life in the old lane

A funky foggy start to the day. But, a lovely day for an impeachment.

I had a very lazy day. Even considering making future plans. I mean outside of the Asylum plans. I think that Bermuda will be stuffed with visitors this summer. I might want to make reservations for late summer NOW. But, my most preferred place to stay is a little family-owned establishment and their cancellation policies are not real friendly. And there is my postponed garden trip to England. Not getting any younger. How many times can I move it? And my Iceland swim from North America to Europe adventure – well, I will have maxed the age limit by spring. Maybe I could sneak up to Iceland for the aurora next month. Or maybe I’ll just hop a train and ride round and round the country. Serious case of jackrabbits in my boots. And, the World Health Organization just said that the 2nd year of the virus might well be worse than the first.

Impeached or not. The Orange Lord isn’t going anywhere. I was wondering about when Donald as Politician first showed up on the blog? 6 Oct 2010 – Check it out. It’s past time for him to leave the arena.

It was warm enough for friluftsliv today.

Gratitude

---

Bacon

---

Mālama Pono

Orchids have an undertone of sinister. I spent an entire 15 minutes taking pictures of my orchid plants with a real camera. The light wasn’t great and I should have broken out the monopod. But, I still took pictures. I took a couple of exercise classes and had a nap. And, I did a little work. 

And, I so needed that. A drama-free day mostly devoted to *me*. 

Gratitude

---

Cashmere goats. especially this winter.

---

Mālama Pono

There is some real light today.

1. 1. 1. It seems that my “job” of getting data to the state can be turfed to the software. And, a company called Iron Bridge. Can not come soon enough. Figure maybe sometime in February.
      2. Covid vaccines for the inmates Jan 20 and 21st. That is all great.

We just have to stay alive long enough. 

Gratitude

---

Grateful for friends who have tech issues that you can not fix but they give you a glass of fine red wine anyhow.

---

Mālama Pono
 

I want to believe that the days are getting longer and the sun is coming back to my side of the building.

About 2:30 this afternoon I started trying to generate some numbers so the boss can justify my outrageous billing rate. Extract a mess of data from my system. Fire up excel. And bang. I ended up in pivot table hell. Trying to get 4 or 5 pivot tables from the same data to give consistent results. Five hours later, I declared the result “good enough” shipped them off. We ran over 5,000 covid vaccinations through my system. Tomorrow, I am meeting with the vendor and hopefully, I will be replaced by a custom upgrade. 

Gratitude

---

Grateful for chicken soup. Yesterday I made some OK chicken soup from things I ordered off our room service menu and some excellent chicken stock that I had delivered from Whole Foods. That was dinner.

---

In addition to falling down an excel rat hole, I did laundry and went for a nice walk. friluftsliv you know. 

Oh, my Covid shot reaction. The arm is sore. But not red like it was with #1. Yet. This Covid shit isn’t going to be over in my life time. Neither is the evil that the Orange Lord has unleashed. 

Mālama Pono

Waiting on COVID shots to be finished. Hoping there is one leftover for me. And, Baby It’s Cold Outside for curbside delivery of a shot in the arm. 

The sun did come out today, but I didn’t go outside because I was working. And, it seemed to be windy. Maybe tomorrow. 

If you let Google know way too much about you, every once in a while Google tells you where you have been and what you have been doing. Well, according Google a trip to Glencarlyn Dog Park was one of the highlights of 2020. Sad thing is – it was.

Gratitude

---

---

Now, I am going to have a little supper and hop into bed with a strong espresso and a very light book. Hopefully I will just have a sore arm. And 10 days from now, 94% protected. At least that’s what science says.

Mālama Pono 

Another cold bleak gray day. Is this what winter is like? If so, I am not loving it. On the other hand, it wasn’t hard to stay in The Old Bat Cave and wrangle data. Seems like the data wrangling gig will be winding down. There is the rest of today and tomorrow. These are big days. And 7 more small to midsize days at the end of the month. Other than that, it will be make-up days. Or shots in the office. Like regular shots. Over 4,000 vaccines have gone through “my” system.

It was decided that I get my final COVID shot at the end of tomorrow’s session. Most likely, they don’t want me to crash due to side effects and not be able to get the last big batch of data shipped out! Not complaining.

Note to all: Grab the first COVID shot that comes your way. Don’t wait for one brand of the other. Or even for your “turn”. If offered – take it. This isn’t the time to “trust the system”. There is no system.

I was feeling strange about being old and still doing this job. Then I remembered that Dr. Fauci is a little older than I am. And Joe Biden is a little younger. I guess if they can suit up and show up – I can report for duty in leggings and sweatshirt from my WFH corner “office”.

Gratitude

---

Grateful for hot chocolate, clean sheets, and being 24 hours closer to Jan 20th.

