Rainy Damp Day

Getting ready to get ready for the rally in support of sensible gun laws next month.

I am not sure why they were doing this. One of those social media things. But I was just collecting photos from my video in support of sensible gun laws.

While I was trying to figure out how to use Apple Motion to make text crawl along the bottom of my video, I was playing with MidJourney. It makes great stock filler images. I was running it in slow mode because I get unlimited slow service, but not very much fast service.  So I tried tossing Kyrieeléison in as a prompt. 

Imagine kyrie eleison

Well, that was cool. But, maybe MidJourney doesn’t speak Greek. Or maybe MidJourney wasn’t fed the Tridentine Mass. But, it’s a really cool image.

So, try again, this time in English.

imagine lord have mercy

Ok. This is interesting. Definitely, something to play with someday when I have a lot of time to kill. 

Friday

More from my elevator lobby – a dusty but rather cute panda knick-knack.

Accomplished things today. And, my room was cleaned by someone else. I always love that. Enjoyed happy hour with my friends. Followed by dinner on the patio. The food was lacking but the company was good. 

Damn, this is very boring blog entry. Sigh.

Thursday

More from my Toy Story Elevator Lobby. The one on the left plays music. Little Bunny FooFoo to be exact.

Just normal boring Little Old Lady Shit. What can I say? I am a Little Old Lady. And damn that sucks. But, it’s what it is. So deal with it. 

I was looking around my blog as I was in 2001 (and the term blog wasn’t really used by then) when I come upon my bookmarks from May 2001.  I am slightly curious about what mattered enough to bookmark 22 years ago. Bookmarks really mattered way back then. Just checked. Most are LONG gone. 

Been sleeping poorly since I returned to The Asylum. And, my watch agrees. I have been scoring in the low 70’s. I think it’s because I have been finishing up an audiobook at bedtime. Tonight, I will read a book and see if I can get a better sleep score tonight. 

Wednesday

Another tasteful knick-knack from my elevator lobby. 

Most of today was “wasted”. As in accomplished very little. But I did very carefully fill out a “Daisy” award for the ED Charge nurse who drove me to my hotel in Clarkston. 

Haven’t heard of a Daisy Award? I am not surprised. Most hospitals have a way that you can nominate one of their nurses (or an entire group of nurses) on the hospital website. It’s a lightweight silly-sounding name but it’s the Academy Awards of Nursing. The DAISY Award® for Extraordinary Nurses.

I could have died that night when I started walking two miles to the hotel in the dark. Actually, that’s overly dramatic. But, I might have passed out in someone’s front yard. It wouldn’t have been a good night.

Wow! The garden box went crazy while I was out galavanting.

Don’t think the Rosemary and Sage have ever looked this happy. 

Suddenly taken tired.

One of the many knick·knacks that are propagating in my elevator lobby.

So much for gracious living. It’s more like Toy Story. But, I have resolved to not let such trivial matters concern me. If this were my building I would have knick-knack-free elevator lobbies. But, not my monkeys, not my circus. 

I was charging madly through my day, just finishing up yoga, half a sandwich, and 2 cups of coffee when I was overwhelmed by a need for a major nap. 

During the early Covid days, I made a pretty good video about our Asylum’s George Floyd/BLM Rally. Folks seem to think I can do a good one on an upcoming “Sensible Gun Laws” rally. I am not so sure. Anyhow, I am thinking about it. (I don’t think management knew exactly what we were up to back in 2020, this time management is “concerned”. Which, of course, means I need a bitching great video.)

Home.

Fullerton CA

I find myself rather uninterested in my trip photos.  ChatGPT and I wrote a nice email to Lindblad asking for a refund or future credit. I know nothing will come of it. I was told that on the phone many times. I have it in writing that fluking a Covid test gets you put ashore with no recourse. But, I am still willing to spend 15 minutes crafting an email. On the off chance that something might break my way.

My life is almost back in order after being away for 19 days. I have a few more emails to attend to. And the to-do list that I made on the train is untouched. When I come back from a trip I am always overwhelmed by how much crap I have. So, it is a great time to do some major deacquisitioning. 

The ninja travel clothes are ready to go again.

I am almost ready to go again too.

