Ramblin' with Roger

April 23

Medicare Advantage

Occasionally, I’ll do a day in the life. I picked April 23 because it was SO all over the place emotionally.

Even when I woke up a few hours after going to bed, it felt weird. I looked at the clock radio, and it was flashing. This meant the power went off, but came on about half an hour ago.

That tracks with the email I got at 12:28 a.m, but did not see until morning. “Dear National Grid Customer,

We detected power outages near [address]. There are currently 1713 other customers also associated with this outage. We are investigating and will provide updates around progress when we get more information. If you are without power, please let us know by reporting it on our website.”

Well, I didn’t get more info, but didn’t need any.

So in the morning, we had to do what we usually do when the clocks change twice a year. The computer clocks are correct, as is the battery-powered analog clock in the kitchen. I have to change the clocks on the stove and microwave.

But much to my surprise, I didn’t have to change the plugged-in “8-inch large clock with day and date for the elderly.” We had purchased it for my MIL for Christmas in 2024, but she didn’t like it. Conversely, I LOVE this thing. Knowing the day, and especially the date, has been a lift ever since I retired.

A certain ‘tude

I was listening to the boom box in my office, but something sounded off. I thought the machine was squealing. No, it was the sound of a bird chirping outside my window! I didn’t see it, but it made me happy.

Eventually, I’m about to take the bus downtown. I wait a few seconds to see if anyone is getting off. I got on, scanned my card, and this dude was just standing there waiting for me to get off the bus so he could get off. What? Someone said, “Next time, you should just USE that cane” that I was carrying. The implication was clear. That seemed extreme.

Then I walked to the next bus. As I walked past a shop, I saw a guy trying to hustle a merchant. The storekeeper said to the other guy, “Let me do you a favor. Get out of my face in the next ten seconds, and I won’t have to give you a lecture.” A “lecture” clearly suggested a thrashing.

What weird energy.

A little more conversation

I get to my doctor’s office early, so I text my daughter to ask if I can call her. (That’s the current protocol, right?) I share that her grandma had been in the hospital briefly, but is now rehabilitating.

She told me that a couple of women at UMass in Amherst were assaulted recently, the latter killed. She found it understandably unsettling, as she goes to that campus periodically, including that day. As it turns out, the woman killed was the wife of the alleged assailant.

I go into the doctor’s office. To get reimbursed for the payment that’s due, I need an itemized statement from the office, which isn’t generated automatically. I suggest printing the bill (which I probably have SOMEWHERE at home), and that does the trick. The receptionist suggests I could do her job, and this becomes her running joke when I later make a new appointment.

Meanwhile, a couple of patients are in the waiting room, railing about Medicare Advantage. I am very interested in the topic, since it will soon involve choices my wife will have to make. One said to “go online,” which I always consider a non-answer. (Still, read this and watch John Oliver.)

The other guy thought it was too limiting and was relieved to get out of his plan, only because his provider had discontinued MA and wanted to put him in a PPO. My doc later said that the MAs are mining patient data and overcharging the government.

The medical aide, who was wearing a New England Patriots sweatshirt but who was otherwise very nice, engaged in some NFL banter with me. She: “You had five years (for the Bills to win the Super Bowl).” Me “Go, Seahawks! “(who beat the Pats in the last Super Bowl.) And “18-1” (Pats were undefeated when they lost the SB to the Giants in the 2007/08 season.) Fun stuff!

Old friend

I got on the bus back to downtown when I saw an old friend. We used to ride the bus together when we both worked in Corporate (frickin’) Woods. She recently retired from her job in insurance; she got a very part-time job at the office of one of her doctors. I don’t think we have seen each other since COVID, which we will rectify.

I went home, took out the trash, and had a quick dinner.

sigh

Taking the 114 bus, I walked north on Willett Street. These two women and their two children were walking south. They must have passed me. A young (20ish?) woman was across the street, in Washington Park, walking in the same direction but slightly behind them, screaming a xenophobic, profanity-laden litany. I stopped and watched her for about four minutes. If she had wanted to get closer to them, she could have. They all got to the corner, turned left, and were out of my sight. I still wonder if I had interceded, if it would have helped or harmed the situation.

I went to choir, and afterward got a ride home.

It was a very rollercoaster kind of day.

