1. Today started with my office door handle falling off in my hands. It can be very difficult not to see things as harbingers and omens in these parlous times, really it can.
2. Sweet dancing monkeys on a stick but it is hard to keep up with the raging dumpster fire that is der Sturmtrumper and his entire administration, their supporters, and their effects on the world at large. You sit down to write something coherent about the latest news and then – BAM! – the president and his gang get even more stupid, venal, petty, corrupt, and morally bankrupt before you can even get to the first punctuation mark.
3. Eventually I’ll get enough of a running start to write something, but for now all I will say is that the continued support among the GOP base for der Sturmtrumper in the face of overwhelming (and largely self-provided) evidence of impeachable offenses is a damning indictment of American politics, education, and morals. There is no way any thinking human can continue to support him, and I will leave the implications of that up to the reader.
4. The Higher Higher Ups to whom – if you follow the chain of command all the way up to where the air is thin and causes brain damage without proper protective gear – I and the rest of my colleagues down at Home Campus ultimately report hired a Very Expensive Consulting Firm to do some database transferal chores. Basically we have a lot of information in one computer system, and it had to find its way into a different computer system before the first one was dropped into the deepest part of the Mariana Trench. The VECF was likely paid a sum of money not incommensurate with its name in order to do this project. So guess what we’re all now redoing by hand down at Home Campus! I think the CEO of VECF should be billed personally for my time, preferably at the “Dude Needs A Long Vacation” rate.
5. Now that we are empty nesters, the place gets kind of quiet. So last Sunday I whomped up a big batch of macaroni and meatballs and invited Lauren’s squad over for dinner. And they came! It was nice to have them. Perhaps we’ll make this a regular occurrence.
6. I’m trying to find time to paint the front of the garage. It has needed painting for, well, an embarrassingly long time now. I just hate home maintenance is all. We did look into getting someone else to do it, but the first estimate we got – the only estimate we got, since apparently exterior painters are booking out to 2025 around here and many of them don’t even bother responding to requests for estimates – was roughly triple the value of the garage itself and everything in it including the cars. So I now have a can of “garage white” paint just waiting for it to stop raining long enough for the wood to dry out a bit. Three or four days is what the paint store people said, otherwise the paint will just fall off. I’m not sure we’ve had four days without rain since July, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen any time before Thanksgiving either, after which it will likely be too cold. On the one hand I really didn’t want to paint anything. On the other hand, it needs to be painted and I’ve gone to the trouble of buying paint so I’m kind of annoyed that I can’t just get it over with.
7. On yet another hand (I’m an academic – I have an infinite supply of hands), I rather like grey, rainy fall weather, so there is that.
8. I’ve been trying to play more piano of late. I kind of got out of the habit when the girls were little – they really didn’t like it when I played and there wasn’t much time for it anyway – but now it’s often just me in the house since Kim doesn’t get home until late, so I’m relearning some of the things I once knew. Perhaps I’ll learn new things soon.
9. We have been trying to figure out how to get the one cat who is too thin to eat more while getting the other cat who is too fat to eat less, and this project has met with about as much success as you would expect. A while back Kim bought a timed feeder that looks strikingly like Eva from Wall-E (“EeeeeEEEEEEva”) and which spits out food at seemingly random intervals and then chirps proudly to let you know that it has done this. It’s like having a plastic toddler. The original plan was to provide more food to the skinny cat, so we tried to put Eva in high places where the fat one couldn’t reach, but it turns out that the lure of cat food is stronger than the pull of gravity and the fat one seems to be eating most of the food. This seems counterproductive. We’re still working on a solution.
10. In the last month I have been handed both a wheat cent and a silver quarter in change. This made me happy.
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7 comments:
1. Broken engine mounts in my truck. Stuck with straight truck rent-a-wreck loaner from the regional office.
2. Just when you thought it was safe to go back to swimming in the ocean …
3. Hammer, meet nail.
4. Rate = 3.5C*25π rounded up to the greater of two or more apple pies.
5. Empty Nester misnomer.
6. Short answer. I have your time, but I don’t think you’re willing to pay the ransom. Shorter answer: annoyed is your default emoticon.
7. Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!!!
8. Elder dog, meet new Trix. (They got purple in there now.)
9 I think I see your problem there. Cats.
10. When the 1879cc $10 Gold Piece shows up, call me. I think I would probably be willing to increase your profit by, oh, say, about 400%. I’d even be willing to double that if it’s in Uncirculated Condition. *
Lucy
* https://www.usacoinbook.com/coins/4176/gold-10-eagle/coronet-head/1879-CC/
1. I try not to think about cars. I've been fighting a losing battle against all of the tires I own for a year now - we have to top up the air in the van's tires about every 3 weeks these days. There's no obvious puncture wounds, but I'm getting closer to where I'm willing to provide them.
2. There's sharks in those waters.
3. I have hammers. Don't tempt me.
4. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Pie.
5. It just feels empty. I suppose it can only be so empty with the menagerie we have around here. But it's nice to have more voices.
6. There is just so, so much to be annoyed about these days, I suppose. I should get over that, but I have a sneaky suspicion that I won't.
7. I'm enjoying the fall right now, but I'll be happy to have winter too. We're supposed to get a freeze tonight, in fact. But autumn is still my favorite season. Tea. Cider donuts. Brisk air. Burning leaves (do they still do that anymore? They should). Definitely the best time of the year as far as I'm concerned. Winter is second. Spring is third. Summer is eighth, after several reruns of the other seasons.
8. I used to play more. It's fun rediscovering.
9. Well, yeah, but they're lovable, mostly. And more entertaining than the television.
10. My dad and I ended up with a lot of neat coins, but never anything gold. Someday, when I have more money than I do now, I'll get a $20 St. Gaudens piece - the most beautiful coin this country has ever produced.
1. Truck Repair Complete! It’s 4:00 AM, 18° F, and I’ll be heading in to swap trucks in about a half hour. Feels like christmas morning!!!
7. Yeah, Summer don’t even make any of my lists any more. ‘Cept maybe toping out the most hated list …
9. Just cleaned up cat barf. Second time this morning. I tolerate the cats because I’m married to a Viking Berserker. I’ll stick to the dogs …
10. Don’t even need to wait for the lottery win:
https://www.mintstategold.com/us-20-saint-gaudens-1907-pcgs-ms65-16243-16243.html?utm_source=collectors&utm_medium=listings&utm_campaign=products
Considering that some of those coins are priced in the #1 - 200,000 range, that one’s a steal.
You should hurry, though, only 14 days left on the auction.
😁
Enjoy your weekend, my friend!
Lucy
Posted from my 1960s era rotary dial phone so please excuse any typos.
Like the # instead of the $
Lucy
1. A might-as-well-be-new truck and a hard freeze - Christmas it is!
10. What a bargain! :)
And a good weekend to you as well, my friend!
Lauren's host mom abroad sent me some nice pictures this morning, and her friends asked me to take their Homecoming photos this afternoon, so my weekend is actually off to a very good start.
[7] Thank you for logically and properly ranking the seasons. (Die, Summer, die!)
[9] If you find the thin cat/fat cat solution, please post. Especially if it applies to political situations as well. (Our was only resolved when the thin cat passed to her reward.)
7. You're welcome! I used to put winter ahead of fall, but then I got older. It's still pretty close, but all told I think I would prefer fall now even without worrying about the cold. And yes, in a four-season race summer comes in a distant sixth.
9. I suspect that will be our resolution as well. The older one is 15 now. She's still pretty hale and hearty, though, so it may be a problem we'll have for a while. And that's fine.
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