Not Much

Sunflower
Sunflower – click on the photo. It looks nice bigger.

Absolutely nothing going on in my life this afternoon. And, that is OK.

Need to be all rested up for tomorrow’s Republican Follies. The Arlington County Fair – with the ever popular Pig Races starts tomorrow as well. Figuring that Pig Races and Republican Debates are about the same.The pigs are cuter. Smarter too.

Also tomorrow. Meeting the the “Senior Move Consultant”. Yes Carlton, I am throwing money at this move problem. Deal with it.

Well…

One of the 6,000 different species of hoverflies.
One of the 6,000+ different species of hoverflies.

Well, I did something I never thought I would do. I went to a lecture at the asylum this evening. Dr Isabella Karle, who should have won a Nobel prize – but didn’t – gave a talk on xray-chrystography. And oh by the way she distilled the plutonium chloride used in the earliest experiments with plutonium based atomic bombs when she worked on the Manhattan Project. The Trinity explosion and the Nagasaki bombs used plutonium. Hiroshima used uranium. (They just had enough uranium for one bomb. They were sure it would work – so it wasn’t tested. Just exploded over Hiroshima. They were not so sure that plutonium would work – but they had lots of plutonium – hence the test at the Trinity site.) BTW – she said the plutonium chloride is a lovely bottle-green crystal.

Now, the dear lady is 93 years old. Her talk would have been better 10 years ago. But, my understanding of her subject matter would have been better 10 years ago as well.

And you thought it was just bingo at the asylum. Don’t feel bad – so did I.

Yard Elephant

Never know what you'll find in Arlington. It is in a yard. And is taller than I am.
Never know what you’ll find in Arlington. It is in a yard. And is taller than I am.

Just a summer Monday. Our pool is closed on Monday. Nice lazy afternoon.

As a reminder that “nobody is promised tomorrow”…three people who are on my mind.

  • A “kid” I worked with my first summer with the Park Service. He advanced nicely in the NPS – but had a terrible bike wreck early last month and was sent from the ICU to a brain/spinal cord injury rehab joint in Atlanta. I hope this works out for Ryan. The body is sometimes able to heal itself.
  • Back in my Navy Daze – I worked with a gifted programmer. He always did everything to excess – and a good job with AOL back in the early days left him with enough money to get really messed up. Somewhere along the line, after all the money was spent, he found a good woman. She has kept things together for years. According to email “Dave had successful carotid surgery  on 24 June with ‘flying colors’.  However in follow up care he had a massive stroke.” A case of the operation was a success, but the patient died. My old friend is in hospice card. Peace and comfort, Dave.
  • And finally, a friend is providing 24/7 care giving to her 90 something mother in upstate NY. That is so hard on both of these dear ladies.

Carlton got out easy. He had lots of bike wrecks, he almost broke his neck body surfing where he had no business body surfing, he got to AA in time and it worked for him, and finally he won the massive never knew what hit him heart attack lottery. I got off easy too. For that I am grateful.

Nobody is promised tomorrow.

Bugs at the asylum.

Eastern Yellow Jacket  Vespula maculifrons

If you can get past the stinging parts (and I have been stung too many times to do that easily) – our yellow jackets are very interesting insects. They take good care of their young, eat other insects, and have been known to get falling down drunk after consuming too many sweets – especially melons. And, they sting like crazy. Unlike bees – these guys live to tell about it.

The asylum doesn’t seem to have many good insect hunting venues. But, I’ll scout around after I get moved in.

Moving progress: packed up a box today. I have packed up 16 boxes. Now, I really need to ask myself – if I can do without 16 boxes of stuff for 6 weeks – can’t I do without them for the rest of my life? There is a box of wine glasses. A box of vases. A box of knick knacks. Lots of boxes of photo books and albums. I think I “need” this stuff.

Photography as Therapy

This was really hard ... getting rid of Carltons'  rackets. It was like hugging Carlton.
This was really hard … getting rid of Carlton’s rackets. It was like hugging Carlton, one last time.

They couldn’t just go in the dumpster. I really wasn’t going to keep them. Keep them so Betsey – my lawyer – can put them in the dumpster after I am over at Georgetown Medical School being a cadaver. They have to go to Goodwill.

I decide to take them by “Carlton’s Tennis Courts”. At noon today – no one was playing.

