Yesterday I was speaking with a close friend who bought a 1930's house in Chicago. She told me that suddenly summer has arrived, the temperature is in the 90's and it is uncomfortable inside and outside. "We want to put in central air conditioning, but that would entail a renovation of the house's electricity wiring and we can't afford that now." Today, taking a break from working on my research into insulation materials to reduce energy consumption for cooling, I was listening to Malcolm Gladwell's podcast Revisionist History, and there was an advertisement for Flashback. One of the three episodes mentioned was about Air Conditioning - an interesting lesson about how the cooling technology had a significant effect on the US Government, population changes in the USA and future political power. And today , I had composed a letter to real estate appraiser in the morning on how shed roofs above and disengaged from buildings are proven to keep them ...
Yesterday , I stumbled upon Kermit the Frog and Steve Martin in their swampy rendition of Dueling Banjos. Playing it awarded me a moment of blissful rest from the torrent of negative Covid-19 news , as the music, forest and humor respite from another day of isolation. Today, I read in the New York Times that Eric Weissberg, who played the banjo in the soundtrack of the duel in the movie Deliverance, passed away. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/arts/music/eric-weissberg-dies.htm It is a tune that is embedded in my mind. There is another sync here as well: Yesterday I was speaking with my 81 year old mother, who is in Covid-19 lock-down with my 87 year old father in their apartment in a senior living facility. Dad has serious cognitive challenges and asked my mother when he woke up "Am I alive?" Mom assured him that he was. Dad was dubious and asked again, and again, and then "How do you know?" unwilling to accept her con...