You know those memes you see on Sunday afternoon/evening pointing out that you can’t enjoy the latter half of Sunday quite as much as you should because you know that Monday is looming just over the horizon? Insert ALL of those memes *HERE*.
And have I mentiond lately how much I hate earthquake aftershocks?
Filed under Paul, Photography
We had pizza (pie). I had apple pie.
And our water heater went nuts, cracked open, and sprayed thousands of gallons of water all over the garage, soaking and ruing a ton of shit that I had to take out onto the back porch to try to dry out (while it was raining).
Our landlord got that fixed, we have water, hot and cold again tonight.
But the house is farting every time we turn on the water as the air in the pipes gets pushed out.
Filed under Castle Willett, Paul, Video
I had a thought for a picture, wasn’t sure how well it would work…
Not bad! Close to what I was hoping it would look like – tough to get both me and something dozens and hundreds and thousands of light years away in focus together, especially in low light with the lens wide open and a minimal depth of field. Perhaps I can lock the focus on the stars next time and I’ll just show up fuzzy.
Which, truth be told, is not an inaccurate representation of reality in multiple dimensions!
Filed under Astronomy, Paul, Photography
I don’t know if it’s just a side effect of getting old, some “Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness” from my workouts with my trainer, something related to the antibiotics I was taking for that infection and fever a couple weeks ago, or some combination of it all. But today has been sent in some considerable discomfort, particularly in my lower back.
I don’t do well with ongoing pain, so let’s hope it never becomes chronic or longer term. Assuming that the gym workouts are at least part of the problem, this will be gone in 48 to 72 hours. If it was like this 24/7/365/forever, I might not be the “brave little soldier” that I might hope to be.
But who knows?
In the meantime, I’m cranky and not as functional as I would like.
So which view/look is the “real” me right now?
Yes.
Filed under Health, Paul, Photography
The good thing about having a trainer, especially one that you’ve paid in advance, is that you have motivation and some pressure to return to training if something (i.e., “LIFE”) has derailed your training program.
The bad thing is having pressure to return to training.
Between the holidays, me getting a bad cold, me having kidney stones and then getting a bad infection, and then me taking some industrial strength antibiotics that have serious restrictions on exercise, it had been about six weeks.
Being a responsible, intelligent adult (which, for the record, often SUCKS!) my head was actually looking forward to getting back to the gym. Having slacked off for a month and a half, my body wanted to scream and run the other way.
My trainer is excellent and knew just how far to back off due to the six week layoff, and how far to push to see how much I had slipped. (It’s not that bad.) But by the time the hours was done, I did feel a lot like I had been beaten from head to toe by a squad of goons with baseball bats.
Yeah??!! Whoopie??!!
The part I’m still curious about but probably never going to figure out (I am not a doctor nor do I have a “medical” or “biological” brain – physics I can soak up like a sponge, biology and physiology and the like just bounce harmlessly off of my ears and never reach my brain) is how antibiotics can require such stringent restrictions on exercise due to the fact that they can cause tendon damage, particularly to the Achilles tendon.
Say what?
A drug I’m taking to kill an infection in my urinary tract (caused by kidney stone damage) can cause my Achilles or hamstring to rupture if I exercise while taking it? HOW? What’s the mechanism? How are the two connected?
Some things are just mysteries, I guess.
Meanwhile, how many Extra Strength Excedrin can I take before something “bad” happens? Not asking for a friend…
What a depressing day. And it’s just Day One.
I didn’t have to go anywhere today (working from home) so I deliberately picked my comfiest sweatshirt so that I would be warm and snuggly, even though it is old and ratty and worn. I’m old and ratty and worn too, so we’re kindred spirits.
I wish that I had answers, but days like this I’m not even sure that I know the questions.
Filed under Critters, Paul, Photography
We all know what it is, that time and space between Christmas and New Year’s, when especially in terms of work and our daily lives and schedules, we’re all just sort of drifting freely and aimlessly.
What day is it? What day of the week? Do you know without checking your phone or smart watch? Even when it tells you, do you believe it?
Did you have one day off this week, two, or more? Did you have off last weekend, work Monday, off Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, yesterday was a toss up, back at work for one day today, off for two more days this weekend, back for one day on Monday, then do it all over until next Thursday when the new work year smacks us like a wet mackeral across the face? Or did you take three or four strategically placed vacation days and end up with two full weeks off?
The pressure of Christmas decorations and cards and presents is all gone, but it’s days before we can celebrate the New Year. Even the old ways are gone, when we could lean on the NFL schedule with games on Thursday Night, Saturday, Sunday, Sunday Night, and Monday Night while the NBA filled up Chrstmas Day – all gone with games (including my beloved Chiefs) on Wednesday, Christmas Day, and damn near every other day all week.
Chaos, pure and simple.
Tonight I realized that the chaotic space-time continum disturbances were working in reverse, leaking upstream into the physical systems that I was using to keep track of my position in the timeline. I have my meds set up in advance for convenience, and I can also use them as a reminder of where I am in the week. Unless of course I’m so wacked out that I forget to take my meds, and then this simple system starts giving me inaccurate feedback.
I might be doomed.
I blame 2024. Stupid fucking 2024.
Filed under Critters, Deep Thoughts, Paul, Photography
A week before Christmas. Where does the rabbit hole of old pictures take us?
2,500 miles and fifty-one years, apparently. And into a black & white world. On film.
My camera at the time was a very old Argus film camera with a fixed lens. I was playing with using a pair of binoculars as a telephoto lens, with a rig I had put together myself to attach to a tripod and hold the camera and binoculars in place. This is from the hill behind our house, looking at the roof of the rectory from the Catholic Church across the street, to the First Congregational Church at the lower left edge of the picture, to Stellafane Hill off in the distance to the southwest.
If only I could talk to that 17-year-old kid for five minutes…
Filed under Critters, Paul, Photography
I know the feeling. Getting older is not for the weak.
I’m fighting the good fight, I hope. The doctor has me on a CPAP machine night due to severe sleep apnea and while it’s telling me that I’m sleeping so much better, I’m not feeling it and sort of hate the CPAP with the white hot fire of a thousand brillian suns. I also got myself an Oura ring to be monitoring my vitals 24/7/365 – so far all it does is scold me for not going to bed earlier and congratulate me on using the CPAP.
Between the Apple Watch, the Oura ring, and the CPAP I’m turning Borg right before our eyes. It’s not nearly as much fun as Picard made it seem.
I would like to meet Seven of Nine or the Borg Queen. You know, just for kicks.
Friday night, a couple of hours after everyone is gone.
Corner office, top floor, the fancy suite. With the perks come the responsibilities.
(It’s not my office or our suite.)
Filed under ALS Network, Critters, Paul, Photography
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