Six Hours Of Daylight; Couch Collapse; Trip Planning

I opened my eyes at noon. I entered a building at 6 pm & when I came out it was dark. Today I had a chance to see a total of six hours of daylight *:-(

For 2 of the hours of daylight I tried to see, I failed. At 2 pm I sank into the soft cushions of our couch & slept.

I was, & am, tired. Not as much as yesterday though *:-) Also, I get to take a chocolate torte with me to work tomorrow, so no worries *:-)

We, my wife & I, realized this evening that we need to set aside about 4 weekends a year for travel to see our grandchildren, because they are moving away. My son must follow the money, because he has a family to care for, & part of that family is two very young children. They will be moving about 100 miles away, which for us is quite a bit. We will start planning as soon as they get their new house. We wish them well.

Sleep?...Not...Rest?...Not...Work?...Not...Husband?...Oh Yeah...

I have been ill for a week, & have barely been able to keep going to work and to get the basics done, but have managed to do it. I was planning on having a lie-in on Saturday morning to recover some of my health, but...no. My wife needed to travel the 30 miles to the next large city so she could meet with the new manager of the gallery that is selling her work, & re-negotiate the relationship, & needed to take new creations with her to show, so I was needed to do the driving & heft the stuff. The negotiations went pretty well, & at the end, my wife introduced me to the new manager, & when it came time to explain what my part is in my wife's art creation, I explained "I am her lover, body-guard, & driver", later adding that meant husband. The new manager, a youngish female just returned from six years in Sweden, understood immediately, which I why I said it that way.

Also on Saturday, my wife had decided to attend the baby shower for our daughter-in-law in the same city, & again there was quite a bit of stuff to lift & haul, so that was added to my day. Her shower gifts were very well received & during the women-only shower time, I was able to get away & spend a couple hours in the Apple Store *:-) I enjoyed that. I rarely get over to that city, so it was cool that I got to go to the Apple store. When I went to pick my wife up, my granddaughter was in a car nearby, & when she saw my wife, she immediately asked for me, which made me feel great, & so I ran over to play with her a bit, & it was a tough time when we had to part, because she asked for me to stay & hold her, which I was not able to do.

I had planned to get some work done on Saturday as well, but with all the driving, etc., there was no time. Oh well.

Shiny Shoes; Sore Throat; Sign Of The Azul

My intuition told me to dress up today. I did. My intuition was right *:-) I wore a very nice guayabera, very nice gray pants with a killer crease, very nice tipped shiny shoes, & my Harry Potter excellent glasses. The HR people came to South Swamp to give a 1.5 hour "What you need to know" workshop, & they brought a crew of four (usually only two) & one of the four was a biggie. She remember me & so did the second most powerful one, so I am glad I looked good. I am just getting over a cold though, & still have a sore throat which can get me coughing fairly easily, so I didn't eat anything prior to the meeting, drank tea the whole time, & didn't speak. No worries, everything went well *:-)

My Training Studio is being used more & more these days, & for multiple purposes, so the boss decided to give the studio a name that would be attractive & memorable, & chose "Azul", which is fine. Today on my lunch break I went to the sign shop & ordered a nice blue sign that will go on the window right next to the studio entry door, & it will say "Azul", except with a zed instead of a z.

"WIKI" = Weak, Inept, Knowledgeless, Inconclusive Management

Good grief. I believe it is a good thing that nature and the cosmos don't need humans to manage them, & that chaos is a natural state. I have seen too much to be able to ignore the lack of awareness & experience that currently sits on the management team at South Swamp. Oh well, the checks still are worth something at the bank, so, onward *:-) My new term, as explained above, is "WIKI Management".

Helping Management Manage When I'm Not A Manager

Just completed a document template for the set that will be used by all staff in an all day session on Friday. South Swamp management doesn't know how. I do. So I help. Gotta get some rest *:-)

Tightrope; South Swamp Slog

Ack. Wasted. Slight cold. Fatigued. Lotta demand on this old boy today. Yowser.

Unbelievable lack of professionalism & management capability demonstrated today in front of a rather prominent visitor. Most embarrassing for the org. Not my fault, & I won't get the blame *:-)

Another day tomorrow.

Day's End; Way Tired; Did OK

Worked on South Swamp stuff most of the day. Some of it had the fragrance of management that does not know what they are doing, & I had to put one of the managers in a corner & interrogate him a bit to get enough information to move forward, & my boss backed me up, so I was able to get the work done. It is always a little dicey to force management to do their job, but hey, I'm an old guy who wears glasses, so they won't hit me too hard, right?