Day 19 – Back in the Old Bat’s Cave

Made it back all in one piece. And that’s about all I have to offer tonight.

I am all unpacked and everything is back where it belongs. So, I can start planning my next getaway. But first I need to do my laundry. 

And sleep for a couple of nights in my own bed. Did I mention that my watch thinks I have been awake 72+ hours because it could not tell I was asleep on the train? Isn’t technology grand?

Day 18 SW Chief, Chicago, Capital Limited

Kansas City
Chicago!

All day on the train. Miles and miles of miles and miles.

Will be getting on the Capital Limited soon. 

I see that Prince Chuck became King Chuck without any help from me. I wonder what happened to Prince Harry? All things considered, I bet he has more fun than his big brother. 

Time to go find the train. It has my dinner and my bed.

Day 17 Southwest Chief AZ, NM, CO

It’s a home on the range kinda day
Complete with longhorns, horses, deer and antelope

WiFi is non existent and cellular is iffy.  The food is is surprisingly good and the people on board are interesting. And, I must say that I am liking the bedroom experience. 

Has this trip changed my future travel plans? Nope. Except I will be a damn site more zealous about masking. Maybe.  

Grateful for my old age. I must stop wasting this bonus round. And, that’s a totally inside job. First, wrap of the death cleaning. Second, ignore the Asylum. It really is just another rental building with a totally non functional food service operation on the premises. And my friends live there. 

Day 16 Surfliner, LA, Southwest Chief

First train 2 hours late

Grateful that I was able to hangout on the concrete in the sunshine this morning. The first train was 2 hours late. Not really Amtrak’s fault. Two cars fell off the 101 freeway and landed on the tracks.

When we got underway the scenery was fantastic.
We get into LA almost 2 hours late. I stashed my bags and 
And I headed to Little Tokyo in quest of origami paper and ramen
Mission accomplished. Origami papers CHECK. ramen CHECK

will be getting on the train in about an hour. The train leaves in two hours. Plenty of time to settle into my “bedroom”. I have not had a bedroom in a long time. 

Home sweet home for the next 40 hours or so.
Home sweet home for the next 40 hours or so.

It has a private potty. So the room has a slight chemical toilet scent. But it beats the smell of the shared johns after the first day. 

Day 15 Santa Barbara

Sea Day Today

So, what to do today? I decided to walk along the dock, sea wall, beach.  No one was surfing. Because there wasn’t any surf.  But, it was still the ocean.

I didn’t realize that the tires on the floating dock were actually seals until one moved.

There were all manner of fine benches all along the way. And my buddy Billy from Kona called. We had a nice chat. Each of us looking out at the Pacific Ocean.  

Angel of Death. Poisonous and hallucinogenic. My kind of a plant.
Wall art
Aren’t all antiques vintage?
A bumper sticker I can get behind!
Simple pleasures.

My walk about ends with 13,000 steps and 5.5 miles on the Fitbit. Brought some takeaway sushi back to the hotel with me where I enjoyed it on my private patio.  

After dinner, time to get it together for 3 nights on the train.  

Day 14 Santa Barbara COVID over and out

Off to a good start.

 I started my post Covid life with breakfast at Joe’s.  It might not be my favorite place for breakfast, but it’s older than I am.  I am pretty sure that I am not established yet.

About Covid. I am not 100% in the energy department. I walked about 5 miles today, but they were slow and flat miles. And I took a nice nap. 

Back to the pictures.

Stopped to pay respects to Ronnie. In retrospect, he wasn’t as bad as I thought he was at the time.
This guy is still washing the same window!
This town is full of wine and beer flights. I even found a wine and chocolate flight.
Tried to take a picture of every flower. Not an easy job.
In the absence of wall art, funny signs work.
Beware of birds. I didn’t feel endangered.
My tiny hotel room has a really sweet private patio attached. Spent most of the afternoon out there reading.
I discovered that the Mexico restaurant I was planning on eating at is closed on Tuesday and Wednesday. So it was off to the late afternoon farm market to get dinner.

Oh, I got one of those “customer satisfaction” on line survey things from the boat. I wonder what I am going to say and can I possibly play it to my advantage? 

Grateful as hell that the Covid thing worked out as well as it did.