and outside the U.S., but also never enough
  • Been on a podcast
  • Trusted a stranger
  • Was reminded that you have to give up one thing to get another – I can’t do everything at once.

,..among other things. Some of these I wanted to do, some of these I didn’t, and some I never thought would happen. Some of these, all three.

And I still have so much further to go.

 

 

 

biweekly links 2-26-2020

Apologies for no post last week – I was out of town and failed to plan ahead. Don’t worry, I’ll try and write something of substance soon!

Prague uncovered: Emperor Rudolf II’s tunnel brings the Vltava to Stromovka: almost 5(!) years ago I visited recovered alchemy lab Speculum Alchemiae and was fascinated that Emperor Rudolf II was so determined to visit his alchemists in private that he had a tunnel dug under the Vltava from this lab to his castle. And then I could find no more details about it – neither the museum itself nor Charles University had any information for me. So imagine how thrilled I was when this popped up in my Google Alerts! Note: these are a whole different set of tunnels, created to feed river water to Rudolf’s private lakes, but it gives some idea of the early modern technology behind the creation.

“Theire Soe Admirable Herbe”: How the English Found Cannabis: the English didn’t “discover” cannabis until the 17th century, and while they were interested in its medicinal properties they did take it recreationally as well.

Could weather hold the secret to history’s greatest ghost ship mystery?: I never expected to find weird news at AccuWeather, but, these are weird times. Spoiler: famed ghost ship the Mary Celeste wasn’t the victim of aliens or sea monsters but a temporary abandonment made permanent by a sudden storm. Not as fun a story but certainly plausible.

biweekly links 2-12-2020

Y2K: 20 Years Later: on December 31, 1999 I was but a lowly HTML janitor but nonetheless I was on call just in case… something happened. Which it didn’t, but only because of the huge and largely quiet efforts of many, many programmers.

Jules Verne’s Most Famous Books Were Part of a 54-Volume Masterpiece, Featuring 4,000 Illustrations: See Them Online: I’ve not read much Jules Verne (bad geek me, I know) so I didn’t realize 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Voyage to the Center of the Earth, etc. were just parts of a greater whole.

black and white woodcut of a 19th century idea of a lunar spaceship headed towards the moon
From Verne’s “Autour de la lune” (1868-69). Of course I show you the proto-spaceship. Via.

How Artificial Intelligence Is Helping Identify Thousands of Unknown Civil War Soldiers: I’m leery of facial recognition software but Civil War Photo Sleuth is actually a pretty cool use of it. Rather like various genealogy websites, more data equals more accurate connections, so if you have any Civil War-era photos you’d like to upload here’s the place.

The Bermuda Triangle, Fake News, and a Steven Spielberg Movie: The Bizarre True Story of the S.S. Cotopaxi: the ship “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” depicted as having been picked up in the Bermuda Triangle by aliens has been discovered underwater ~30 miles off St. Augustine, the victim of a bad storm and worse repair. Sometimes it’s anticlimactic when a mystery is explained but as a (very amateur) shipwreck history buff I’m not disappointed.

how to (not) get all the things done

Late last year I asked for blog post suggestions and got a request for one on How To Get All The Things Done.

frowning stick figure: *all* the things?
Via.

Which is a good question and an “old standard” topic on creative-oriented blogs and podcasts. This subject comes up time and time again because it’s a huge issue. Most ordinary mortals* have day jobs, partners, children, hobbies and/or other things I’ve not thought of that they have to balance with their creative work.

And honestly, most of them have answered this question better than I’m about to. I am so disorganized I’d forget my own name if it weren’t stenciled on the back of my fencing lamé. You’re better off asking creatives who are also mothers of small children. They have to be self-discipline and organizational ninjas in order to get a full night’s sleep, let alone anything else.

No, my big secret is that I don’t do All of the Things.

In fairness, I’m in a good position to avoid some Things. I don’t have children, for one. I also have a partner that is respectful of my time and ambitions and doesn’t get too upset if I don’t fold the laundry**. I make enough money that I can have a cleaner come in once a month so I’m not spending (as much) time on housework. This partly deliberate and partly good luck. I’m aware others may not have the advantages I have.

