Category: The DayBook

Finished my origami project this morning. It’s not perfect, but perfection is the enemy of progress. Now all that remains is cleaning up the Origami Dojo. 

It’s Saturday. Not much happening. That’s fine. Had a good old lady day. Walking, reading, origami, and an unexpected dinner with my accidental family. (I had planned on cooking my own dinner and eating alone in the Old Bat’s Cave.) 

 

And there is an old woman in my bathroom. Who let her in?

Guess rain isn’t so bad. 

Mostly played around with origami today. Result:

This wasn’t what I was after – it just all came together. I think this is the best origami box that I have ever made. Now, I have to make something equally special for inside of the box. Easter? Maybe a rabbit? Maybe a rose? Maybe a butterfly? Right now it’s “Just a Box of Rain”.

Such a long long time to be gone
And a short time to be there

Two Harris Teeters are walkable from The Asylum. Both involve some hills. Almost every walk from here involves a hill. But, I feel that getting out of The Asylum and walking or bussing (which will involve walking) at least 5 times a week is essential. Since I love grocery stores, I can usually lure myself out to Trader Joe’s or one of the Harris Teeters. A trip to any of them is roundtrip, about 2.5 miles. And I also try for a couple of speedy walks of a mile or so. 

But, and this is one of the dirty little secrets of being old… It is getting harder and harder to keep up the pace and distance. I don’t know why it surprises me. But it does. After I returned from my trek to Harris Teeter at noon, I was perfectly happy to do absolutely nothing except read all afternoon. 

Which makes me think about my Northwest Passage adventure in late summer. They promise two off-ship excursions per day. Not sure that my old bones will be up to that.  Perhaps I should acquire some waterproof binocs and plan on spending the afternoon in the hot tub doing some wildlife spotting.  

Old age is all about accepting things that one can not change. 

Oh, and I would like to learn how to be patient. That seems like a large undertaking at my age. Wonder what chatGPT has to say about that?

Made it through February without killing anyone. A victory. 

We heard today that our Sister Asylum, about ½ hour from here as the Old Bat walks, has 50 cases of Covid and it is all locked down. AGAIN. It’s hard to imagine that happening. Perhaps Covid got loose in the HVAC system? I don’t think there is a lot of science supporting the spread of Covid by HVAC. 

Thinking about the future of life on the planet today while on my walk. Actually thinking about the skills that today’s young people might need to make it to ripe old age. It occurred to me that things really haven’t changed all that much since my grandmother’s day. She could move into my life as an old woman and get along fine. Nothing has changed all that much since the 1960’s. Well, except that we can not go to the moon anymore.  And that’s the point. We really haven’t gained anything. And we lost the ability to go to the moon. What are we going to lose next? How do we prepare? I suspect that if I were to wake up tomorrow in 2083 as an old woman with 2023 skills and sensibilities, I might have a very hard time. It’s not the potential advances that worry me. It’s the loses.  

Well, that’s a bleak start to March, isn’t it? 

Focused on focusing this morning. Oh, and at 3:39 this afternoon I get eleven  2FA codes from USAA. I guess they were stuck somewhere in cyberspace. (My grandmother’s banker would have known her by name, not by a 6-digit code. I think we lost something there too.)

I’ll try again tomorrow.

MidJourney nails the focus.  But, the colors/saturation are a bit much.

Still having trouble to 2FA SMS text messages. From several institutions. I vaguely suspect that the T-Mobile signal that Google-Fi normally uses is crappy right now. I still get some text messages. But they are MMS. 

Well I just sent myself a SMS. And I received it. SO… now I am not sure I should be blaming the signal. 

This is an extremely 1st world problem. Just chill. Factory reset the phone if I must. 

 

My Northwest Passage adventure company insists that I have “Complete” Travel Insurance. I don’t believe in travel insurance. Don’t buy insurance if you can self-insure. I do carry most excellent medical evacuation insurance. I can afford to rescue myself – but if I needed rescuing it would be hard for me to pull off – so – I can just hope someone finds my Global Rescue Card and it gets me back to Virginia. Alive or Dead. (Actually, if I am dead – they can  just leave me.) 

