Category: The DayBook

Tuesday is yoga class day. And, our frog-loving flower arranger – has yoga frog out on display this week.

And another orchid also showed up at the door. It’s a large-ish white one. It arrived with 3 blooms left. I just read that phalaenopsis orchids live 15 – 20 years. My life expectancy is 9.23 years if I don’t buy a one-way ticket to Switzerland sooner. 

The other day, a friend said “I want to see a puffin”. Well, so do I. I know there are puffins in Northern Maine. And, I think there are lots of puffins in Iceland. But, I have never wandered out of downtown Reykjavik.  I am not too old to go on a Puffin Quest. Am I?

This memorial service is being streamed back to The Asylum from the church. Today was a test. It’s all about me. I wanted to see how my FCP Slideshow looked. It looked OK. And the A/V production guy is really in charge of it now. Everything will be fine.

This is a sign of creeping senility. I told a dear friend I wouldn’t set up her new Windows computer and printer because I don’t feel that I have it together enough to do the job.

I know stretching myself and trying new things is good, but I no longer have the skills or patience required to set up a brand-new Windows computer and printer.  Especially for a dear friend. She deserves better. 

Memorial slide show is up on Vimeo and in the hands of the A/V production crew. Come Friday, I’ll take my Mac to the church and loop it on a screen there during the reception.

It was a big job considering my age and the current state of my trigeminal neuritis.  About 200 photos over 10 minutes. But no audio. I hate doing audio. But, it was all good. Because, January was a pretty shitty month. And I could drink coffee, listen to the Dead, and wrangle old photos. Better than doomscrolling. 

By the way, boys and girls, Elon Musk now knows all about you. If you get social security – he knows your bank account number. That’s bad enough. His “tiger team” of 20-somethings know all about you too. 

This isn’t funny anymore. Seriously. 
Interesting times. 

 

Wrapping up my memorial slide show this weekend. Hope to have it in the can by 3PM tomorrow afternoon. Then, on to the taxes. But, is there any reason to do taxes? Will the republic still stand on 15April?

The Asylum kitchen wasn’t at its best today. I had waffles for breakfast. Our waffle machine makes square waffles, but a round waffle arrived at my table—a very old Eggo Waffle. One side was burnt, and the other was cold and soggy. It cost $2.75. A dinner companion ordered cottage cheese to go with her dinner. She got about two tiny bites for $1.95. 

On the bright side, I had a fine steak dinner with two glasses of wine for $18.60 this evening.

I haven’t been old before. It’s nothing like being not-old. My entire outlook seems to be changing. Some for the better. Some not so good. The physical changes are horrific. But the mental changes – baring dementia – are interesting.

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.