Author: Peg

Summer. Busy Everywhere. Guess that is all good. 

Actually they had arrangements like this in Singapore too. Maybe if I traveled in more upscale circles here I would not be amazed. 

A normal summer day. Freezing cold in my office. Hot outside. 

Good news, I survived today’s yoga class without falling. Will try to repeat the performance at tomorrow’s class.  

Had a really fine salad for dinner. And we ate outside. A fine little old lady evening.

Four years ago, I was locked in getting ready to move to The Asylum Hell. And one of the many things that I hated about the Asylum was the glass top stove. I am sure that I would still hate it if I cooked. But, I don’t cook. I microwave. I make coffee. Even French press coffee. But, I do not cook. 

AND, it turns out that a never used glass top stove is a wonderful work space for cutting paper to size for origami projects. I am currently going crazy making stars. It is almost like making a thousand cranes. But, since each star is made from 5 modules, maybe I’ll only make 200  Actually, I am not counting and I keep giving them away. Making stars is just amusing me right now. 

Another hot day. But, the A/C kept perking along. And, I got a lot done on my service project here at The Asylum. 

Carlton has been dead for almost 5 years. But he still lives in my head. He had been reminding me that our country survived Warren G Harding, Andrew Johnson, and James Buchanan. But lately, he has been reminding me of John Brown and the note that he passed to his jailer on the morning of his hanging.

I John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land: will never be purged away; but with Blood. I had as I now think: vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed; it might be done.

And, Carlton, I miss you. But, you got out in time. You could still do almost everything you wanted to. And, the human race hadn’t gone to hell. I can still do almost everything I want to do. But, I have to watch our country, indeed our world disintegrate. 

And on that cheery note. A couple from Dubai. One up top and the B/W below.

Just a month ago, I was in Edinburgh. Wearing all the clothes that I had with me on my trip. And now I am back in the Old Bat Cave where it is so hot that bugs are sticking on the windows just to cool off. Bugs rarely bother to fly up to the 11th floor. But, not today. Guess that 35-year-old windows leak plenty of cool air. 

Went to a 265th Birthday Party this afternoon. Kind of spooky when it only takes 3 friends to make 265 years. 

The handwriting is on the wall. This isn’t the 2nd half. This is sudden-death overtime. Nobody is promised tomorrow.

So, eat the cake, buy the shoes, take the trip.

Oh, and I managed to exist nicely for an entire week without Facebook. Does FB make my life better? Does social media make us better or happier people?  

Toasty. Very Toasty.

Us old people are huddled around our A/C units. Alternately chanting incantations to the HVAC Gods to keep the cool air coming and remembering way back before home air conditioning. When folk went to the movies to cool off in the summer. Thank you, Willis Carrier. (He frequently called A/C “manufactured weather”.)

The neighbor young people are out and doing things.

My camera is still set to take pictures of the light show that I can not see on the Washington Monument.  So I just pointed it around the ‘hood for all of today’s shots.

 

Carlton got a new crown less than 4 months before he died. I bet that he is still pissed about that.  I am not so sure that I new crown is all that great of an investment for me either. Goodness knows that I don’t do much to take care of myself. And my relatives aren’t especially long-lived and I put a lot of hard miles on the old body. Oh well, if I live 5 more years – then the new crown will end up costing about 75 cents per day. Guess I can afford that.

Heatwave underway here in the east. That is why I have decided to think Celsius. 35° just seems cooler than 95°.

Oh, and the Washington Monument light show. I can see the west and south sides of the monument and the show is on the east side. Not fair.

I was thinking about Dubai and Singapore today. It was well over 90° when I was coming home today. It wasn’t as hot as Dubai – but definitely as hot as Singapore. There is an infinity pool on top of the Sands Hotel. Next time, I might spend the night there just so I can see it.

The trick will be staying awake until 9:30 to see it.  I’ll ask Alexa to remind me to look out the window at 9:30. 

