I spent this past Saturday binge-watching “The Queen’s Gambit” on Netflix. Initially I had not planned on watching it, but several friends on Facebook were singing its praises and a couple of my co-workers were also recommending it, so I figured I’d give it a look.
I should say up front that I am a fan of the game of chess. When I was 8 or 9 a young man and his sister who were refugees from Cuba moved in with their parents across the street from us in Hialeah. Their parents did not speak much English, but Mario and his younger sister Marilyn were fluent in the language. Marilyn would babysit my younger brother and I sometimes and Mario taught me how to play chess. I loved the game, especially since it involved skill and strategy, as opposed to games of chance. But there weren’t many other kids in elementary school who knew how to play and it wasn’t until I got to junior high school that I was able to play different people.
One of my favorite gifts of all time came from my younger brother (that’s the case with a lot of my favorite gifts) who brought me back a chess board and pieces carved out of lava rock from his honeymoon in Mexico. My most recent games have been with my ten-year old middle granddaughter Abby a few months ago who, unlike her granddad, had an elementary school which offered an after-school chess club before COVID-19 shut things down.
Still, it’s difficult to imagine a seven-episode television series on the subject of chess being much of a draw, even to fans of the game. But, of course, the series deals with more than the game and is centered around the rollercoaster life of a young chess prodigy as she moves from discovering the game at the age of nine to the end of the series when she is twenty-two and competing in the Soviet Union in 1968.
So I started watching it without knowing what it was all about and, honestly, almost gave up after the first couple of episodes. However, I continued on and by the time it was over I was glad I did. It is an admirable look at overcoming situations you didn’t create and situations you did create, as well as the value of teamwork when it is not your default choice.
A big thumbs up for “The Queen’s Gambit” on Netflix.
These days, almost every professional and home tool kit contains a can of 
Back in 1953, a fledgling company named Rocket Chemical Company of San Diego with only 3 employees was attempting to develop a product that would prevent rust and corrosion on missile parts for the aerospace industry by displacing water on surfaces before it could cause oxidation to begin. Scientist Norm Larsen was experimenting with formulas to achieve that result, but kept failing to find one that would work.
Twelve days ago I wrote about my beard growth and included a photo. When I posted it, not only did the photo NOT appear but I noticed that ALL my post photos from the past were also not showing. They were in the media library, right where they should be, but weren’t posting.
I instituted a chat with tech support and the guy was no help so I asked to be moved up to a higher level. Wouldn’t do it. Said I had to do what he wanted me to do. I typed a few choice words, left him the lowest rating I could, then sent an email to the host explaining the issue and asking them to fix whatever the error was within a week; otherwise I’d be changing my hosting service.
The hotel was taken care of with points and overall was very nice. We had no intention of doing much interacting with other guests or staff, but it was nice to see all of the staff wearing masks and to observe evidence of high levels and practices of sanitation going on; such as marked off social distancing areas, personal service by staff at the usual breakfast buffet, plastic shields at the front desk station, and rooms sealed once they were certified cleaned and sanitized by housekeeping supervisors.
Tomorrow morning we’ll leave for our two week stay at Wolf’s Haven. One of the benefits, to me, of our cabin in the mountains is that we are very much off the usual grid of humanity. But the 11 hour drive to get there has caused me to think and plan how we might go about avoiding COVID-19 on our road trip.
So, we’ll leave early Saturday morning and our first stop is usually an hour into the trip at a rest stop so that Bella can use the bathroom. She gets queasy during car trips and it upsets her stomach, especially at the beginning. We’ll pull into a spot away from everyone else and do our best not to get close to others, which is not usually a problem that early in the morning.
At about the 2 1/2 hour mark we usually stop for breakfast and eat in the dining room. This time we’ll stop, but Cindy will go in and get food to go that we’ll eat in the car in the parking lot after wiping the containers down with sanitizing wipes.
For re-fueling stops we have a supply of Bella’s doggie bags I can put over my hand before grabbing the gas handle and using the touch-screen, then I can just throw it into the trash can by the pumps before getting back in the car.