Story 16June2022: Thursday

Going backward, I went to bed at about 11ish with a plan to be up early and write this blog in the morning before my meetings. Before falling asleep, I read a few pages of Eric Stross’s new book, Quantum of Nightmares. This is set in the Laundry’s Lovecraft horror world, running a modern pulp fiction story. These are pager turners for me, but I think it is an acquired taste.

The Smiths and I, using group watching, watched the newest episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney+. This is still, for me, much like the movies. The storyline is continuous; you must start at the beginning and go through them in order, much like Hawkeye and Moon Night. We enjoyed the next episode–no spoilers, but it is less predictable than other series. Recommended!

David and I talk for a while about investments after the show. My recent purchases of Tesla and Ford stock and David’s investment in technology were the main discussion points. My Ford stock has fallen more than 10%, and Tesla is down 5% from where I bought it. I am a hold until 20% loss person, and if you are going to buy in this market, you need to expect instability, so I am not concerned. David is expecting a solid tech rally at some point; I am less confident and thus went with heavy industry, Ford, and Tesla (which I also see as a heavy industry play). I picked them because both have a strong tech side that would have them increase with the hoped-for tech rally.

Aside: After the shocks for inflation and interest rate hikes bake into the market, I expect the usual rally we have been seeing for the last two years. I have read that others expect a recession and a bear market, but instead, I believe the Fed will manage a slightly less than a soft landing. This will be followed by a rally. Or, the future is so bright I will need sunglasses.

Before the group watch, I had drinks and dessert with Mariah. After I had my first bowl of dinner, as usual, Mariah sent me a text suggesting dinner. I told her I would meet her at the Golden Valley Brewery for dessert and dinner for her. We chatted about work and life and just enjoyed a nice dinner (or dessert for me).

Before that, I made dinner and followed along at work. I came home at 3ish as all the work was done early (before the holiday weekend, unusual for IT as we continually work holidays). I got out a jar of Les Moulins Mahjous North African-styled sauce–buy it if you see it, the gnocchi I purchased last week, and then the fire-roasted veggies from Schwann’s. I baked the veggies with frozen strips of bacon over the fire-roasted veggies on a piece of parchment on a baking pan. Next, I heated the sauce and boiled the gnocchi. Finally, I stirred it together in the pan and boiled the gnocchi. Corwin thought it “good enough for a restaurant,” and I had a few bowls.

I had a few emergencies in the afternoon at work and various emails, texts, and Slack messages to follow. One of the meetings was in-person but used an Owl to connect us with the Zoom meeting. The Owl has multiple cameras covering the whole space and focuses on who speaks in the room, even various speakers. It worked well, but at $1000 a machine, I will not be using one at home any time soon.

Before this, I tried to kill myself with lunch. We have free lunch trucks until the end of the month. Today I had the sushi wrap and made the mistake of putting wasabi from a packet on my raw-fish wrap. The wasabi was hot, or hotter, than fresh and near caused me to choke. I recovered without embarrassing myself by returning my lunch to my napkins (with all the subtleness I could muster). Yikes.

Before lunch, I made the trip to Hummingbird House to see Susie. Again, air Volvo made the trip there and back without issue. The traffic on 217 was significant, but there were no events and no stunt driving by the locals. Susie was up, dressed, and speaking a bit clearer this morning. She was eating her breakfast, feeding herself, and using her hands. Her left-hand does not work very well still–stroke damage. Susie’s strokes in October included the paralyzation of her left side, swallowing issues, speaking issues, and since October, she has been unable to walk or stand. Her swallowing issues are improving, her speech is better, and her hands are more robust now. We have Home Health coming to help her improve her movements and transfers. I hope to get Susie back in the car someday and travel around a bit.

Susie was happy to see me and picked Friday’s movie, The Thomas Crown Affair. Thus she turned down more singing and dancing for a more current film. We both like this movie; this is the 1999 version. The original 1960s version had one of my fav songs, Windmills of your Mind. Here is the version from the credits for the movie: here.

Before this, I rushed to work and then had to turn back and get my phone. So my first meeting was done in my car, parked on my iPhone. I started at 6:15 and was slightly rushed in the morning to make it to the office on time (only to have to, as I said, return my phone and be late anyway).