life in the old lane

Hot hazy sucks the life out of you kind of a day. And, I don’t have too much life left to suck.

That brings me to Prez Biden. A man who is a little older than I am. Exactly what makes him think that a 2nd term would be a good idea? I know what pushing 80 is like. Oh, we can fake it. Pretend that everything is peachy. And, that all of the bits and pieces that are required to make us functional still function. But who are we kidding? 

I started thinking about dear old Joe when I considered upgrading to a newer version of PHP for the blog. I am running 5.6.something. It is at least 8 years old. And must not have been supported since 2018 or so. Time for an upgrade. Well PAST time for an upgrade. 

Do you know what I thought? “I had best do this while I still have enough brain cells to get the blog going again if this upgrade fails.”  That’s the way you think when you are closing in on 80. 

I know a lot of 80-something people. And, none of them should be running a small town, much less a  country.  SO, Democrats – for the love of the USA – find a viable candidate. (I know. Wishful thinking.)

Back to PHP. Thinking I’ll upgrade tomorrow. It should be OK, but if it isn’t, know that I will be working away to get the blog back on track. 

Muggy, hazy, hot, lazy summer sunday. Did laundry. Went to Columbia Pike Market for peaches and tomatoes.  Did some origami. Accomplished very little, but I didn’t kill anyone.  Should get credit for that!

On the food front, they had spaghetti tonight.  My friends all enjoyed it. And, for the first time in recent memory, the food was actually hot. I am not much of a fan of spaghetti, so, I had my default BLT with a side of avocado.  

Lots of covid in The Asylum right now. We no longer think we are going to die of covid. Just be hugely inconvenienced. Inconvenience beats dead any day.

Got a new book that I am looking forward to starting this evening: Ten Tomatoes that Changed the World by William Alexander.  

This morning after breakfast I decided to escape. So, I hopped a bus and went to Old Town Alexandria. One dollar and about 60 minutes and I was there. The plan is to get some exercise and maybe just maybe some lunch.

It’s a little over a mile from the bus stop to the Potomac River. Lots of shops and RESTAURANTS along the way. After checking out a couple of boutiques and the only thrift shop on the way to the river – I wander past The Warehouse. The chalkboard outside mentions “Lobster and Avocado Cobb Salad”. Happily, they found a table for me. They were very busy, Brunch you know.

There wasn’t a hint of collard greens, turnip greens, kale, bulgar, or quinoa anywhere on their rather extensive menu. 

Note to self: Do this more often.

When I got back to The Aslym (another dollar and 60 minutes) I discovered another bunny. Can not get too attached to bunnies. In Virginia every year 80% of the rabbit population is eaten by predators. Mother Nature is a Bitch.

That was a bummer. But

Things are fine if one takes a very narrow view of things. And, as I get older my focus gets narrower and sharper. I can not change the world or the country. Maybe I can get better food here at the Asylum. Maybe not. As Sundar Pichai said “Scarcity breeds clarity”.  

Speaking of scarcity: Net worth. Since Jan 01. Notice a trend? 

Today, I took more bird photographs using wildly inappropriate gear. This time the phone.

Maybe someday I should take right camera and the right lens and try for a real bird photo. 

Meanwhile back at the dinner table.

One of the advantages of keeping lots of emails is you have proof that the food was better 3 years ago and it’s not just your imagination.

After a lot of data wrangling, I went out for a very little walk mid-afternoon. I had a macro lens on my Olympus Pen when I saw a really handsome house finch at one of our feeders. Well, shooting birds with a macro lens isn’t ideal. But, whatever happens, is what I planned.

You know you are in trouble when this is the “Special” for dinner. For an entire week: That’s the special. Quinoa. 

I am settled in for a long campaign to return The Asylum food to “good”. I am not sure it can get it back to “excellent” without personnel changes that I don’t see happening. 

Tonight, I plan on having a BLT. With a side order of avocado. The Asylum does make good bacon. No complaints with the fries or onion rings either. Last night a couple came down to dinner. They brought I nice bottle of wine and ordered fries and onion rings for their supper.  

Spent a couple of very frustrating hours this morning messing with a spreadsheet that kept coming up with a #VALUE error. Tried everything. Absolutely had to make it work.  Finally, RTFM.

Important: Each additional range must have the same number of rows and columns as the criteria_range1 argument. The ranges do not have to be adjacent to each other.

Thank-you Microsoft. I knew that. What I didn’t was that I has screwed up a range name. All was well. Just in time for my Zoom yoga class, which was lots better knowing that my spreadsheet would indeed provide the required counts.

Now actually, in Hawai’i “two scoop rice and one scoop macaroni salad” is the base of our famous “plate lunch” – beloved by everyone including President Obama.  But, this is not Hawai’i and that is not “plate lunch”.  

Strangely busy day. And, I didn’t do any work work at all. 

About the food here at the Asylum. When I first moved in it was good. Then we got a new chef and it was excellent. Then we got a new chef and covid happened and we were locked up for over a year.  When we came out of the bunkers, the food was dreadful. And it still is. 

The menus are odd and the preparation is poor. That is not a winning combination. Speaking of combinations. Tomorrow the entree is mac-n-cheese. That’s good. With turkey meatballs, that’s bad but you don’t have to eat them. Actually, nobody eats the turkey meatballs. I suspect that when the meatballs get back to the kitchen they go into the dishwasher and return later in the month to once again sully otherwise fine mac-n-cheese. And one of tomorrow’s two side dishes is Garlic Fried Rice. That’s just odd. Starting a campaign to get someone in the kitchen anyone to engage their brain. If that works, I’ll try to engage their taste buds.

Absolutely delightful weather today. Always look on the bright side of life!

Today, I went to the little farm market a couple of miles away. Got tomatoes and peaches. They will be next week’s lunches.  I took the bus, so, I had to take a little fitness walk as well.  And, I tweaked the spreadsheet that I a working on a bit. Then I emailed it off for “review and approval”. Then, I’ll clean it up and start thinking about getting a job description so they can replace me.

Today’s travel photos are wall art from Strasbourg.

And some vintage advertising.

 

Spent the day working. And a little goodtime reviewing my photos from the last day on the Barge. We ended up in Dijon. Where we started. And the day started with outstanding “French” toast.  

 

I hope I can do this again.

This was our last day on the barge and this was the last lock before we docked back in Dijon. Most of us had spent the morning walking or biking. I realized that I had not made any videos of our barge getting into a lock. So, here it is at double time.

As for today in real life. Some of the government covid vaccine reporting requirements have changed. So, I spent the day doing major modifications to a huge spreadsheet. I sort of have two weeks to get the job done. I will try to get it completed by noon Monday. Just because some things only require so much attention. Government reports are one of those things.

My job at the hospital is to get rid of my job at the hospital. Well, actually, it is to figure out what I actually do and turn that into a job description. This is a lot harder than modifying the monster spreadsheet. But, I am 78+ years old. Time to pass the torch. 

June 8. On the Burgundy Canal. The video is the actual speed of the barge. It was easy for 7 people, mostly old, to outwalk it. Our two oldest passengers stayed onboard. They were over 90. 

A perfect, if a little damp, day on the Burgundy Canal.