The rackets - on the bench where Carlton must have rested during his last match.
The rackets – on the bench where Carlton must have rested during his last match.

IMG_20150801_123854I figured that I had to walk them down to the Goodwill. I’d needed a little more time. It is a little over a mile. But, it was noon. And hot. So, by the time I got there – I was happy to hand the rackets over.

Note to Carlton: I gave your Kindle away. (My old one too – time for an upgrade). I thought you would be amused to know that I sent them to a guy in San Francisco. Who uses them for a school reading program.

Carlton’s AA friends will know that SF was sort of special to him.

Then, I bussed down to the asylum. Had a late lunch. Very leisurely at 2:30. Very good too. Salad with feta cheese and grilled salmon. Carlton – you would like the food. They have ice cream, yogurts, fruit, coffee and all manner of beverages available all day. The “Bistro” serves from 7AM to 8PM. There is the lagniappe wine 3 days a week. Happy Hour on Friday – with nice pupu’s. (And 1/2 price Guiness) They do fish good. Veggies not too good. Desserts are OK. Oh, and the soups are pretty good too.

 

The Trouble…

yesterday's sunset - looking east
yesterday’s sunset – looking east

The trouble with being a downsizing photographer is you keep finding caches of photographs. The joy of being a downsizing photographer is you keep finding caches of photographs. Last week a found a binder of “printfiles” full of old snapshots that belonged to Carlton. I vaguely remember rescuing them from Carlton’s trash can when we downsized in 2004. Today a TrueCore box that I was sure was empty turned out to be full of B/W prints of mine. Why did I think that I would actually have an empty TrueCore box?

Yesterday’s sunset – I’ll still be able to look at the eastern sky from the Old Bat Cave. I went to the asylum for dinner again tonight. No one invited me to eat with them, nor did I seek out company. I happily enjoyed dinner (with my Kindle). And, I overheard several of the residents discussing some “crazy woman” who is having a one bedroom apartment converted into a studio.

Cranes

  
Thirty or so cranes in a mass box. 970 cranes to go on the senbazuru. 

This afternoon I punched my printer pretty hard. On all sides. I should have been arrested for printer abuse. But, the printer was sufficiently scared. It printed out two pages of ICE cards and non-business cards with the new address. I don’t think it is fixed. But, maybe it will keep working long enough to use up its expensive ink. 

Donald Trump leads in the republican primary race. It doesn’t mean anything, but it is amusing. 

Fighting the last war…

From the Genuine Official State of Virginia - what to do if you think you have ebola web page.
From the Genuine Official Commonwealth of Virginia – what to do if you think you have ebola web page.

Hospitals, like politicians and armies, are always preparing to fight the last war. My hospital is not an exception to this rule. So, today, I was Googling around, trying to find some verbiage to snag for an ebola after action report form that I was designing. For the last war. The time to prepare for ebola was 12 months ago. We should be preparing for something else now.

I looked at the Virginia Health Department site – makes sense. We are in Virginia. They are sort of in charge of some of our policies, procedures, requirements etc. I found the fine Commonwealth of Virginia wants to help you if you think you have ebola and don’t have a doctor. You should “Check a hospital’s yellow page advertisement…” Has anyone seen yellow pages lately? If you do find a yellow pages – I wonder how many hospitals are actively advertising for ebola patients.

What would I be worried about if I were a hospital – the total meltdown the internet, maybe. Or failure of cell phone service. I wouldn’t be worried about an outbreak of a killer virus that attacks humans. But, that is just me – and I worry about what I am told to worry about.

My printer – which has been dying since before Carlton died – just died. Well, truthfully, I just took it off life support. I got over 10 years hard service out of it. And, it was “carlton proof”. He could use it as a stand alone copy machine. RIP HP1312. It’s replacement has to fit into it’s space. Size matters.

Had a lovely dinner. The Four C’s. Cheese and Cherries from the farm market. Chocolate from Trader Joe. Coffee from Starbucks.

What ever happens…

Is what you planned. . . Even totally blown exposures.
Is what you planned. . . Even totally blown exposures.

This image is right out of the camera.

Sort of getting back on track move-wise. I have packed up 12 boxes. And, people are coming next week to help me figure out how to get rid of stuff. Stuff like The Ark of the Covenant – AKA – Carlton’s desk. And my old desk. And the spare bed. Plus some of my living room chairs. And the vintage desk chairs. And old tube TVs. And this. And that. And the other. And kitchen stuff and tools. And lamps.