Earthword Comics combines ICE incident, FCBD

raising funds for the West Hill Refugee Welcome Center

A story in the Sunday, April 26 Times Union newspaper reminded me that Free Comic Book Day is coming up on Saturday, May 2. As a former comic store employee and a former collector long before that, it’s my way to check in.

And I always go to Earthworld Comics at 537 Central Avenue, near Manning Blvd. Earthworld was started a few years after FantaCo’s 1978 opening, but we were very civil competitors. When I would come into the store for FCBD in the 2010s and early 2020s, J.C. Glindmyer, the original owner, would treat me like royalty, which was both weird and very sweet. I was sad when he died in 2023.

His son Nick Glindmyer, who now owns the store, is doing something special for FCBD this year, tied to an ICE incident. “According to a notice posted to Facebook by the Capital Region Sanctuary Coalition, which monitors ICE activity in the region, a pair of ICE vehicles surrounded a car in front of Albany Strength Gym, next door to Earthworld, around 8:17 a.m. on March 19. ICE agents then approached the car, and an individual who was inside the car was detained. A photo accompanying the notice shows at least two agents — one wearing an olive ‘Police’ tactical vest — interacting with a car outside the gym’s front window.

“So we thought, ‘How can we use our platform with Free Comic Book Day to help those that might need help?’ He decided to turn the centerpiece of the shop’s biggest day of the year… into a fundraiser for another Albany neighbor, the West Hill Refugee Welcome Center.”

Headlocked Comics

“Glindmyer said the shop will have $20 tote bags for sale on Free Comic Book Day… featuring the cover image from a comic written by Clifton Park-based creator Michael Kingston, owner of Headlocked Comics, a wrestling-oriented comics publisher. Created by artist Michel Mulipola, the image features a hulking, masked figure based on professional wrestler Brody King, wearing a costume with “Abolish ICE” across the chest. All revenue from sales of the bag will go to the West Hill refugee assistance programs.

“Locally based comic artist John Hebert, who has illustrated a long list of Marvel Comics’ series over the years, will also create an original piece of art for the event that will be auctioned off to benefit the WHRWC. Hebert will be in attendance at Earthworld throughout Free Comic Book Day.” I helped work on a comic book for FantaCo, Sold Out, with John Hebert many moons ago.

Hampshire College is closing

Five College Consortium becomes Four

The fact that Hampshire College is closing is not a shock. But it is a disappointment.

I remember the dark and rainy morning in July 2021 when our family first visited the Amherst campus. We had been staying at a timeshare in western Massachusetts. My wife decided that the Daughter needed to start at least looking at colleges.

So we left at 8 a.m. (!) on a Saturday (!) to travel for 90 minutes on a bunch of back roads to this campus, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Even with the precipitation outside and the windows up, as we approached, I could smell the farmland, if you know what I mean.

Initially, I figured there was no way my kid was going to go here. But after a number of sessions, some with parents but most without, she was at least somewhat interested.

The rest of the summer and into the autumn, our daughter, with one or both parents, visited at least a dozen colleges. If I were a betting man, I would have wagered on her going to Hofstra, which she saw with me a couple of months later.

Our daughter had a very systematic, color-coded system in which she weighed a variety of factors (curriculum, distance, price, accessibility), and before her last high school semester, she was focused on Hampshire.

Money problems?

At some point after she had been accepted but before classes began in 2022, the family was there. Some rumors about Hampshire’s financial viability were swirling. (Indeed, a guy from our church thought the school had already closed.) My wife spoke with someone from the college – I remember we were in a cafeteria – and she felt reassured.

We had packed up the car in late August when my daughter was feeling a bit off. She took a COVID test and tested positive. In due course, I and then my wife also presented. So instead of getting there a week early and participating in the orientation rituals, we arrived on Labor Day, three days after classes began.

I don’t know if it was the late start or going through the last half of high school in COVID-related mode, but the start was a bit rough, not just scholastically, but socially. However, she eventually found her rhythm.

It helped when she started taking classes at a couple of the other schools in the Five College Consortium, which also includes the University of
Massachusetts Amherst, Smith, Mount Holyoke, and Amherst. She learned to navigate the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority system before getting a car for her final year.