 

Traveling is an adventure. I ran into this sign in Japan. Haven’t a clue what it means. It could mean “watch out, really bad ass birds around here”. Or maybe “Go, Fighting Sea Eagles!” in support of the local baseball team. One never knows.

What was really dumb? Me, I fell on my head in yoga class today. Doing a standing forward bend and just tipped over. Smack! Right on top of my head. Also cut my hand and skinned my knee. If I were young everyone would have laughed. But, at my advanced age everyone was very concerned. Ice pack, bandaids, rides home and solicitous emails. I fear that I will have a very sort neck tomorrow.

I guess this would be a called a “sports injury” if I were younger. But, I think at my age it is just called “dumb”.

After my ride home, I just made some origami and listened to an audiobook and took it very easy.

I went to the Cup of Noodles Museum in Tokyo. 1971 – that is when Cup of Noodles as we known it was born.

I strolled around the upmarket part of London on fine summer’s day. I rather liked Sotheby’s front door.

In good time I went around the block and found Sotheby’s back door. Much coming and/or going of stuff.

And willing to make a political statement.

London is so congested that even bicycle parking spaces are at a premium.

As I rounded the corner, I discovered the “Sotheby’s Coffee Shop”.

I have my stuff on Dropbox, iCloud, and Google Drive. Thinking that I should be thinking about downsizing my digital stuff while I still have enough brain cells to do it. 

(Aside: Fun thing at this instant – they are playing with the light show that is going to be projected on the Washington monument. I should see if I can shoot it.)

Shot with my very cheap long lens. Handheld. 

 

A con man,  a buffoon and a bigot walk into a bar.

The bartender asks: What’ll you have, Mr. President?

I spent a lot of time today being annoyed at the not for profit that runs the place where I live and their charitable foundation.

Mostly, I was getting annoyed with the salaries of the management dudes and dudettes. You can take the old woman out of the ILWU but you can not take the ILWU out of the old woman. 

You would think that I had enough photographs to deal with and I wouldn’t be going out and taking more pictures. If you thought that you would be thinking about a normal person. Not me. 

Had a strange sort of a day. The morning was devoted to doing the first cut processing of the 600+ photos that I took on Thursday evening of our residents. 

People agreed to hold up a blank piece of paper and I get to write stuff on the paper. I promised to make the signs say thank you. And they believe that I am an honorable woman. 

I am about 1/3 of the way through the first cut of this project. Maybe by this time tomorrow, I’ll be 2/3 of the way through. 

Then I had a little snack and went to the grocery store to pick up my BP drugs. Surprise. The price had changed since I last filled the script. HUGE SURPRISE, the price went down.

Then it was nap time. And later, one of my friends had a little party for her family and graciously included me. Excellent mac and cheese. Doesn’t get much better than good mac and cheese. 

Came back home, too early to get into jammies and read. So, I knocked out a few more of the 600 photos.

But, now it is after 8, so, I can hop into jammies and read for a couple of hours or as long as my eyes hold up.

Note to self: Remember this isn’t easy.

What isn’t easy: Creating “awareness” among our community of the need to remember of staff members  via our annual “employee gift fund”. The Asylum has a vigorously enforced no tipping policy. But, we should tip the waitstaff, the bar tenders and the cleaning crew. Not to mention the front desk and the drivers. So once a year – we residents collect money to pass on to the staff. 

A couple of years ago, I did the Last Great Photo Shoot and made an environment photograph of every employee – that would be 400 of them. And produced an hour long loop of photos that ran in our lobbies 24/7. It was very well received. But, it was one of those things that are only effective one. Maybe 5 years from now it could be repeated. But not now. And not by me. 

This year I am trying to make four 2-3 minute “commercials”. But, it is still hard.   

It would be much easier if I lived somewhere where I could just tip the damn staff like a civilized person. 

But, you play the cards you are dealt.