Today 8Nov2023

First, Leta, my late wife’s mother, broke her arm in a fall, and I did talk to her today. She is uncomfortable, but I will not cover her status here. It is a private family item, and I don’t feel it is my place to address Leta’s health or anyone else’s in this blog. So, prayers for Leta (and Barb and Gordon–her daughter and son-in-law) for comfort and a speedy recovery.

Returning to the story, Wednesday is a work-from-office day, so I was up at 6AM, having awoken at 5AM, and could not get back to sleep. I just rolled over a few times and likely nodded off. I found my way to the kitchen and found cottage cheese and canned peaches for breakfast. I sprinkle sea salt, pepper, and smoked paprika on the cottage cheese. I made NYC coffee, Zabar’s grind, supplied by the Smiths and Jason, in my French Press.

I took all this to the office and started on my email, Slack channels, and news to prepare for my day. I also updated my Quicken information. I like to check all the money every day or so. Everything was good.

I next popped into the shower, dressed, grabbed my Nike laptop, and boarded Air Volvo. The fog was still noticeable, and the traffic was unusually light. I was soon in the office and starting on hours of Zoom meetings. They also served breakfast, so I had the second breakfast feeling so hobbit-like. I did some technical reading and then talked to my boss and a few directors about upcoming work. I am still trying to start my next project.

Lunch was provided: veggie and chicken teriyaki. Luckily, there were cookies as the lunch was not good, but it was free. Free is still good. I had some more discussions and read. Vector searches got my attention. This machine-learning process turns text and/or pictures into a vector of multiple dimensions. Interesting, but more opaque, I think, like neural networks, and thus not clearly discernable what the logic was.

I did a few more Zoom meetings and finally headed out at about 4:30. I made pasta with vodka sauce from a jar, adding pan-fried Italian-style sweet sausage. I pour the hot sauce into the frying pan and keep all the delicious (fat) of the sausage, making the jar sauce luscious. I ate too many bowls and put some away for tomorrow’s dinner. I watched Ready Player One, the movie, while I cooked and ate dinner. I also washed all the dirty clothing to be ready to pack on Thursday night and hung them up while watching the movie. I finished the movie before starting on this blog.

I did the dishes, washed the pasta jar, and scrubbed off the label. I dried it and then put another set of fairy lights in the jar. I now have four jars out there. It is lovely in the early evening to see all the jars hanging from hooks filled with little lights–I have two on the table too. The solar cells only partially charge the lights in the Fall-Winter-Spring season as it is so grey. Of course, they last longer in the summer once the rains stop.

It was a typical day, but I did miss seeing Susie in the afternoon. Often, in the afternoons at work, I feel like I should be heading out to see her, and then I remember that it is unnecessary. I had just a few tears at the start of the day.

I did start a list of things to do, but I think I will take the evening slow. I am trying to catch something unwelcome before my trip to Texas on Friday.

Thanks for reading.