The news

We were all in the afterglow of her wonderful art show when we got The E-Mail from college president Jenn Chrisler, plus the chair and chair-elect of the board. “Seven years ago, the Hampshire community presented the College with a powerful mandate: to maintain independence and remain true to Hampshire’s deepest-held values. Since then, we have all worked together toward those goals…

“Despite this herculean effort, the financial pressures on the College’s operations have become increasingly complex, compounded by shifting external factors… We worked aggressively to increase enrollment, refinance existing debt, and realize new revenue via the sale of a portion of our land… We are faced with the clear, heartbreaking reality that progress on each of these three key factors has fallen far short of what we had hoped.

“As a result, the Board of Trustees voted to permanently close Hampshire College following the Fall 2026 semester.”

The good news is that the Daughter will have graduated by then. But as someone whose K-9 school, Daniel Dickinson in Binghamton, was razed, she’s already feeling sad about the change.

The Globe

There are some interesting takes on this situation. (Some are behind paywalls.)

What is the Five College Area with only Four Colleges? Hampshire College’s upcoming closure poses an existential question. By Brooke Hauser, Boston Globe, April 20, 2026.

“Especially for Hampshire alums who still live in the area, the idea of their alma mater falling off the map is disorienting. “It’s a little bit like, ‘Oh, you were from that village on the river, but it got washed away in the flood,’” said Jordi Herold, who founded Northampton’s legendary Iron Horse Music Hall in 1979, four years after graduation. “You have your memories, but it’s not there anymore.”

Hampshire Announced It’s Closing. Will Other Small Colleges Follow? by Lee Gardner, the Chronicle of Higher Education, April 14, 2026

The loss of Hampshire is a loss for the higher-education ecosystem, said Marjorie Hass, president of the Council of Independent Colleges. “Losing even small colleges diminishes the power of our sector as a whole,” she said. The consequences for the sector, she added, are that it will become “more homogeneous, with fewer choices for students, and less diverse in terms of location and kinds of students served.”

NYT

Hampshire College Will Close Amid Student Enrollment Declines – Other small private colleges like Hampshire have closed in recent years as financial pressures and competition for students increase. By Mark Arsenault, New York Times (gift link), April 14, 2026..

“Hampshire is the alma mater of the filmmaker Ken Burns, who made his first documentary movie as a student there. ‘This is an extraordinary loss for those of us who went there,’ Mr. Burns, who graduated from Hampshire in 1975, said in an interview… The school, known for experimentation in classes and methods, offered ‘sort of medieval guild-like tutors and apprenticeships,’ he said.”

Other notable alumni include actors Lupita Nyong’o and Liev Schreiber.

As noted, the Daughter will soon be a proud graduate of Hampshire College. But it’s a situation that has made not only the Daughter but her parents surprisingly melancholy.

Lydster: the Art Show

Kuumbaa, a Swahili term that translates to Creativity

The Daughter had her Art Show, Kuumba, at Hampshire College this month with three other talented folks. It was an intensive time. She had to get the show set up on Monday and Tuesday, April 6 and 7. The process took her over 14 hours, not counting the help she received.

On April 8, an uncle, an aunt, and a cousin came from the Mid-Hudson region of New York State to see her show, which was greatly appreciated. Her art committee did their walkthrough on April 9, and all was well.

She wrote a great three-page description of how she developed the show. Briefly, the work focused on her “studies of both African (continental) and Black American culture. and how they overlap… Even though they are separated by the ocean, natural themes shine through from Africa and the diaspora. Bright colors are seen as a symbol of freedom in many Pan-African cultures, from the intricate textile patterns to Bo Kaap, the colorful neighborhood in post-apartheid South Africa, to beadwork.

“Across the works in my series, each piece includes a multicolored component. It was important to me to make every aspect of my gallery show, including the frames, bowl beads, and rack, because I feel the point is to show off what I can do, and it gave me the flexibility to create exactly what I wanted. This meant I was also learning new processes that complement what I already know.”

Western Cape

On Friday afternoon, Pastor Miriam came to see the show, and the Daughter provided her with great detail.

The pics below are the latter half of the Western Cape Series. Monotype, pochoir, painting, handcoloring. As was true in most of pieces, it featured handmade frames. “In addition to the series, I have created an outline of the cape that marks the locations.”

Cape Point, 14 February, 13:30

Seaforth Beach, 14 February, 15:33

Bo-Kaap, 31 March, 18:53

Muizenburg Beach, 10 June, 14:16

Shown are:

Bloubergstrand Beach, 12 June, 14:16

Signal Hill, 12 June, 17:30

Signal Hill, 12 June, 17:47

Seaforth Beach, 14 June, 17:38

The photo does not do them justice. What was interesting to me was when she showed Miriam the reference photos from her visit to Cape Town in 2025 in comparison with the monotypes. I’d seen the pictures and the artwork, but never before at the same time. Fascinating.

