This is what 56 looks like.
J.P.
Spruced.
We spruced up the sitting area in our “suite”, which is marked as the “Activity Room” on the blueprints of our home. The old couch and such had moved here from Chicago and had not held up as well as we would have liked, so when tax time came around earlier this year we picked out some new furniture for the space.
Truman has decided he does not like the couch and shows his discontentment with the situation in the photo. On the other hand, the humans are finding the whole affair quite comfy. The top of the coffee table flips up for those of us that geek out with our laptops while sitting on the couch.
Positive.
Earl tested positive for COVID-19 this morning. This is his first time testing positive since COVID-19 became a thing. Luckily, he is fully vaccinated and is working with our doctor on a prescription for Paxlovid.
Fingers crossed he gets through this as easily as I have in the past.
On one hand it’s hard for me to believe COVID-19 is still around, on the other hand, of course it’s still around.
Dance Break.
We are half way through the work week. It’s time for a dance break.
From 1990, here’s Lisa Stansfield with “What Did I Do To You”. This has always been one of my favorite songs from her album “Affection”.
Pensive.
I’ve been very pensive this week. I suppose it’s that time of year; I take stock of where I am in my life and what I want to do with whatever time I have left. These are things that consume many cycles of my brainpower at any given time. It just feels like that in the mid part of any given year it feels like it consumes a little more of my time.
I would like to say this photo was randomly snapped and it just happened to catch the moment of me lost in my thoughts. But in reality, I set up the camera and just set it to capture a bunch of photos while I went back to being lost in my thoughts. It’s a good thing I don’t pay for film processing anymore. That’s one of the great things about today’s technology and art.
While I was on my pre-sunrise walk this morning I found myself caught up in a game of “shoulda coulda woulda”. I then quickly realized that game is not productive and is a waste of mental energy. I am here, right now, because I was meant to be right here, right now. It’s the way of the Universe.
I think part of my pensiveness is because I’ve been wondering what I want to do with the YouTube endeavor I’ve been recently endeavoring. At the end of the day I just want it to be a creative outlet. Any creativity I want to share is still shared with enthusiasm, regardless of the feedback or the number of eyeballs that see it. That’s what’s most important to me; the creative process, not any adulation around the result. Typing out this last paragraph has helped me regain my perspective.
As I sit here, in my mid 50s, I’m sometimes a little sad to realize that the magic I once sought as a youngster isn’t really there. Maybe I was looking for magic over Dorothy’s rainbow or something. But then the adult version of me realizes that attitude is a little pessimistic and I remember that we find the magic we seek, no matter where it is.
I need to remember to keep seeking that magic. I’ll find it.
Monsooning.
Monsoon 2024 has been a little uneven thus far, though it’s still fairly early in the season. There’s been a ridge of high pressure over the area, bringing along record temperatures for this part of Arizona.
There were no storms in the forecast today, but Mother Nature still managed to kick up some impressive winds and some interesting clouds and rainbows today. I hastily pulled together some video; I’ll hope to have something released on the channel by the end of the week highlighting this little bit of fun.
Mechanics.
This blog is approaching 23 years old. Having started out as HTML pages built from scratch, then moved to Movable Type, and then moved again to WordPress, I think it’s been living on the same WordPress platform for 18 years or so.
WordPress has changed a lot over the nearly two decades I’ve been using it.
I’m not completely satisfied with my WordPress experience. There’s a lot of elements that just get in my way. But it does offer a fairly “low friction” experience when compared to some other workflows. I just want an editor where I can easily post media, write a bunch of words, and basically hit “Print”. WordPress still affords me that opportunity, albeit a bit slower than it did in the past. There’s a lot of cruft in the platform.
I’ve been tinkering with the idea of moving something a little less resource intensive, but moving 22+ years of blog posts to a new platform is an extremely daunting task. A good chunk of my life is documented in this blog thingee, missing photos notwithstanding, and I don’t want to lose the words I have written over the years. I also don’t want to lose the comments of others. Even though blogs are not really a “thing” anymore, I do get comments once in a while and they make me smile.
So while I tinker with the idea of moving the whole shebang to another platform, I probably will end up just changing the appearance and tweaking under the hood to make things run a little better and a little faster.
If you see me swinging around wallpapers and chandeliers in here, you know when the dust settles I’ve done everything I can to keep the history alive.
Off Grid.
As we waited for our table for brunch this morning, we took the opportunity to go to the adjacent bookstore. I stumbled across this book and I was instantly intrigued.
I’ve always been fascinated by those that choose to go “off the grid”. The idea appeals to me, which is quite ironic because I live my life very much on the grid. I know my husband would never have an interest in living in the middle of nowhere, even though from time to time I remark that I could easily live for a year working in Antarctica or something.
The civil engineering feats of building my own shelter or designing the perfect “tiny house” or something is intriguing. I don’t necessarily have the skillset to build something like this, but designing it would be a fun little activity.
I picked up “Off Grid Life” by Foster Huntington. Once I get through the book I’ll probably write more about it here on the blog.
Foam.
I know I am now in eldergay territory. Back in my day I spent many hours DJing at various bars and events, but one thing I never encountered was a “foam party” at a bar.
Jamie went to a foam party a few weeks ago and came home quite wet. Earl and I are in Phoenix for a quick getaway weekend and we went to one of the local bars last night. They had a foam party. Earl knew this ahead of time and brought an extra pair of shorts and a shirt for the occasion. I held his little bag holding these items while he played around in the foam.
Being the odd one, not only did I think of the scene shown above from “Bewitched”, I kept saying to Earl, “you’re soaking in it”. Knowing me like he does, he immediately got it and it smiled.
There were several men dancing around in the foam and they seemed to be having a good time. It’s not really my jam to do that sort of thing in public but I was happy to see so many folks having fun.
