Category: The DayBook

I went and did zoom yoga and had my lunch today with Kelly, Princess Cat. She was underwhelmed by me. I made her chase cat treats all over the living room. I tried one of the treats. I wouldn’t have run all over the living room for one. But, I am not a cat. 
While we are on food.

Hamburgers

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The Asylum makes a darn good burger. And the fries are good too. 

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The food remains unacceptable. But, I am going to try to find one good thing to say about the food every day this week. 

Friday I have an “important” photo shoot lined up. But, I haven’t taken serious photos indoor photos in a long time.  So, this afternoon, I dressed in black, put my camera on a monopod, and headed down to the basement to take some test shots.

I don’t know what I learned. Except to be sure to put in fresh batteries! And remember to put a quick release on both cameras.  And, for this purpose, the phone will work fine. But, I’ll take the gear just because that’s what’s expected.

When I went out to water my garden box, I found a resident who had a monarch butterfly in a mason jar. She had “hatched” it and now she was sending it out into the world. In less than 2. minutes, it was on its way.

For the next few days, I will have lunch with Kelly Princess Cat. She has never been left home totally alone before. Serious cat people have important tasks like feeding and cat box cleaning. I am just entertainment.

Lobster Rolls

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For the last month, pretty good lobster rolls have been available on the weekend for takeout. My friends and I had  lobster roll and pizza picnics.

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The food remains unacceptable. But, I am going to try to find one good thing to say about the food every day this week. 

Lazy late summer day today.  Got in a nice long walk. I walked until I got bored and then got on the bus and came home.

Hard to realize that come the end of the month I will have lived in The Asylum for 6 years.  The rent was $2,875 per month when I moved in and it is going up to $3,520 next month. 

Bacon

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The bacon is unfailingly crisp and plentiful. They start frying it at 5AM. I know this because The Old Bat’s Cave is over the grill exhaust fan.

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The food remains unacceptable. But, I am going to try to find one good thing to say about the food every day this week. 

Never Forget 911. Remember Pearl Harbor. Remember Manzanar. Remember Nagasaki. Remember the St. Louis.

I put this on my blog shortly after 911. 

An old set of photos taken from a powerpoint presentation sent to me in Alaksa on September 12 by an old Navy buddy. Check it out.

Twenty years out, 911 seems like a minor pain when compared to the injuries that we have inflicted on ourselves. Kyrie eleison.

At about 2:30 today, I turned in my book report. Hopefully, that is the last that I will see of the books or the report.  

Thinking about a new problem. How to get the residents to pony up serious money to increase the scholarships for our staff. That might help us compete with Amazon for entry positions in Health Care, Food Service, and Housekeeping. Nobody wants any of those kids to be a waiter or nursing aide for the rest of their lives.  They are almost all immigrants or first-generation Americans. If our country is going to survive it will be thanks to young people like them.  Many of them start here while they are still in high school. We really do consider them a part of our ohana. 

Found some very fine clouds when I went walkabout after dinner this evening. Didn’t get outside much today so I needed a little airing out. But, I did finish up my book report late this afternoon. Don’t know if anything will come of it. It totally doesn’t matter. Except for the final “formal” book report, I did it for me.  Just to see if I could still play “museum tech”. 

Time for our 911 light show again. That’s not something that I need to photograph again. I don’t think I can improve on last year’s photos. Last year I could open my screen. Since my screen was replaced due to crow damage, I haven’t been able to open it. Enough already. Just take a picture. “Computer, Lights Out”. 

It is totally different this year. The air was very heavy last year and it trapped the light for me. 

I do enjoy yelling at Alexa to turn the lights on and off.

I should be finished my book report by this evening. But NO, I fell down the ephemeral rabbit hole. Spent most of the day researching Chinese New Year Prints from the early 1930s.  There are darn few of them, never mind that millions upon millions were printed. They were printed to be pasted on a wall and then removed and burned. But, I found 8 stashed away since 1930 in one of the 7 books. 

 

And, now I am really tired of looking at Google and my computer. So, that’s it for today. 

Sleep well tonight The Door God has your back.

Entire floors are starting to get locked down. Plus unfortunate individuals who live on other floors. Like my next-door neighbors.  My neighbor’s only crime was to have “close” to one of the infected staff members.  Shit. Shit. Shit.

Worked on finishing up my “book report” all day. If I work on it all day tomorrow, it should be finished. I did the research. I know all that I am going to know. What I am doing now is the boring stuff. Writing a report using complete sentences and paragraphs. I have ZERO interest in the report. But the research was fun.

It seems to be OK now.

The 7 Chinese Books.

Finish my research on these books today. Now, I should write up what I discovered. 

Hope everyone enjoyed Labor Day. In the 60′s and early 70′s, I was a member of the Longshoremen’s Union. ILWU Local 142. We didn’t cross picket lines. We “Looked for the Union Label”. And we never ate California table grapes. Fortunately, California wine grapes were OK. And we drank beer anyhow. “An Injury to One Is An Injury to All” 

Remember boys and girls: Weekends were brought to you by Labor Unions. 

Well, that was easy. Got rid of all the Smuckers Grape Jelly packets. Plus some stray condiments from the fridge. Saved the peanut butter packets. 

I rescued 7 old Chinese books from the asylum art center. Today, discovered who they belonged to. Well, I didn’t discover it. Google did. 

I was using my phone to help me read a faint name written in one of the books. Google, being ever-helpful, picked up the script and took me to a museum archive that led me to a little biography that pointed me to an obit that contained the name of a deceased resident of The Asylum. The books and some Chinese New Year Prints that are just stuck in one of the books would sell for over 10K at auction on a good day and maybe 2K on a bad day. I am sure the books should go back to the family. And to think. I almost turned one of the books into origami paper!

Some women turn into their mothers when they get old. I seem to be turning into a squirrel.

I find myself stashing away things that should be in the trash, recycling, or composting. I got a big box yesterday. It had “nice” kraft paper for stuffing. Plus some packages of air. I had to force myself to get rid of all that. Well, I might “need” a big box. The kraft paper would be “fun” to cut into squares for origami. As if I don’t already have more than enough folding paper. Paper that is already square. And I was too lazy to take the air packages down to recycling. 

And let’s not get started on little packets of condiments. Like there is going to be a worldwide shortage of Smuckers Grape Jelly. Which I don’t even like.  

Time to spend some time “death cleaning”. Do I really want whoever cleans out my stuff to find that I have a stash of Smuckers Grape Jelly packets? On the other hand, will I really care then? I will be dead. 

A fine lazy late summer day.

Pretty OK lobster roll for dinner.

Getting fall allergies. Missed them last year. Wasn’t allowed outside enough to inhale nasty pollen and mold spores. All things considered, I’ll take the allergies.