Mug & Ludwig

The blipping gap is due to the rotten weather we've been having recently. No going for walks around the block, no exploring parks I didn't know existed, no driving to the coast and strolling on beaches — and most significantly, no sitting outside in the sun watching my little local world go by. It's been clouds and wind and rain, seemingly never-ending since the beginning of June. It just goes to show that I've become a fair-weather blipper.

Even this offering ended up being posted for the wrong day. It was meant for Wednesday but it's time-stamped at four minutes after midnight so it ends up being posted for Thursday instead. This is my favourite mug, the one I use several times each day for the too many coffees I take. I don't remember its history, though I suspect Carl gave it to me because of its musical connotations. Anyway, here it is, on the coffee table in front of the couch with Beethoven's bust on the table in the distance between the loudspeakers. Beethoven normally lives upstairs in the bedroom, but he came down in honour of his 'big year' (the 250th anniversary of his birth is in December). He was meant to be the centrepiece for my hostings of the music group during this year, but he only managed that for a little over two months before our face-to-face meetings were cancelled. I've put together a detailed protocol document for the hoped-for safe resumption of real live people meeting again, beginning here on 1st August. It's still unclear if enough of the group will be comfortable even then with coming together in one place. Hopefully it will happen. I'm well and truly fed up with making do with Zoom meetings as an alternative.