Msuko Series

Linocut, monotype, collage, pochoir, handcoloring

Msuko V (yellow beads)

Msuko III (Koroba braids)

Msuko II (light and dark blue beads)

Msuko IV (blue and purple beads)

Msuko I (purple and red beads)

Msuko VI (cowrie shells)

When she dressed up for the closing reception, she put on fingernails she had painted to match her artwork! (She’s not giving you “the finger”!)

MNANDI TEXTILES

“When I was abroad studying at the University of Cape Town, I took an African Dance class. Early in the semester, our professor, Maxwell Xolani Rani, had us go to a local fabric shop, Mnandi Textiles, to pick out fabric for our lapas. Lapas are traditionally West African, typically have brightly colored patterns, and in African Dance, we tied them around our waists to create a skirt. This installation includes six patterned fabric prints, cut to a similar length to my lapa from Mnandi Textiles. Each individual fabric and each pattern is named after someone I know personally, three of whom I grew up around, and the other three of whom I met in South Africa in 2025 and impacted my time there in some way.”

Vitambaa Series

Relief

Saadiya

Thandeka

Xolani

Lidia

Roseline

Prudence

Lidia.

CROWN

Lithograph, handmade glass beads

“The shape of this set of braids is reminiscent of a crown and thus was named after the CROWN Act (first passed in California in 2019). Lithography is a planographic printmaking technique in which one draws with grease markers or paints with tusche on limestone. This meant that the project involved drawing each mark in the braids rather than carving as I was used to. The two lithographs I created for the show are also the opposite colorways of the Msuko series in linocut, but I still used brown ink to print them. The beads at the ends of the braids in Crown are hand-colored to resemble the six colors surrounding Msuko Series.”

She has been working with the Hampshire Glass Collective for years, so the beads represented in the various works and in a freestanding bowl were made by her.

There were a couple of other pieces as well.

What sort of gushy, “we are so proud of her” rambling should I end with? I’ll think about it. I can say that about 120 people attended the reception, and many of them were impressed, even blown away, by her display. One guy who works in lithography exclaimed to anyone around him, “That took a lot of time!”

It was wonderful to watch her patiently answer the visitors’ questions, many of whom were as entranced as her mother and I were. The comments, some of them by strangers, in a notebook – each artist received one – were quite moving when the three of us read them back the following evening.

Sunday Stealing Does Want to Know!

Censorship & Freedom of Speech

Welcome to Sunday Stealing. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!

This week, we’re stealing from Maggie, who claims she stole these questions from Takupon. Alas, neither of them blogs anymore.

Five Things You Didn’t Want to Know but I’m Telling You Anyway because Sunday Stealing Does Want to Know!

1) Has anyone ever told you they would love you forever?

Oh, I’m sure that’s true. Probably more than once.

2) Who is the last person you were in the car with?

Tim, a tenor who took me home from choir on Thursday night. I talked about my mother-in-law recovering from an eventful week. She’s currently in physical rehab and is doing well.

The day after today

3) Do you have big plans for tomorrow (Monday)?

Well, I did this a day early because I have a specific post to make on the 26th. So, on Sunday after church, our Outreach & Mission Committee is hosting another Lunch & Learn Lecture on Censorship & Freedom of Speech: Understanding the Legal Boundaries, featuring a speaker from the NY Newspaper Foundation’s Media Literacy Program. Also. I’m planning to have an afternoon ZOOM call with my sisters in San Diego, CA, and Charlotte, NC. On Monday, I think I have nothing but to catch up on things I didn’t do the previous week. There are ALWAYS things left on the to-do list.

4) How long do you typically spend in the shower?

10 minutes: the first two involve waking up.

5) What were you doing at 7 AM yesterday (Saturday)?

7 AM Friday, I was sleeping. Since I’m posting this before 7 AM Saturday, if I’m up, I’ll post this blog post, play Wordle and Quordle, and check my email, almost certainly while listening to music, possibly Bob Dylan, Rosanne Cash, Stevie Wonder, or a movie soundtrack.

Drawing is by one of my nieces from a few years back.

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.