Nobody is Promised Tomorrow. . .
It was a strange day. Crazy at work. Lovely weather. Yoga. 4th anniversary of my move to the asylum. Brownies and ice cream.
And – the unveiling of “The Asylum Sisters Pleiades Totem”
We each have a spirit animal. elephant, lion, turtle (that would be mine), pig, cat, orangutan, and Maryland blue crab.
Senior Quest for Meaning: Mission and Motivation. This isn’t going to end well. Or I am going to really want some of the shit that our senior management is smoking.
The Spiritual Life Committee has planned a series of inter-religious and humanistic reflections on a topic basic to human life and meaning. The theme this year is “Nurturing Our Spirits: Goodwin House in the Next Decade.” We will hear primarily from leadership and staff about how they see the mission statement of Goodwin House fostering and motivating them and encouraging Goodwin House to grow and develop over the next ten years. The first introductory panel: “Mission and Motivation” will feature our new CEO RL and Chair of the Board of Directors MH and Resident Council member CB discussing their spirituality/values and the ways in which Goodwin House’s mission can enhance them and encourage them in new directions. September 24 7:30PM.
Earth to Goodwin House. A Mission Statement is not a spiritual path. No matter what the long-range planning people say…
When the house starts printing shiny brochures touting such drivel – it is time to be sure that I have a good solid Plan B. I do.
I am going. To “Observe by watching” to quote Yogi Berra. His quotations could be a damn good spiritual path.
But wait. It’s not all grumpy stuff. My Pen F camera has been repaired and is coming back.
I am not 100% happy with the sturdiness of Olympus gear. But. I always buy used cameras – and you never know for sure how hard they were used before they were traded in. I seem to get 2 years and then they go off to the shop for an overhaul. I have a friend here that go less than 2 years on hers.
Coming to the end of my fundraising task. And I have pictures left over.
I have the utmost respect for the people who feed us day in and day out. I get tired of the food. I fuss about it. But the kitchen staff work damn hard getting the job done. And, I bet they get tired of cooking the same stuff too.
And this captures the very best of The Asylum.
All of these were taken in color and converted to black and white. Because I think best in black and white. Remember when Ted Turner colorized his black and white movie catalog? Fortunately, about that time he married Jane Fonda and she made him stop that shit.
Goldie isn’t a bug but an arthritic old tomcat. He goes outside to bask in the sun. I can understand that.
I worked on my photo project. Took a nice nap. Watered my garden boxes. Talked story with one of the residents. A busy old woman day. And, I am heartened to see the young people take to the streets to try to protect Mother Earth. Those kids are my much younger self. Time for us old farts to move out of the way.
Today I took a bunch of photos for my “little” project in the kitchen today. I am always stunned by the noise and level of activity. Guess there is truth in “if you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen”.
According to Google, it is Rugby World Cup opening day. So, I give you:
It’s all about pictures today.
Today was one of the few gloriously perfect days of the year. I sort of did nothing. But I need to do nothing (except walking and napping) from time to time.
I still like B/W photography. Just Old School I guess. Or maybe just old! Rarely a day goes by that I don’t wonder: How the hell did I get old? I never planned on being old. I surely did everything possible to avoid living long enough to be old.
Thinking about Carlton. Thinking how glad I am that he didn’t live to see the current state of our country and the world for that matter. Wondering what he would say. You know, he might just say “Don’t worry Mother Earth will survive. Now, the humans, that’s another story.” We, humans, have had a good run, time to turn things over to the cephalopods.
There are about 10 glorious perfect days a year in this area. And today might have been one. I just missed the bus home. Not a problem. I was happy to chill at the bus stop. Just watching the cars go by.
And “It’s Aloha Wednesday, no work ’til Monday”. Well, I am hoping to finish up my little project for the Employee Gift Fund this weekend. Next weekend at the latest.
Speaking of cameras. Got an email from the Olympus repair shop today. They got the Pen F. So, it should be back soon.
Wow! Just looked at the Carpenter Bee header. Hope no one is scared of bees. Don’t worry. These guys don’t really sting. Well, the males don’t. The females can. But, you have to make them pretty mad.
Normal day. Work, yoga, little domestic paperwork, little Asylum meeting, dinner with my Asylum sisters and friends, now trying to stay awake for a current affairs lecture.
And a couple of photos from around the Asylum this afternoon.
That is a milkweed plant, with large milkweed bugs and a chainlink fence. I rather like it.
Another thing I rather like. My jeweler normally uses a tube of chapstick for scale. But this time a hamster was used.
So, my earring will be about as long as a hamster is wide. What? You don’t have a jeweler on retainer? How very appalling.
For Monday, it was a good day. Actually an excellent day. I got my note from the radiologists to come in for my “annual” mammogram. But my doctor and I agree that I am too old to benefit from the ritual of annual mammograms. I am sort of in a “don’t go looking for trouble” mode of operation now.
Logged over 15,000 steps today. So, I think I head off to bed.
Today I hunted down all of the 32bit applications on my Mac. The most critical were drivers for my scanner. I couldn’t find a driver for my exact scanner. But, I found a driver for an “almost my scanner”. I hoped it would work and it does. I use my scanner 3 or 4 times a week. And I like my little scanner. I don’t want to replace it. The scanner dates from 2013.
The most annoying thing is Office. My copy is from 2011 and is not upgradeable to 64 bit. Now, I don’t “need” MS Office anymore. But Excel/123/Visicalc is like a member of the family. I actually use most of the esoteric features in Excel. At the Office. Not at The Asylum. I am going to try to make do with Google Sheets and/or Libre Office for my personal spreadsheets. Which really aren’t that fancy. No Pivot Tables in my personal life.
If I miss Excel to the point of tears, I will get the Student/Home version for $150. I refuse to spend $7/month to rent Office. I rent Photoshop and Lightroom. But I use that software every day.
So, that is it for my major 32-bit problems. I am not sure about the printer driver. (ca. 2015). And I have of a handful of little niceties that are 32bit without a 64bit version so I just removed them.
Now, I will be pissed if Apple actually releases Catalina with 32 bit support.
And, I got my Pen-F boxed up and ready to go to the shop.
OK, that is better. I now have a ticket to go somewhere. Somewhere being Kona. I am always happiest when I have somewhere to go.
But, I think I might be a little traveled-out of a while. I couldn’t get myself interested in any little stopovers on the way to Kona. Maybe I’ll plan a Christmas trip once I get to Kona. Or maybe I’ll just be a homebody for a couple of months.
Speaking of cameras. My Pen F’s EVF is still on the fritz. Guess it needs a trip to the Oly repair shop in NJ. That might be a good project for tomorrow. Get it packed up and on the way. No reason to have a camera body doing nothing except getting dusty. There is enough stuff in the Old Bat Cave just getting dusty. Especially the Old Bat.
Also cameras. My cheap-ass underwater camera died last winter. I was thinking about not replacing it. And then I remembered: The eagle rays last January 1.
Maybe I will get yet another underwater camera.
I am so boring these days that have even bored myself.
Is boring a necessary part of being old?
I am not saying that I am bored. But rather that I am boring.
But there are worse things than being boring. Maybe.
So, what did I do today?
I’m shopping around for something to do that no one will like.
Jerry Garcia