Note to Carlton: Honest Carlton. No one wants your desk. Goodwill might get $100 for it. I know you loved it. You took better care of it than you did me. But but no one wants big brown furniture anymore. And, there really isn’t room for it in the old bat cave. Sooner or later it is going to go – so, it might as well be sooner. I already pitched the wax that you so lovingly applied on a regular basis. You didn’t ask me to take care of it. Thank you for that.

Anyone want The Ark – Come and get it. I see them on eBay for $500 – $2000 from time to time. But, I feel sure that is wishful thinking on the part of the owners of said big brown furniture…

Blog Post from June 1, 2004

falls church
tue 1-jun-04

As you can see, little progress has been made in the “lets get rid of the last 30 years of your life cleanup”. Today’s task was to get the oldest computer (Oct 1996 – $3,800 before extras – a really hot Pentium 100 laptop) ready for recycling. I collected all it’s specific software and parts and scrubbed it down using KillDisk. And boxed it and its stuff up. Also filled up a grocery bag with unloved software and cables. Hope the Goodwill will take them.

Saw Keith Richards on TV last night. That boy is a human cockroach. No way he should still be alive. It sort of makes me proud of our species. And that feeling is hard to come by these days.

——————————————————————————–

The July 27, 2015 post

What we have above is my web posting from the last time I did a massive move. I survived that. I can survive this. (See the web posting as it still exists. I told you I have been blogging since before blogging)

Went through a little moving slump/depressed period today. I gave myself a good talking to. Packed two boxes. Contacted movers. And I am now having beer and cheese.

And like 11 years ago: I still have old computers to sanitize and get rid of. Except I am using Boot and Nuke vice KillDisk. I haven’t decided about getting rid of my Windows computer. I really only use it to make “backup” copies of DVDs. And, to drive the scanner part of my old multifunction printer/scanner. I made “backup” copies of DVDs for Carlton. And, I have a little scanner that the Airness drives nicely. SO, I might just get rid of the Lenovo. (If I don’t get rid of it my lawyer will after I die. Just do it now Peggy, when someone can still use a sweet little lenovo – windows 7 – any takers? Lenovo q150. Bring your own monitor. Mine is connected to the TV.) The funky Fujitsu 810 is already ready to go.

Did I mention? I sent my Kindles to some guy in California who says he uses them at his public school. I choose to believe him.

And Keith Richard is still a good advertisement for the human species. Plus, Sir Mick is a great grandfather.

 

Lazy Sunday…

On the shelves at the asylum library… Not Promising.
The Library Magazine Collection - No People, Sports Illustrated, or Vogue Allowed.
The Library Magazine Collection – No People, Sports Illustrated, or Vogue Allowed.
In keeping with the library theme, the family librarian is on his annual adventure.
In keeping with the library theme, the family librarian is on his annual adventure.

Walked down to the asylum this morning. I enjoyed an early lunch in the “Formal Dining Room”. I rather enjoy having an early lunch in that room. They have some tables for one. And, likeminded antisocial old people occupy those tables and enjoy their Sunday papers. Early, you miss the after church “rush”. The trip to the asylum on foot with the bus back is a little over five miles which makes the fitbit happy.

Did nothing movewise today.

Did origami today. Masu Boxes.

Sunday Paper inserts make good practice papers
Sunday Paper inserts make good practice papers
Lids too!
Lids too!
And, I can store my cranes in the box.
And, I can store my cranes in the box.

Glad I remembered masu boxes. They are easy and useful.

Saturday

Bee Wing
Tiny Bubbles – click on it for closer view

I didn’t know that was what a bee’s wing looked like. It is rather lovely. From this afternoon’s walk.

Moving activity of the day: Some more address changes.

Note to Carlton. Glad you are dead. Because this would definitely kill you. The asking rent for the apartment is $250 per month less than I am currently paying – and that is after they redo the bathrooms, kitchen and put down hardwood floors.

I know you are annoyed that I am paying to get out of the lease early – but honest – after four months – I am ahead of the game. I did the math.

And, now I think – if it isn’t too hot I’ll walk down to the asylum for dinner. If it is too hot – I’ll bus it.