26% of next week's work hours are consumed by mandatory meetings. No doubt management will still expect the same output as normal, but I put that in front of my boss's face too, so he won't be able to come back on me for not getting enough done. I was a boss too, & I understand that bosses are never to expect anything except everything, so I don't blame anybody, but I have been around long enough now to put the facts out on the table. It is my understanding that the younger members of the work force have always done that, so I am just catching up.

I am happy with my new parking place, inside our family "fort" that I just built *:-) I will keep working on it to make it kid-proof so the grandkids can play there too, but that will take a while.

I finally moved the shredder up to my office space (it only took 3 years), & now I am starting to be able to keep up with the shredding on a daily basis instead of having bags of the stuff sitting around where it takes me nearly all day to go through it. Much better *:-)

Damp & cold...makes a change, eh?

New Human's First Rain; Phone Play; Morning Apple Pie

A wonderful, & sorely needed rain began last night, & continued for a good part of the day. We are all grateful for that. As soon as I was up this morning, I realized, & said to my wife, today is the very first rain in the life of our new grandson *:-) Stuff like that is neat imho.

My wife & I had been invited (although a bit late to prepare for it) to a birthday celebration 30 miles away for our youngest son. We knew we could not go, & besides, he is 29 (I think), so it isn't like a birthday party is a big deal anymore. My wife spontaneously got up quite early this morning (7 am), put on some clothing (good thing about that) & went out into our small orchard, picked fresh apples, & prepared a birthday apple pie completely from scratch for our son. Pretty cool of her to do that. We took it over to our other son who lives in the largest town around here, about 12 miles from our home. He will take it over to our youngest son for his party. All's well *:-)

When we took the pie over to the son who would deliver it, I had a chance to play with my granddaughter, & we immediately got down on the floor & did all kinds of fun stuff, but then I showed her my two mobile phones...yes, I always carry at least two...& she had a lot of fun with them, because her parents have shown her how to do some things with the phones so she was right at home pushing the buttons, activating the camera, & other stuff. I have no idea who she called, but hopefully they will forgive us *:-) What was quite interesting though was when I asked her to hold one of the phones, asking her to "wait" before she opened it up, so that I could call her from the other phone & then she could hear the ring, could then open it up, & she could get a better visual of what happens when somebody is talking to her on the phone because there I would be, right in front of her, & she could hear me both in person & on the phone. That worked out pretty well, but what fascinated me was that for the rest of our playtime, she practiced using the word "wait", which I believe may be a new concept for her. Cool stuff, and I love it *:-)

Integrated & Movin' Forward

Interesting & integrated day today, complete with telecommuting, including a short-notice task from my boss (good thing I was paying attention), being with my wife, who has been resting quite a bit due to a cold, & then covering the wood piles because of the coming rain, & last, but not least, & certainly the most rewarding, was going for it & mixing & pouring the last of the concrete to support the guard posts just outside the entrance to the wood area, & the concrete set up enough for me to put the red reflectors on, so it looks cool, & its done *:-)

Keeping Time; Happy Birthday Boss; 60 Pounder

I was the official time keeper for our staff meeting today. I believe I handled it well *:-)

My boss, who is a hell of a lot younger than I am (nobody at work knows my age, although they keep trying to get me to tell them), had a birthday today. He still celebrates that sort of stuff fairly seriously, so I made sure he knew I loved him & was happy he was born *:-)

Picked up another 60 pound bag of ready-mix today, just to make sure the protective posts that are going to keep drivers from knocking down my fence are plenty strong, & I will mix it up tomorrow, unless the potential of a confrontation at the border looms large *:-)

Late Rising; Ass-Busting; Red Means No

Because yesterday was full of hard physical labor, I took some extra time to rest this morning, & it is a good thing I did. I busted my ass today working on the woodshed/fence, & made really good progress, plus I took down all 11 of the large deck umbrellas & got them stored away before the first rain. Once they get wet, I can't put them away, so I am grateful to my boss to giving me 2 vacation days on short notice to get this stuff done.

My wife won't let me put up the bright red, round sign with our house number in large gold metal numbers on it at the end of the road where our parking area starts though. I was going to make it today, & had purchased apple-red bright spray paint for the background. She suggests that it would be too garish & doesn't "blend". Well, yeah, that was the point *:-) Oh well *:-)

Vietnam Era Vet; North Korea; Soldier Boy

Yup, I am a Vietnam Era veteran of the US Army. Yup, I was sent overseas. Yup, I carried a rifle as a ground-pounding soldier in the US Army, assigned to Battery B of the Artillery. Although I had a college education, scored well on all the tests, & obviously had leadership skills, I refused to accept being sent to Officer Candidate School because I refused to give the orders that I would have had to give, but I had no problem being a soldier once called up in the draft. I believe that defense of the country I am accepting a lifestyle from is just the price that has to be paid...never mind if it is right or wrong or in-between.

