"Dice 2"

My mom insists you catch cold if you go outside in winter with wet hair.  This isn't how viruses work but she's immovable on this.  Maybe Mom caught a cold as a child, or maybe Grandma said it.  It doesn't matter.  If Mom wants to dry her hair she can dry it.  It doesn't hurt anybody.  Drinking bleach to kill Covid-19 can hurt someone though.  Don't do it.  Let's severely punish the person who started that rumor.  Damned crazy people.

I went to the store and watched the Asian woman in front of me pile a large quantity and  variety of disinfectants and bleach on the conveyor belt.  I wondered if she's paranoid or if her Asian relatives told her something I don't know.  I went home, put away the groceries, and washed my hands.  That seemed sufficient to me?

I don't know how paranoid I should feel about the corona virus.  I'm pretty dismissive of mass panic and media scares.  It's like weather people who always predict blizzards and catastrophes.  They cry wolf too often, but once in a while it snows when they say it will.  Maybe Covid-19 is a disaster?  But mostly I think predicted blizzards will be an 1" of snow.  You might skid and get in an accident, but it's more likely you won't.  You might catch the virus and feel crappy for a few days and go about your life.  You might die.  We all might be put under house arrest until the whole business dies down.  It could be the apocalypse.  How are we supposed to know?

That said, we're going to have a national and global emergency.  They're closing all the bars and restaurants in Ohio.  Young people are going to starve to death because they don't know how to cook.  Restaurants will go out of business and their workers are going to be in a bad financial situation.  Workers and businesses won't be paying taxes.  Farmers won't be able to sell their food.  Truckers won't be driving all that stuff around.  Multiply by all the other businesses effected.  The stock market goes up and down because nobody knows what's going to happen.  The government spends more to help people, but with fewer taxes the national debt will go up.  People's retirement savings will be wiped out.  More government help, more debt.  Keep multiplying.  It's a mess.

Something I don't hear anyone talking about though is how this all fits in with climate change.  Animals are moving because of the warming weather.  This animal talks to that one and they share their diseases in new and frightening ways.  People eat the animals and catch their diseases then hand them off to others who travel and spread the diseases all over the world.  Antibiotics aren't working on everything, partly because of their overuse and the oversanitation of everything.  We're going to have more pandemics.

Let's be sensible.  Us regular people can't solve all those problems.  We can considerately cover our mouths when we cough or sneeze.  We can avoid going to high-risk places and stay home when sick.  Eat right and exercise.  Smear lamb's blood on the door so the angel of death passes us by.  I'm obviously kidding on that last point.  Lamb blood probably contains Covid-20.

How do you feel about this pandemic?  Have you changed what you're doing or how you're doing it?  Do you know anyone who has gotten it?

I said last week my only other "dice" idea was chopping up celery.  Since everyone will be spending more time at home, and maybe getting sick, let me recommend making chicken soup.  Here's how to dice celery.  You can freeze it in a freezer baggie for later.  Squish out any air in the bag and freeze flat for easier use...

Remove bad spots and trim off dried ends

Slice lengthwise.  I like to keep one end intact for easier handling

Slice across stalks to dice.  Keep the tops.  They're tender and taste good.

"Dice"

I had to take "Color Concept" in college.  This was a mandatory, multi-year course on color theory designed by the college president.  It was incomprehensible.  To this day I have no idea what I was supposed to be learning other than humility since my roommate got consistent As in the course and even went back to the college to teach it.  I also learned Color-Aid sheets of color were persnickety sources of obscenities since they chipped easily when I cut them into 1" squares and they were permanently marred by rubber cement.  At least I didn't set myself on fire doing Color Concept homework like one of my classmates when her propane heater set her messy hands alight.  She survived, but I bet her pain made her hate the course even more than I did.  At least she got out of doing Color Concept homework while her injured paws healed after a midnight trip to the hospital.

I complained about all this to other classmates as we took a break from our never-ending homework.  My pals waxed enthusiastic about Color Concept.  One even brought out a color theory book he'd been studying in his own time.  The conversation devolved from there, definitely not helped by drinking heavily while they talked about stuff I couldn't wrap my mind around.  Yeah, I learned humility, but it still seems to me some people try to mystify others with their brilliance by spreading an impenetrable order on things.  Or maybe I just have a blind spot on the science of the subject?

That said, there are certain usual rules about color I do understand.  Red and green are opposites on the color wheel and stands for Christmas.  Two adjacent colors are often contrasted with their opposing color.  On and on and on.  If you paint a purple iris with green leaves, well, nature naturally gives us nice combinations.  Yellow and black wasps scream a warning about their stingers.  I think we all intuitively get the obvious rules.

Novice artists are often afraid of color (though some embrace it from the start).  Many doodle and sketch in pencil or pen to develop skills.  When they start dabbling in color they often dislike the messiness of it all.  They're timid in their approach.  They can make some unpleasant choices.  Push on!  Keep trying!  It will eventually start coming together, whether or not you take expensive and incomprehensible college courses on color theory.

Computers make a lot of this kind of thing so much easier these days.  Create something, change your mind, try different combinations.  Roll the dice and see what happens.  Yeah, that's a stretch for "dice", but contemplating dice made me think of color charts.  Hey, don't stifle my creativity!  It was this or chopping celery :)