Saturday Scraps: Ice Cream and More

Saturday seems to be my day of collecting scraps that may or may not make a larger cloth.  Let me do that here:

--I have been in Williamsburg helping my parents recover from my mom's hospitalization.  For the past two days, I've taken them to doctor's appointments, and we've worn masks.  I've been thinking about those Covid years, especially as the news has come about HHS and the decision by RFK Jr. to discontinue funding MRNA vaccine research.  This current administration breaks my heart in many ways, but all the science progress which will be lost is one of the more significant heartbreaks. 

--Yes, I know that I'm speaking from a place of privilege, that if I had loved ones with immigration issues, the heartbreak would be a different one.  So many heartbreaks, significant and small, across so many parts of modern life in the U.S., in just 6 months.  

--But let me also capture happier moments, like the time earlier this week before my trip, when a colleague said she thought it would be fun to be retreat leaders together.  That may be the best compliment of the summer.

--This has been a sober summer, in terms of drinking.  It's the longest stretch of consecutive alcohol-free days I've had since . . . well, I'm not sure.  Probably 2005 or so.  That in itself is sobering.  I last had a glass of wine on June 15, so I'm finishing my 8th week with no alcohol.  I do worry that I've substituted an evening bowl of ice cream for wine, but that's a healthier switch.

--Soon it will be time to switch my full-fat ice cream for something with less fat and calories, if such a creation exists.

--I created this Facebook post yesterday:  "Later today, I will dish up ice cream. My mom will choose raspberry sorbet. I will sing, "She'll have some raspberry sorbet" to the tune of Prince's "Raspberry Beret," and I'll be the only one who gets the pop culture reference, but that will be O.K. because my mom is still here to eat raspberry sorbet, and so is my dad, and it's summer, and we have a wide variety of ice cream to choose from, each one deserving of its own song." It seems to have a bit of poetry--could it become a poem?