In April of 1968, when I was a senior in college, the Tet offensive in Vietnam has just kicked our asses & the US Government felt that a "surge" would solve the problem (sound familiar?). In the month I was drafted, ripped out of college in my senior year, 68,000 of us young men (no women in combat in those days) were processed, trained to kill, & outfitted to be sent to Vietnam, complete with the (then) new M16 (which we were told wasn't much more than a .22 caliber rifle, & that the bullets bounced off the leaves in the jungle, oh joy), jungle boots, & jungle fatigues.

On the Sunday that I was to board the plane for Vietnam, while I was in the barracks finishing packing up my kit, the loud speaker boomed across the post grounds: "All personnel with last names starting with the letters S-Z report to the parade ground immediately". Shit, I figured we were going to have to get Special Forces training or something, which had been the scuttlebutt going around, & that I was sure to die, which I figured I would anyway.

The post commander showed up, told us that we were to turn in all jungle kit, & to report to the post quarter-master where we would be fitted out with cold weather gear, because a major world event had just created an immediate need for combat-ready troops on the DMZ in Korea. Actually, I was happy *:-) I figured maybe I wouldn't have to die, if I could get lucky.

So, what brought all this up? I read Al Jazeera online this evening & on the front page, lower part, was a fairly long story, with pictures, about how the North Koreans still have the USS Pueblo on public display, which is visited by many, as their primary example of how duplicitous the USA is, & as an example of how the USA cannot be trusted, because the USS Pueblo is a spy ship, & was disguised (poorly) as something else, & was in North Korean waters spying, & was captured (oops).

It was the capture of this ship, the USS Pueblo, with its US Captain, Lloyd Bucher, that had changed my life from jungle & certain death, to sub-zero cold & a chance to live.

I went to Korea, was stationed at Camp Snow just outside the small town of Pob Won Ni, near the DMZ, & was on the DMZ fairly often, up on the Imjin river. I worked my way up to acting Intelligence Sergeant, & was on duty 9 months later when the captured captain & crew of the USS Pueblo were flown by helicopter, not more than 200 feet over my head, back to our side & freedom.

There are many more stories, but, another time *:-) I am grateful that I did not die at that time.

Home Office; Public Events; Home Office

Yesterday was hard physical work, today was hard mental work. I spent all but 2 hours today using a couple new(er) software apps to build & upload a presentation for tomorrows meeting for the South Swamp ET group of which I am a member. All the formats are new, & nobody has used this stuff yet, so it took a while. Got some cool stuff in the presentation though, so it should be kinda fun, I hope *:-)

Both my wife & I needed to be out of the home for a couple hours each today. She was supporting our son & his family by nannying our granddaughter while mom & dad went to a wedding. My wife went to the wedding site too, but played with our granddaughter while all the "adult" stuff was going on. She made it through ok, & loved being with our granddaughter, but of course she is extra tired tonight. I had a meeting down in the city we live near, & that went ok too, & now I am tired as well *:-)

Goodnight, Moon *:-)

Neighborhood Peace; Kleenex!; Progress; Piggy Bank

Somehow, perhaps by magic, my wife I had the neighborhood to ourselves today. I courageously took advantage of the tentative peace & completed the work on the outside of the fence/woodshed that puts me a couple feet on my neighbor's property while I am fastening the external lattice to the back of the fence/woodshed, which I decided to do so that my neighbor would not be constantly looking at the raw & rough framework of the structure. I did not have to do that, but I checked with the Tibetan Prayer Flag that flies just above the work site, & the flag suggested that it would be helpful if I did, so I did! I am now finished on that side of the structure, so there is very little chance of conflict, unless overt aggression occurs. Yea!

I ran out of strapping wire that I use to hold the wood to the metal uprights while creating the base structure of the fence/woodshed, and since I had to go out to get some, I asked my wife if she needed anything & she said yes get some Kleenex, because she has had a minor illness that uses a lot of Kleenex, & she wanted to make sure we had some. Well, I brought back 9 large boxes & 3 small boxes, which caused her to react a bit, & she suggested that I had overdone it a bit. Oh well *:-)

Good progress today on the fence/woodshed project. I won't be able to work on it tomorrow at all, but I have gotten approval for two full days of vacation next week, & I hope to finish as much as possible so I can move the wood before the rains come.

