Finished off an essay for HuffPost yesterday. Some paperwork and final edits need to happen today. It will come out next Tuesday. I will, of course, share then.
Warning: Lots of girlieness below.
I managed to not gain weight during the pandemic, even lost a couple pounds, but all the post-pandemic celebrations and get togethers, and mini-family vacations totally trashed all that restraint and good work. So, I’m back on Noom. I’ve also been running/walking every day, with all my equipment — arm band, ear buds, iPhone, and over-sized sunglasses. Lately, I’ve been listening to bluegrass on Spotify.
One of my friends, who bid farewell to the last of her kids, posted on Facebook that she and her husband were picking up a new teardrop camper. I googled “teardrop camper” and went down the rabbit hole of awesomeness. I’m going to talk about these puppies again.
I’m in a clothes crisis. I need a dress to wear to Ian’s graduation that will also work for dinners in Bermuda — we’re heading there in August. Because I hate everything in the mall — everything’s too big and ugly — I’m now searching online stores. Prices are little higher than normal, so I’m going to invest in just one or two pieces and wear them to death this summer. I’m liking the options in the Sundance catalog right now.
I also need to replace my t-strap flat sandals. They are a summer staple. In my search, I stumbled onto the Dr. Scholl’s page, and I’m liking their chunky wedges. I might get those, but the search for good flats continues.
Did Harry “ask” the Queen for permission to use her private nickname for his daughter “before” the birth? Or did he “inform” the Queen of this decision “after” the birth? Oh, the royal family drama never ends. Such fun.
Woody Allen v. Mia Farrow. Growing consensus that Allen was a creep.
After a rough couple of years, The Atlantic has bounced back. I’m really liking the new line up of writers, even though they do need to add a writer on the education beat to the mix.
Remote education, home schooling, and charter schools aren’t going away. Big textbook companies know this and are coming up with plans.
If you liked my pictures of Hudson, NY, check out the Instagram page, “This Old Hudson.”
Picture: Shopping for artisanal beef jerky in upstate New York. More pictures soon.
Apt. 11d 
Like dress shopping (at least virtually) a lot. I like Sundance but trend towards brighter colors, which I often find at Boden, Ann Taylor, and Anthropologie.
I’m not a dress wearer as a regular thing (am looking for shorts that aren’t too short right now).
I have spent far too much time researching the camper culture for someone who absolutely hates to camp. The teardrop campers are beautiful and I think you might need one 🙂
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I have friends with a very retro camper gifted by friends who invested in something more extensive (actual retro rather than new retro) and they enjoyed camping last summer in it. It is also adoreable.
They hope that they can get an R-pod someday (but they’ve been available only for inflated prices during the pandemic times).
OK, now I’m down the rabbit hole, too, with even less reason, since I am never ever going to travel the country in a van.
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My aunt and uncle ran a residence house for kids with (something). So they had a Streamline rv for vacation since they had no home.
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When my kids were young we had a Volkswagon camper van, with a large tent that fit tightly to the open sliding door and also had an awning to extend the living space – it was at least as spacious as a hotel room. The back of the van had a foam mattress bed, with a counter and sink in the middle of the van, then a bench seat (with seat belts of course) that also folded down into another bed. Not quite as quick to set up/take down as a trailer, but lots of room when camping in our PNW rain.
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When I was a kid (pre- my youngest 2 sisters, so before 1974), we had a Cox pop-up camper like this: http://www.popupcamperhistory.com/cox1968brochure.html
We camped everywhere in it: Russell Brook, near Roscoe; Lancaster, PA/Amish country; Cape Cod; White Mountains; York, PA, near Gettysburg; Lakewood, NJ (my dad did some summer house-building work there). My dad called it the “canary cage” for its yellow color.
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My WA tourist business relatives say that a lot of people went out and bought RVs and super ultra mega-expensive Mercedes travel vans during the pandemic. Google suggests that you can spend A LOT on a tricked out Mercedes van–basically house money in a less expensive part of the country.
My relatives expressed some skepticism that the people who bought these will ever recoup the expense.
Hopefully they’ll be selling soon!
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Yes, I know these people. They don’t care if they are recouping their expenses.
But, many of the ones I know rented. At least two have discovered an unexpected love of road trips (after being the kind of people who fly to Europe for vacations regularly). One already had a fancy dancy RV, but that was to park at ski resorts that don’t have condos to buy. Another got an old camping trailer for free (see above) so it will be easy to recoup costs.
It will be interesting to see which of these campers turn over, but I’m not expecting bargain sales anytime soon.
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bj said, “Yes, I know these people. They don’t care if they are recouping their expenses.”
Hee!
“But, many of the ones I know rented.”
https://rvshare.com/rv/mercedes-benz-rv-rentals#:~:text=Avoiding%20holidays%20may%20typically%20make,plus%20taxes%2C%20and%20any%20deposits.
“On average, a Mercedes camper van rental will cost you about $200 to $400 per night, plus taxes, and any deposits.
Two nights – $400 to $800
Five nights – $1000 to $2000.”
Sure beats $150k, though…
“after being the kind of people who fly to Europe for vacations regularly”
Between masking, security, and tight seating, I found myself thinking, wow air travel is terrible a number of times this past week. I currently have the advantage of being able to stick a 74-pound 8-year-old in the middle seat as a buffer between myself and other large people, but three well-fed American adults in an airplane row is virtually unbearable. The only thing that makes it tolerable is that you can cover 2,000 miles in 4 hours.
“It will be interesting to see which of these campers turn over, but I’m not expecting bargain sales anytime soon.”
Maybe next year?
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Well, this is interesting:
https://www.reuters.com/article/instant-article/idUSL5N2NK1OI
“Germany’s vaccine advisory committee, known as STIKO, recommended on Thursday that only children and adolescents with pre-existing conditions should be given the coronavirus vaccine produced by Pfizer and partner BioNTech.”
“It said it was not currently recommending the use of the vaccine for those aged 12-17 without pre-existing conditions, although noted doctors were allowed to give the shot if the individual accepts the risk.”
That seems like a reasonable approach.
I follow Vinay Prasad (MD MPH) on twitter, and this has been his recommendation–a cautious roll-out for younger US kids, combined with a harder push to vaccinate more adults in developing countries. I see that Mexico has currently only given 1st doses to 19% of population…
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Wow, could the CDC be any worse?
They’ve rescheduled the emergency meeting that was scheduled for June 18 to talk about myocarditis risks from mRNA vaccines in young people…because of the new Juneteenth federal holiday.
The discussion is rescheduled for June 23-25.
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We went ahead with my teen’s second shot yesterday, but that is definitely a worry and wondering about the 5-12 yo vaccines. I’ll be looking for their guidance (which usually arrives before Health Canada’s even in the normal times.)
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Jenn said, “We went ahead with my teen’s second shot yesterday, but that is definitely a worry and wondering about the 5-12 yo vaccines. I’ll be looking for their guidance (which usually arrives before Health Canada’s even in the normal times.)”
On the bright side, I believe any ill effects from vaccine come pretty fast, so if nothing bad happens in the near future, your kid is OK.
We double vaccinated our 16-year-old with Pfizer before the heart issues hit the news. Had we known, we might have hesitated more about the second shot (holding back on it is one of the possible recommendations to the vaccine regimen). As it is, he got both his shots and nothing happened beyond the usual malaise and 2-3 days of lymph node pain.
But it is one less thing to think of and he’s enjoyed better quality of life ever since.
e
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