Category Archives: Paul

Silly Faces – October 28th

What did Bilbo say just before he gave up The Ring and went away to live with the elves? Something like, he felt “thin,” like too little butter scraped over too much toast? Yeah, I get that.

Facebook gave me a prompt today, a “before” picture from nine years ago…

A memorable day, this picture was taken just before I got murdered. (We were in Raleigh, NC for our neice’s wedding and we were doing a family cosplay murder mystery. I was the lying, cheating, evil bastard who soon was to be covered in blood on the kitchen floor. It was fun!)

Of course, for the “after” picture from today I needed something equally silly…

Maybe not QUITE as silly, but I was on a tight schedule. One of those things where you do the best you can and move on.

Stay silly, folks!

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One More Time With FEELING & Four-Part Harmony

Sort of winging it after one idea cascaded into another and suddenly starting late last night my plans for the weekend starting radically changing.

I was really hoping to sit on my ass and catch up with my naps. Instead…

After scrambling all through July to get ready to move and get packed and close escrow and get two PODS containers packed and then doing the last-minute sprint at the end of July to get out of the old house, then spending seven weeks getting the two PODS containers emptied and everything put away in the house, all while trying to keep current at work and getting settled in the new house and trying daily to not explode, AFTER ALL OF THAT…

There’s one major loose end. (Probably dozens of minor loose ends and “honey do’s,” but those can be tackled one at a time.)

Seven years ago when we moved from the 5-bedroom, 3300 square foot house where we had lived for over 30 years into the 3-bedroom, 1600 square foot rental home which was intended to be an interim home for “a year or two” we went through a HUGE freakin’ process of culling, tossing, pruning, throwing out, donating and we still ended up with WAY TOO FREAKING MUCH STUFF to fit into that half-sized house. So everything else went into three large storage units.

The Forever Home has enough room for all of that and we need to stop paying extra for those units. So everything in there needs to get here, and since we kinda wanted it here by the end of July and the end of August at the absolute latest, the coming of the end of October is applying some mental stress to “get ‘er done!” Some plans to get a big chunk of that done later this week fell into place, so the balance of that task was either this weekend or “sometime in November.” For reasons that I can’t quite explain, especially given my desire for naps and ass-sitting, there’s now a HUGE U-Haul van in the driveway. The two-hour-plus drive each way factors in and somehow this made the most sense.

Once more into the breach, friends! There will be plenty of time for naps when I’m dead. Or in November. Whichever comes first.

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Proof Of Life – October 08th

That was close! The day almost got away from me without a post – 15 minutes to go!

Especially when there’s a critical deadline, especially when it sort of gets popped up on my by surprise or due to a schedule shift, I tend to “knuckle down” and get really, REALLY focused. And the next thing I know it’s 2:30 AM or so.

The good news is that it’s a mode that I can shift into most of the time and actually get things done. The bad news is that anything that isn’t “THAT project” tends to get steamrolled.

How was your Wednesday? Thursday looking any better?

Yeah, this is about the size of the universe when I get into that locked-in mode. Good tunes on off in the background, maybe the hockey game or something, but unless the building is on fire…

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Proof Of Life – October 07th

A common question I see being asked of various social media commentators regarding today’s world (i.e., the ongoing destruction of the US government and fascist, right-wing, white “Christian” supremacist dictatorship being put in place) is, “What can I, as a simple, normal, powerless individual do?”

I see the same answers over and over, and I don’t know that they’re wrong. I wish that I felt better about them actually working, but it’s all along the lines of 1) write letters and make calls to your political representatives 2) volunteer to help where you can 3) join a peaceful protest 4) talk to your family, friends, and neighbors 5) spread facts and fight misinformation and outright lies and propaganda.

All good ideas. And finally, 6) don’t let them beat you down mentally, don’t let them make you give up, don’t allow them to steal your joy.

Excellent. Easier said than done, however. I’m finding joy to be in short supply.

But I can still find it in simple things, like looking at the clouds and the birds every day. Look at the stars every night, and the sunrises and sunsets every morning.

I was reminded by a good friend the other day that it’s fun to blow bubbles. Ausgetzeichnet! I’ll have to remember to get some ASAP.

I joined the local astronomy group. I’ll have to get my telescope re-aligned and set up again.

Bigger picture, what would it take to start flying again? It’s a long shot, but I hear that we need to set “impossible” goals. (I don’t know if that link to an Instagram post will work here, it’s the first time I’ve tried to do one on this site. If it doesn’t, jut look up “Mace Curran” and immediately go get her new book “The Flipside.”)

This might all be just whistling past the graveyard, but it’s got to beat just giving up and lying down to die. At least, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

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Double Shot

The latest  & greatest COVID vaccine on top, this fall’s flu vaccine on the bottom.

Being over 65 and, more importantly, in a state where sanity and real science still outweigh ignorance and kissing the cult leader’s ass, it wasn’t difficult to get access to the vaccines. I’m hoping that the anectodal stories I’m hearing from hither and yon are true and it’s easy enough for those younger to also protect themselves and their health.

I’ve heard it postulated that we got kicked onto our current batshit insane timeline back in 2016 due to the Cubs winning the World Series. That makes as much sense as anything else. The hope is that if the Cubs win the World Series again it will bring balance to the Universe and we can return to a timeline where ignorant Nazi chucklefucks are forced to crawl back under their rocks and hide from the light of the Sun and the company of normal people.

GO CUBBIES!! Fly the W!

In the meantime, ignore the heroin addict with the worm in his brain and the orange makeup queen with the adderal addiction, get your shots by any means necessary, and keep yourself safe and healthy.

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Lurking

Playing with the iPhone. Go to the darkest part of the yard, set it face up on a chair so it’s stable, set it for the longest exposure it will do (not that long) and then lurk to see what I get.

And in the quarter moonlight & glow of the neighbors’ backyard lights, wearing a dark T-shirt, I turn into a disembodied head, hovering off on the side of the frame, floating among the ever-so-slightly trailed and blurry stars.

It’s a look.

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Proof Of Life – October 01st

Well, at least it’s not September any more.

Some big bank (Bank of America, maybe?) is running ads with a tagline something like “What would you like the power to do?”

Remember the movie “Scanners”? Yeah, if certain prominent public figures and politicians start having their heads explode live on national television, you’ll know…

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No Context For You – September 30th

The world’s going to Hell and I didn’t even get a handbasket.

Goodbye, September! You had your moments, but overall you sorta sucked. If only October didn’t look to be even worse from Square One…

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Proof Of Life – September 15th

I wish that I could stop watching the news. It’s bad out there. Scary shit going on and I have no idea how to deal with it or make it better.

There were some nice things today on a personal level. Trying to focus on those.

Watching “Field of Dreams” (with commercials, unfortunately) helps. What a perfect movie. The whole story arc at the end with Archie Graham…

Tuesday awaits.

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Proof Of Life – September 12th

Critical deadlines met. One way or the other. In this case, the “other” meant a marathon, 20-hour-plus work session yesterday with the final draft reports being emailed out at 03:15.

I checked with my Oura Ring to see what it thought of my two hours of sleep and the message was, “DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE!!! WTF!!!???”

Maybe there is something to this AI thing?

I may sleep in and sit on my ass all weekend. I trust that the remaining stuff in the one PODS container will still be there on Monday. As will be the empty PODS container that was scheduled to be picked up last Wednesday, then yesterday, then… There are certain local managers and member of the PODS C-suite that would not get my vote for a performance bonus this year. In fact, I would recommend clawing back any performance bonus they got last year!

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