---

Mālama Pono

This is Kyle. A rather strange cat. No, I take that back all cats are strange. I went into his apartment when his owner personal assistant was out. Kyle made not a sound. He didn’t attack, threaten, or cower. But, he did glare at me the whole time. “I know who you are. But what are you doing in here?” In Hawai’i we would say “Kyle give you stink-eye auntie”. Kyle was the best part of my day. 

Yesterday was some day. The Orange Lord has been sulking in the White House all day today. Rumor is he is going to pardon himself. Which seems a little like Napoleon crowning himself.  

On a more productive note. I have been busy getting data ready to submit to Virginia about all the COVID vaccines my hospital has been giving. Tomorrow, I get my 2nd shot and will be as protected as I can be for an indeterminate length of time. 

Gratitude

---

Grateful that the country survived yesterday.

---

No residents died yesterday or today.
No residents were diagnosed with COVID.
But 5 staff tested positive yesterday.

Mālama Pono
 

Gray depressing gloomy freighting upsetting painful dismal bleak saddening wretched …

That’s the view from my window with the 600mm glass. No helicopters.No fires. Yet.

Gratitude

---

I am sure there is something to be grateful for tonight. Yes, my hospital is busy giving the 2nd Covid shot to about 500 healthcare workers today. And, no new COVID cases at The Asylum today.

---

Fade to black.

Mālama Pono

There wasn’t much light for me that day. Getting married was totally Carlton’s idea. (Notice his smirky expression.) I saw no reason to get married. Heck, I didn’t even know I was getting married until the Marriage Celebrant showed up. Followed by two friends. With cake and flowers from Giant.

I am not sure what year that was – remembering it never seemed very important. Just looked in Carlton’s Little Book. It was January 5, 1994. His AA sobriety date is January 5, 1973, so he felt that since he was 21 years sober, it was time to get married again. 

Enjoyed another light day at the WFH Office. All that comes to a crashing halt tomorrow for sure. 5 or 6 days of real crunch time. It is not fake news. The rollout of the Covid vaccine is not slick as owl shit.

Gratitude

---

Grateful that I am able to do something more than wear a mask and not die in the Covid War.

---

We haven’t had news on how The Asylum is doing Covid-wise in about 5 days. Not too great. And, we lost a couple more residents. That’s 5 this year. 

Tomorrow will be a very interesting day in the history of the Republic. DC is reported to be all boarded up. I wouldn’t know because I am a POW in the Covid War. 

Mālama Pono

Mask wearing seems to be up at The Asylum. No one wants to die just before the vaccine lands at The Asylum. Or maybe we finally realized that we look better with half of our face hidden. Isn’t that why guys grow beards?

And, I am still going to the grocery store for curbside pickup. “And what parking space are you in ma’am?”  It’s easier to just get in a parking space. With my imaginary car.

Upon my return from friluftsliv I discovered that an ambulance was making a pickup. Not necessarily Covid related. This is an Old Folk’s Asylum.  But, our “Table of the Dead” is getting a little crowded. We average about 30 deaths a year, but we have had 3 already this year. 

Gratitude

---

I enjoyed an unexpectedly easy day at the WFH office today. That was nice.

---

Mālama Pono
 

Putting a new grocery store orchid in bloom next to Orchie encouraged him to unfurl a bud. Problem with the phalaenopsis grocery store orchids is that they seem to bloom in winter when I really don’t want to be here.  But here I am.

So, on this rainy day, no friluftsliv for me. Raining and below 40°, not going out unless there is a reason. And since we can not go anywhere other than “out”, indoors seemed like a good plan. 

I did manage to come up with a spreadsheet all festooned with lookup and pivot tables that I know I will need next week when we start giving people their 2nd Covid vaccine. Our software is not equipped to deal with the Covid two-shot series. And someone will for sure ask “How many of our employees have had 2 shots”.

Gratitude

---

I have had a great life. All of the adventures and misadventures keep me from going batshit crazy during these COVID days. And fortunately, the last 20 years of the adventure is recorded right here in this blog.

---

I just looked to see what I was doing on Jan 3, 2002. Apparently, I had just finished reupholstering the furniture. Don’t think I’ll be doing that again. And, we were leaving for Hawai’i “soon”.

Might go to the dude ranch in Wyoming this summer, for no apparent reason. Gotta go somewhere.

Mālama Pono

Got a new grocery store orchid from management as a New Year’s present. I rather like it. Another orchid to see if I can keep alive and blooming. It needs to be repotted already. So, I’ll do both of them when they finish blooming. I watched some YouTube videos. So now I am an expert on all things orchid.

Gratitude

---

Grateful to live in an old folk’s Asylum where they give you flowers before you die.

---

Everything was sort of working for me today. I had enough energy to get lots of stuff done, with energy left over for friluftsliv. A nice 3 mile walk around the ‘hood. I made some soup, out of scraps I found while cleaning the freezer and fridge. Did very little work. Did laundry. Started to get my files and accounts ready for 2021. And soon, I will trundle off to bed with my Kindle. All and all, an excellent Little Old Lady day.

Mālama Pono