J.P.

I’ve figured out why social media is really starting to burn me out. It’s not the political discourse, because I’m doing my best to stay away from that stuff. Though admittedly, I’m contributing to it too often and so now I’m really trying hard to stay away.

No, the reason I’m getting burned out on social media is because of the “firehose” onslaught of information. There’s no coherency or consistency through the subjects, emotion, tempo, or timbre of the doomscrolling opportunities. My attention is being yanked from Linux tech talk to Trumpian idiocy, to why bees are important in less than three entries in the same round of scrolling and my brain is getting really tired jumping from subject to subject like that.

In reality I can jump from subject to subject, and I’m usually doing that at any given moment, but there’s usually a common thread in these jumps, no matter how obscure that thread is. And furthermore, I can’t find any rhyme, reason, or general pattern in these wildly oscillating topics flying by on the doomscrolling machine and it just makes my brain tired. Very tired.

Shockingly, forums like we had back in the days of GEnie, CompuServe, and AOL at least were based around a loose subject and I enjoyed that cohesion.

All I need is a 56K baud modem and I’d be good to go.

I have to keep reminding myself that it’s Tuesday. Work very much felt like a Monday but then before I knew it, it was the end of the day and tomorrow is Wednesday.

I’ve been trying to figure out what I want to use for my next camera on the videography adventure. I’ve been oscillating back and forth between getting a mirrorless camera that’s made to be a camera and investing in the latest iPhone when it’s announced next week. Don’t tell my husband about these plans as I haven’t sprung the financial discussion on him yet.

He likes surprises.

We are sitting in the local Starbucks. I am using my iPad Pro out in public for the first time in a long while. Even though it’s an original Magic Keyboard, it’s still quite nice to type on. It probably has my favorite touch as far as low profile keyboards go.

So tomorrow is Wednesday and then we’ll be half way through the work week. I don’t like feeling like I’m wishing my life away, because I’m not, and work is basically good.

But I am looking forward to the weekend.

We went for a drive along US Route 191 sound of Willcox, Arizona. The map showed a couple of towns along the way: Sunsites, Elfrida, and a couple of others. We drove these towns and admittedly there wasn’t much to see. I hope the folks in these small towns have a happy life.

The landscape between Willcox and Douglas (along the Mexican border) reminds me more of driving through West Texas instead of Arizona. There’s much more in the way of greenery in these parts. Cattle were doing there thing out in their pastures.

We drove through the historic district of Douglas and literally touched “the wall” before heading back to the northwest. We stopped in the old mining town turned artsy town of Bisbee. There’s a restaurant in the center of town called “Table” or “Bisbee’s Table” (I didn’t figure it out). Serenity was the bartender and we sat and had a nice meal before driving the 100 miles or so back to Tucson.

It was a pleasant afternoon.

Yesterday was my most physically challenging hike yet. I hiked up to the peak of Guthrie Mountain near Mount Lemmon here in Tucson. I had a lot of fun.

According to the calendar, especially when coupled with my northern upbringing, Labor Day weekend brings to us the unofficial end of summer.

It doesn’t work that way here in the Desert Southwest.

The forecast shows Monsoon Season calming down a bit for next week or so. Usually it lingers until the end of September. Next week’s forecast includes record high temperatures and dry conditions. That means it’ll be somewhat windy.

I enjoy warm winds.

We had a little bit of a thunderstorm this afternoon. Truman and I watched a little bit of the lightning. He purrs a lot while he’s out on the roof. I like to think it’s because he’s spending time with me but I suspect he’s just happy to be outdoors in a shady spot adjacent to the sun.

I snapped his photo for tomorrow’s Caturday extravaganza.