But, rather than fuss or try to find a loophole – I set out to buy “complete travel insurance”. Carlton would call this “throwing money at a problem”. Well, the first place I checked, a company recommended by Global Rescue, wanted $9,000. And that didn’t include “cancel for any reason coverage”. This was a serious non-starter. 

So, Plan B, see if USAA sells “complete travel insurance” or even “incomplete” insurance. The old bat isn’t going to spend $9,000 for insurance. Log on to USAA. My phone doesn’t get the 2FA code. Try again. And again. Get a friend to text me. That works.

Try USAA again. No luck. I decide “screw it”.  I’ll worry about that tomorrow. No way I am going to wait until tomorrow to get this sorted. What if some miscreant is messing with my account? 

Call USAA. Wait on hold. March around the apartment getting my steps in for the day. Eventually, get connected with a real human person. She hasn’t a clue what’s wrong but she sets my account to get the code by email as well as text. And, I get access to USAA. And my money. The real human person was amazed that I have been with USAA for 64 years. Well, that’s what happens when you are old. 

What I am saying here is – 2FA is essential, but it can be a pain. Keep the phone number and account info handy.

You will be hearing more about my “complete travel insurance” quest.

I am suffering from what Carlton always called “acute unresolved discontent”. And, I am taking out my hostility on The Asylum and especially the food. 

I actually went so far as to look for another place to live. Moving would be stupid. Going on a trip would be a better idea. Heck, even moving into a long-stay apartment until I got tired of living alone would be a better idea than moving. Especially to another Asylum. Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.

Made it out for a 45-minute 3-mile walk today.  That should help with my general grumpiness.  I’ll be too tired to be grumpy.

Dinner with the accidental family tonight at our “fine dining venue”. I will try not to be a total grump.

Today is just boring and cold out. With a little very little snow. 

Being bored, I tried the chatCPT directions for an Origami Rose.

It’s a non-starter. I don’t think that the system has enough data to work with. 

I did consider the retail cure for boredom. A Leica Q2 maybe? No, I don’t have enough years left to properly amortize the cost. 

But, it is February. February is supposed to be boring. 

For the first time since last October, I can see the sun come up. 

Another uneventful day. Still working on my UnFinishedObjects. Progress, be it ever so slow, is being made. I have been studiously ignoring my UnFinishedObligations. 

Took a picture of my room this morning. After housekeeping had done their magics. I do not regret one bit getting such a small apartment. I use every inch of it. But, I don’t need or want one square foot more.

I would like a balcony. Even a tiny one. But, that’s not an option. When this building was designed, in the early 1980s, old people didn’t get balconies. Guessing they were afraid that we would jump off our balconies. 

And I could do without the popcorn ceiling. Another leftover from the last century. They were cheap, quick to install, covered a world of imperfections, and frequently contained asbestos. What’s not to love?

BYW – I love the image that is the current header. It is the Oslo Opera House.

It looks better as the header. Size sometimes matters.

It doesn’t get any better than this in February. I know I should be worried about climate change etc. But, it’s -18° in East Glacier Park Montana right now. Which is a good place to keep the cold weather. IMHO. 

Spent the entire day outside. The only thing I actually did was tidy up the WildChild Garden Box. And prune Ray the Rosemary Bush. 

Then I went for a stroll around our almost one mile of “wilderness”. 

The rest of the day I walked and lounged around outside. (I only logged 3.5 miles. So I must have lounged more and walked less.)

I was going to give up eating for Lent. Then I remembered the food here at The Asylum and realized that it wouldn’t be much of a sacrifice!

Thinking about changing to a new Word Press Template. I have used this one for about 6 years. But, most of the time the theme works. So, maybe I shouldn’t fix it. 

 

Warning Cat Stuff Follows:

 

 

 

If you like cats and Japan, check out some lovely Japanese cat videos from NHK TV – A Cat’s Eye View of Japan.

Maybe I should just hop on a plane to Japan. We have direct flights to Tokyo. 

 

 

The sun has returned. The Resident Human is happy.

These orchids didn’t bloom this winter. One had an accident and the other two are still in shock from being transplanted from moss to bark too quickly. But, they are happily growing roots and will soon put out new leaves. I know that one will try again for flowers next winter. 

Speaking of winter. There hasn’t really been real winter here. But, Hawai’i is another story.

And by the way, “Not much happening” is ok. Because not all that happens is good. Especially in an old folk asylum.