Well, I've been working my way through a Great Courses series on the Arthurian canon and found a translated collection of Chretien de Troyes' works on Hoopla (library e-lending service) so I've been reading Lancelot, or the Knight of the Cart, which was the first recorded appearance of Lancelot as a character.

I am scouting around to see if there's some recent Arthurian fiction and found one about, oddly enough, Lancelot but it uses a historical Dark Ages Arthurian setting and I find Lancelot is a tough character to make fit in those. He's very much a product of medieval French romances, unlike Gawain or Percival/Parsival, who have antecedents in old Welsh texts.

Well, the Zoom online visit went surprisingly well, considering it was the first day this doctor had used it and was the first time I had tried it myself.

I had only ever been a guest in Zoom meetings until my wife started using it for work (her university went to online only so she uses a university-provided Zoom account for her office hours). It's definitely one of the simpler, but still good quality, online conferencing systems that I have seen. If my employer wasn't already committed to Microsoft Teams (which does more than just conferencing), I might look at it for work. I was glad to see a few posts down that your cancer followup went well. Good news is nice to hear these days.

Hi, all. Sorry I'm kind of scarce. Working from home is actually keeping me busier than being in the office, I think.

We had talked about replacing the kitchen counters and a redo of the deck this year but the contractor I used last time we had work done (a nice English guy who did a lot of work for my employer) passed away this winter and given the current situation, I'm not about to go hunting for a new contractor right now. So I guess we're bumping it off to at least 2021.

Tea and some of Sara's cookies sounds good right now.

* grabs a ghost and a tea *

Good afternoon. Had a nice, if chilly, walk.

Started watching a course from The Great Courses on Arthurian literature. The Arthur cycle of legends and stories use to be a thing with me in high school and university. Even took an English course on the subject as an elective in uni. Somewhere along the line, though, it seems to have dropped off my radar. Thought maybe the course would get me interested again. Open to suggestions for good recent Arthurian novels. I think the last new Arthurian work I read was The Winter King (1995) by Bernard Cornwell. That was the first book of a trilogy so I suppose I could start by finishing the trilogy, eh.

Nice to see Sugarbaby and Tonya popping by Inspirations. Putting the kettle on for some tea. Anyone else?

Home office is set up and we are keeping our shopping trips to a couple per week. I walk for exercise but even in good times, I don't meet many people and tend to pass them at a distance

Weather is good here, at least, if a bit chilly.

Read the new Scamp and it's a delight as usual.

Ontario is up to 300ish confirmed cases but not many in my area. Toronto and environs are taking the brunt of it. Ottawa is getting bad, too.

I'm working from home now as are a lot of people in my office (it's optional for us right now). First day and so far, so good.

I don't really have any medical needs until May when I am due for quarterly bloods to check my A1C (a marker of how well I am controlling my diabetes). My annual is due then, too, but that can always wait.


We have friends in the medical profession. They anticipate they will become infected, due to the their profession and commitment to their work.

Hearing that from them is chilling.


That was certainly the experience here during SARS. Lots of health care professionals caught that one. I work in home health and we are equipping our teams as best we can but there's only so much you can do.

Shopping isn't too bad around here. A few things are in short supply but stores are operating and the last couple shopping trips have been pretty smooth save for a couple things we couldn't get like hand santizer.

Afternoon teatime sounds like a good idea, though it's getting into evening here now.

Take care, all.

Just wandered in for tea and cookies.

Life goes on. COVID is making for busy days at work, but it could be worse. May be working from home eventually, but we don't seem to have hit that point yet.

I have been doing some writing but not for here as of yet. That may come. My winter drought seems to be ending at any rate.

Take care.

* puts on kettle and measures out some looseleaf tea *

At least we can gather here and not have to worry about passing on anything nasty.

Hope all are well. Looks like it is going to be a rough spring for sports fans as various leagues suspend activities due to Covid-19. Mercifully, other than keeping an eye on our local Junior A hockey team, I am not one of those. At least Netflix and others of its ilk are available and seem to be rolling out plenty of new content. Best way to survive self-quarantine/isolation, I would suggest.

Glad to hear you're better, Sara.

Damn, 3 years already since DirtyMartini passed away. Time flies.

Take care, Sara. Strep is nasty. My son used to get a lot of strep throat when he was younger. Hasn't had it in quite a few years now.

* Pours some lemongrass herbal tea *

what is really frightening is the guy in the White House directing the US response.

Politicians really need to defer to scientists and physicians on something like this but I can't see your guy deferring to anyone but himself.

Lovely day here. I'm headed out soon for my first exercise walk of 2020.

I am slumped in a chair, staring at my newest painting. For over twenty-four hours I have been awake, painting in a near-trance for more than half that time. The painting portrays a scene not far from my studio, a shallow bay on Lake Madeline. A woman emerges naked from the water. An overturned canoe floats nearby. The woman’s name is Lily. Memories flood in. ***** Thunder rumbled in...

Added 30 Sep 2019 | Category Supernatural | Votes 10 | Avg Score 5 | Views 417 | 12 Comments

Spooky people come out to play. This is now your special day. Scare the other folks away. Spooky people play! Monster people come out to dance, Tonight will be your perfect chance. Caper, spin, stomp, and prance! Monster people dance! Witch-y people grab your broom, Soar up through the twilight gloom, Past the stars you're going to zoom, Witch-y people zoom! Halloween people this is...

Added 31 Oct 2018 | Category Poetry | Votes 7 | Avg Score 5 | Views 415 | 5 Comments

The rider came swiftly towards Eversham. Keeping his horse at a fast trot, he reached the cluster of buildings that stood beyond the town’s West gate. Those buildings stood mostly empty and boarded up now that winter had arrived. During the summer, though, they were home to hundreds when trade caravans passed through en route to the mountain passes. Dev Jackelbury, Warden of Eversham, stood...

Added 13 Oct 2018 | Category Fantasy | Votes 9 | Avg Score 5 | Views 546 | 9 Comments

I saw the light born and reborn this morning. From dark sea and dim horizon came a holy glow, A signal that night's rule was ending; A first, tentative announcement that light and life would indeed return from the underworld. That first dim glow grew brighter, and my heart quickened, Delighting in the light, celebrating the warmth and brightness that soon would be. Then it happened. In...

Added 15 Jan 2018 | Category Poetry | Votes 6 | Avg Score 5 | Views 685 | 5 Comments

The wind gave a piercing howl, rattling the windows of Professor Jack Lange’s apartment. Jack lowered his book at the sound and stared out at the blowing snow. "Wow, what a storm!" announced the disc jockey on the radio as if he, too, had heard it, "If you don't gotta go out, don't go." Jack turned off the radio. The storm had given him a rare day to himself, so he wasn’t especially...

Added 29 Mar 2017 | Category Horror | Votes 6 | Avg Score 5 | Views 951 | 9 Comments