On the NRVT: Wilton Center to the School Complex

 Another beautiful day, Jeff, Lola, and I walked on the west side of the Wilton loop of the NRVT.  As we left Mervin Meadows Park, we saw this sign: 

I made several attempts to take pictures of Lola. Here are my best efforts from today.

Along the Trail: New Canaan Nature Center

Yesterday was beautiful: temps in the 70's, sunny, with low humidity. I wanted to go somewhere different with Lola and decided on New Canaan Nature Center.  We had been there once before for New Canaan Dog Days. I'm now on their email mailing list, and an email said that the trails were open.

I had forgotten to check the address before we left, but I know the road it's on. What I didn't know was that the sign had been taken down. I drove past it and went a mile or so out of my way. Jeff checked his phone and found the address. I drove by it again because no sign. We found the entryway on our third pass. 

I was surprised by how many other people were there: two kids on bikes, pairs of walkers, and many with dogs. The first path led us to an exit to a road. Along the way we saw this artwork:

Other trails kept looped around fields and woods at the Nature Center. We walked there about an hour. I took a quick look at the Birds of Prey. I had seen in an email that there is a red-shouldered hawk there. I think I saw one, but the cage labeled red-shouldered hawk was empty. An adjacent cage could have held that hawk but was unlabeled. I tried to compare it to my picture, but couldn't be sure.

I didn't think to take a photo of the hawk at the Nature Center. D'oh. Maybe next time.

The New York Mets and the Covid-19 Season

It's hard to think of anything that's been normal in 2020. A postponed and shortened baseball season is relatively minor in the scheme of things. 

I wrote about Opening Day here. On Opening Day, anything is possible. I take pride in the Mets MLB-leading record of 39-20 in opening day games. 

The Mets lost Noah Syndergaarde before the season started. Then Yoenis Cespedes and Marcus Stroman opted out of the season. I can't even keep track of all the players on the IL. Pitchers seem especially injury-prone across MLB.

As a Mets fan, I've come to expect strange things. Some are good. The Mets won a doubleheader against the Yankees on Friday for the first time. The second game was a makeup game from Citi Field, and the Mets were the official home team and batted last. Amed Rosario hit a walk-off home run--the first by a visiting team in Yankee Stadium history. As Gary Cohen put it, "The oddest of phenomena. We're getting used to odd things in 2020." 

The Mets lost Saturday's game on a wild pitch. On Sunday another double header. The Mets looked good until all fell apart in the bottom of the seventh: the Yankees scored five to tie the game and won in the next inning: the epitome of a heartbreaker, and a stab in the heart of Mets fans. Then the Mets lost the nightcap. I could cry. 

Pride and Prejudice (1940)

I found this film on TCM and recorded it. I read the book in May and the next month I enjoyed the 2005 version of the film. 

The 1940 version is a different story. I started watching the film with one strike against it: I don't like Greer Garson. I think I've only seen her previously in Mrs. Miniver. I can't even tell you why I don't like her. 

As expected, I didn't like her as Lizzie. Garson is too matronly looking for one thing. She also seemed very snobby, though I guess that's more the fault of the screenwriter than of Garson.

I had a lot of issues with the screenplay. It's too light--it's played more as a comedy than a social satire. I thought the archery scene (not in the novel) was silly. Afterwards, Lizzie and Darcy seem on the verge of coupledom, until Darcy overhears Lizzy's mother discussing Jane and Bingley and Lydia and Kitty acting outrageously. I also disliked the scene as the family is planning to move when Lydia is disgraced. I hated the scene between Lady Catherine and Lizzie: it's too big a departure from the novel that changes a key element of the plot. I didn't even realize the costumes were inappropriate for the time. 

I did like Olivier as Darcy (though not the writing of Darcy.) I also liked Edmund Gwenn as Mr. Bennett,  Mary Boland as Mrs. Bennett, and Edna May Oliver as Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

So, overall a disappointment.

Women's Equality Day and National Dog Day

While Tennessee ratified the 19th Amendment on August 18, August 26 was the day the Secretary of State signed the proclamation granting American women the right to vote. In 1972, President Nixon declared August 26 Women's Rights Day, later renamed Women's Equality Day.

Covid-19 has changed recognition and celebration of the centennial of the women's right to vote. I already attended a Zoom lecture and just signed up for a four-part webinar. 

I've read some thought-provoking articles on the fight for suffrage. 

Here's one from The New York Times and another from Jezebel. 

Jeff told me today is also National Dog Day, and here are some suggestions to celebrate. Lola had two long walks today in beautiful weather for her celebration.

The Mets' Season Resumes

Last Thursday after our early evening walk with Lola, Jeff and I settled down to watch the Mets. They had won three in a row, and we were hopeful that they would extend their winning streak to four and sweep their first series in 2020.

But the game was postponed. One player and one coach had been diagnosed with Covid-19. The weekend subway series with the Yankees was also cancelled. 

The Mets are back in action tonight in a double header. By the time we got back from tonight's walk with Lola, they were already down 3-0 to the Marlins. Sigh, the Mets lost 4-0. 

I don't know what to expect for the Mets season or the baseball season in general. I had hope at the beginning, but then I always do. 

We'll watch and see what happens.

New Frustration Dream

My mother is going on a trip--I think to Europe. I have box of papers and other things that she needs and am bringing them to her. 

Yet, somehow I am walking around an expanded Meadow Ridge. There's an area with cabanas on a hillside, and some people have mini cars/carts up there. I am having trouble finding my way off the hillside. There is a ramp for the mini cars but not for people. At one point, I'm just a floor above my mother's apartment but can't find stairs that will take me there. Later I complain to an employee who searches to find someone to drive (?) me to my mother's. I sit in a mini car waiting. It's 4:50 in the afternoon. I think my mother's supposed to leave at 5. I look into the box: it has a pair of shoes and a cellphone charger. I look through the papers and hope I haven't lost any. 

Chris Cuomo is making an announcement about another resident going on a trip. He will take a job with the NYC police when he returns. Chris is queuing up "New York, New York" but a woman manages to get another song played. She is accompanying the song on a violin. She says she owns five percent of $43 million, so she gets some say in the music selections.

I decide to check my phone for messages. It's updating so I can't get any messages. (Even in this new frustration incarnation. my usual telephone problems persist.)

I give up on getting a ride and walk through a huge multilevel spa. I end up on Anxiety Street.