I’ve also made my peace with knowing that I can do, if not ALL the Things, then more of the Things…eventually. Just not all at once. My time and energy levels permit two non-day job activities. I fence because I love it and because exercise keeps the anxiety demons at bay. Of my other current passions, I can sew or write, but can’t do both.

So I’ve not sewn anything in over a year. I imagine that as writing becomes more job than hobby it will be even longer than that. But there’s always time between books, or waiting for edits, or…something. I’ll figure it out.

And I have a lot of other interests that I’ve set aside for an undetermined later time. Maybe I’ll make jewelry to go with a really great dress. Maybe if I blow out my knees I’ll take up archery***. Maybe I’ll take up painting again at some point.

All the more reason to fence – to keep myself in good enough health that I stand a chance of getting to all the things I’m interested in.

So I guess I’d recommend prioritization and a realistic assessment of what you can do in 24 hours to make sure you don’t bite off more than you can chew. And take the long view – you may not be doing something you love right this minute, but maybe in a few years you can carve out a few hours.

What about you? How do you balance your creative impulses with everyday needs?

*The J.K. Rowlings and Stephen Kings of the world are among the few writers who can make a full-time, profitable living from writing. The rest of us have to pay the bills some other way.

**I do wash my clothes! I’m not an utter slob. And if I didn’t I’d suffocate in a cloud of cat hair. The clothes just don’t always make it into dressers and closets.

***Who am I kidding, I’ll start wheelchair fencing!

biweekly links 1-29-2020

2020. 2020. My first link dump of a whole new decade*:

Monty Python’s Terry Jones (RIP) Was a Comedian, But Also a Medieval Historian: Get to Know His Other Side: I caught the tail end of Jones’ presentation at the 2008 (!) Kalamazoo Medieval Congress. Standing room only, but not just because he was a Python – his presentation was a sober academic one, arguing that Richard II was actually a pretty good king. I also highly recommend his Crusades [DailyMotion] and Medieval Lives [YouTube] series.

Hans Holzer at 100: America’s First TV Ghost Hunter Still Haunts Paranormal Community: I most likely encountered Holzer through the 1970s incarnation of In Search Of, and agree with this article that most likely made the current rash of ghost hunting tv shows possible. I’ve not read him lately but given that Potential Future Book 1 revolves around 1970s paranormal research perhaps I’d best revisit him.

How astrology paved the way for predictive analytics: yeah, it sounds like a stretch, but hear (read) it out. For all it’s incorrect conclusions about celestial influence human lives, the need for accurate data to make predictions led to mathematical advances that led to all kinds of scientific advances – including the “if you liked this you might also like that” algorithms used/abused by almost every online retailer and social media outlet.

*Yes, I know that technically it doesn’t start until 2021, but the readjustment of having to put a “2” after 20 on my checks is startling enough that I feel like we’ve already started.

so…

My mother died on January 6.

There really isn’t any way to soften that news.

I could go into detail about her health: the repeated hospital visits, her last emergency and decline. I could reassure that she didn’t suffer, that she went out on her own terms, that it was peaceful.

But I’ve told so many people the same details over the past two weeks that it’s become just a story I repeat to convey information. I’ve been sleepwalking between relative normalcy punctuated by reminders and realizations that hit like a slap to the face. And in some sense it’s amazing and unjust that the world keeps going on, as though this thing hasn’t happened at all.

The good memories are perhaps hardest of all, because they remind me that she won’t make any more. She doesn’t see the days getting longer, and won’t see spring start. She won’t get to vote against Trump.

This latter point was on her mind in her last days. She asked me to write something about how important it is to vote against Trump, and to vote in general—and I will, once I have something that I think does her last wishes justice.

The memorial service was just the end of the beginning of this new normal. There’s so much administrative stuff that follows a death: credit cards to be closed, mail to be stopped, so many entities that have to be told and managed and dealt with. I’ve never sold a house before. Going through her things is going to pick emotional scabs that haven’t even formed yet.

My family and friends have been wonderful and supportive throughout it all. But it’s still hard, and weird, and wrong-feeling.

I’m still so stunned I don’t think I can even write her a proper tribute, and besides, I can’t top what my sister wrote for her obituary. Yes, it’s humorous, Mom would have wanted it that way. Mom liked to laugh, and she was more patient and accepting than I realized or deserved. And I miss her terribly.