Category: The DayBook

I wonder if the White House got this advertisement?

I’ve never been so ashamed to call myself an American

I dropped my subscription to MidJourney about a year ago. I tried whatever it is that Photoshop uses for AI last night when I wanted a dragon-snake for Chinese New Year. It is nowhere near as powerful as MidJourney but the price is right. 

Been getting all manner of warnings on my phone about evil weather in Hawai’i. A check of my favorite webcam shows an unfriendly Kailua Bay.

Nice retirement party today. I slipped out a little early maybe. But that is one of the prerogatives of age.

In these strange times – it’s nice to look at a bunch of peaceful fish from time to time.

Working on the memorial slideshow today. There is an OK Version. On my computer and on Vimeo. But, I wanted to fix a few things. And the family wanted some additional images.

The last 5% is a very dangerous time for me. I tend to forget: “Simple is Best” and “Eventually I have to do the work”. So, I spent the entire day thinking about how to do this or that “better”.

When I finally decided to do something to the slideshow, I completely destroyed a major compound clip. Fortunately, Final Cut Pro allows you to CNTL Z back to forever. Well, actually, back to when you last opened the app.

Which made me wish I could just CNTL Z the country back to last Halloween.

AND

AND

It is well over 40°.

AND

I have mostly avoided “the news”. Because what can I do about “the news”?

Went to yoga in person today. Walked  a couple of miles. Also started on getting my tax stuff together. 

Trying not to wallow in discontent. So far so good today.

Carlton would question: Is “not something” anything to be grateful about? Maybe I should be grateful that there are people who are willing to trim the trees on a winter day so branches will not fall on my head.

The Asylum had no eggs today. Even during the bare grocery shelf days of early Covid the Asylum had eggs.

My world has completely washed out to sea over the last 5 days. I don’t think I have gone crazy. I think it’s my world that has gone crazy. But. I am old. I could be wrong. Perhaps I have lost my mind. Maybe the world is OK. Maybe.

Gratitude. Friends. Even ones who are cheery and planning a campaign of MeatLess Mondays because cows’ farts are bad for the environment. Beer. Even San Miguel. Because I drank the Asylum out of Guinness. Chocolate Ice Cream. Even without hot fudge. Coffee. Especially with caffeine.

Grateful to be so old that what I eat doesn’t matter. 

The day started with a friend telling me “Things could be worse. You could be pregnant and wanting an abortion”

But I have no control over the elevators.

Taking the day off today. My trigeminal neuralgia flareup continues. There aren’t too many shocks, but there is constant background pain and the potential for shocks remains. This just makes me tired. But tired is better than shocks.

Since it was above freezing, I headed for a 2-mile trek (round trip) to the new Amazon Grocery store.  I didn’t need anything (except fresh air and exercise and no computer). The Amazon Grocery was nothing special. Well except for the $10 off coupon. In the future I will continue on another couple of blocks to Trader Joe. If I need “ordinary” I can go next door to the Giant Grocery. Oh, I got coffee. And granola bars. Toothpaste. And $10 off.

Whoops – this just in:

Maybe I should have bought more coffee!

 

You know you are in deep dog shit when Mitch McConnell becomes one of the “good guys”. 

I wrangled about 250 photos into an acceptable memorial service slide show today. All the other days were spent getting the images ready for prime time. Being terminally anal I will make one or two more passes at it in the coming days. But there is a workable version. 

The rest of the Asylum family had other dinner plans tonight – I was happy to stay in the Old Bat’s Cave and enjoy chicken soup and a glass of wine. 

Going to settle down with a nice cuppa coffee, some dark chocolate, and an audiobook for the rest of the evening. 

Yeah, right.
On the bright side – it’s two degrees warmer here than in Reykjavik at this instant. Of course, it’s 5 hours later there.

I spent the day wrapped up in a toasty Orenburg shawl and plowed through more of my memorial slideshow. 

Soon it will be Happy Hour. I will drink. 

Trying to look on the bright side.

I sunk into deep dark hopeless depression today.  I thought that I was sufficiently shallow, superficial, and callous to the woes of others. Not so. It hurts to be an American. The revolution can not start soon enough. 

Perhaps I have a personal legacy system problem. I appear to be incompatible with Trump 2.0. I am more worried about my country than my printer driver.

Working away on the memorial slideshow. It keeps me from thinking about Trump 2.0. 

Another day of well below freezing. The Asylum water heating system wimped out for a while earlier today. But the heating plant has been working fine.

Speaking of The Asylum:

If you missed it and have 15 minutes to spare, here is the link:
https://youtu.be/xwwaEuDeqM8?si=xFEFKbbOSKLefOa2

A couple of weeks ago I start having an hour of NO Technology first thing in the morning. It has worked for me. It gets me out of bed. Why stay in bed if you can not doomscroll or online shop or plan an escape from the cold?

I decided that Alexa is so lame that it doesn’t count as “technology”. I use it to time my hour and play NPR radio. I could look at my wall clock and listen to my emergency transistor radio. But Alexa is easier. 

Dinner will with all the Asylum Family tonight. We always have laughs—and little family-kind squabbling. 

Wine drinking late this afternoon. What else was there to do? It was 15° That’s about the same as Fairbanks, AK. And considerably colder than Reykjavík. So, why am I here? Just stupid I guess.

Spent most of the day working on a Memorial slideshow for a friend.

I worked all day on the memorial slideshow project, which kept me from paying attention to the proceedings downtown.

However, a bald eagle swooped by the window when I returned to the Old Bat’s Cave at 1 pm. The bird was either fleeing Washington or trying to cheer me up. I just watched it. No photos.