I have written myself a note to go to the bank to get a couple hundred brand new shiny pennies so I can play with my granddaughter & her new piggy bank *:-) I am looking forward to it & I hope the batteries hold out until I get to play *:-)

Wife Successful; Lumber Shortage?; Gettin' Ready

My wife has taken several first place prizes for her fiber art work in a juried exhibition, which is very cool & makes me happy, since I know just how much of a real artist she is. Good on ya', sweetie *:-) One of her works is also featured on the web page of a local museum, which is also very cool.

I have been having an increasing amount of difficulty finding the less expensive grades of wood for my fencing & woodshed projects. One thing good about living "out" the way we do is that neighbors & passers-by don't scrutinize the property quite as closely as they might in a city. Recently, some lumber yards have not been restocking the cheaper grades that I usually use, & even today, when I went to the big yard of a local company, the cheaper grades had been moved way out on the periphery of the yard, & there were fewer pre-cut lengths, & less stock all together. A trend no doubt. Perhaps this is in anticipation of all of us moving into Second Life where the fences are digital.

I have started the long trek to creating complete task lists for all the projects I am responsible for at work, & on Monday the software will arrive that will let me actually create the project management timelines for everything, & I can tell that my approach to my work is returning to the fiercely professional level that it was when I first joined South Swamp, until the place fell apart. I trust my instincts, so off I go *:-)

Lunch Location Reboot; Successful At Remaining In Peace

I volunteered to help the ET group I am part of break out of our stale routine of always going to one of the same two restaurants for our after-meeting luncheon. Today I checked out 3 new places, & I will present the menus at Monday's meeting so we can try something new. We are finding things in our practices that need to be rebooted, & this was one of them. Bon appetite *:-)

In today's staff meeting, a rabble-rousing woman, the same one who almost always causes broadly directed negative energy to somehow arise, attacked a statement that I made which was clearly stated to help safeguard all of us who work late, having to do with the mechanical security of the doors into the building. Despite loud & interruptive commentary from the RRW, I was able to go silent when she was on the attack, & then I was able to begin again without rising to any bait she placed on the table. I feel good about that & I am hopeful that I can continue to choose peace instead of conflict. I was supported by all the others in the meeting, which made me feel good.

Animated 3D Avatars: Woodshed Wood; Soup Saves The Day

I am getting much better at cranking out the 3D avatars, & I sent 3 more to our ET team for feedback today. I am interested to find out if anybody gets excited enough about them to start doing their own, so that I can tell if this is a possible viral marketing/popularity tool so I can build it into my online courses. Not too much excitement yet, but it has only been a couple days. We'll see.

I picked up the last of the 1" x 4" x 8'-0" douglas fir boards that the lumberyard had today, & was only able to get 20. I needed 50, & I suspect that the shortages of natural products is going to get much worse in the good ol' usa before it gets better. The weather is rapidly moving toward the possibility of rain, & I am not ready. I will jam as much as I can to get ready. I still love my newly protected ingress/egress area for my truck, & I feel very secure there, which is a nice, & new, feeling *:-)

My wife makes a very helpful, healthy & easy to digest soup, & I try to eat a bowl each day. It really helped today because I was going to get a deviled egg while on my lunch-hour lumber run, but ended up short on time, so didn't get the egg. The soup got me through, & I appreciate it.

Locked Synapses; Animated Avatars; Stinky Farts

No word on who the new Chief Warlord for South Swamp will be yet, so we continue to suffer from the bumbling, inept, and damaging management by the Acting Interim Executive Director. Some of my colleagues have lost their patience, & are taking sick days to avoid the situation. The A.I.E.D. has her synapses locked & cannot sense what is needed, & so blindly, dumbly, does only what she has seen others do in the past, which of course does not apply to the current need. Oh well, I can retire in about 7 more years, so I hope to make it until then *:-)

I did another animated avatar today, not nearly as funny as the first one, but still worth watching, so I will find out the reaction, if any, tomorrow.

The lunch of Mexican food after the ET group meeting on Monday is still appearing around me, unfortunately as a haze created by the stinky farts resulting from the over-cooked in aluminum pans, stale ingredients used to prepare the food. Also, who knows what sort of dairy products were used for the sour cream & the cheese. I should have it all cleared up in time to have another meal next Monday *:-)

ET; Mexican Food; Pain Observed; Cool Video

Today, officially, the work group at South Swamp that I am in was renamed from IT to ET, standing for Educational Technology. No worries for me, because that makes me more employable. Phone Home.

Our post-group meeting lunch took place at a local Mexican restaurant that is "ok" but not great. I had reruns of the meal coming up for about 2 hours after we ate *:-) Nothing too serious though, & because the restaurant is much closer to the South Swamp building than where we usually go, it was easier on one of our members who was suffering from back pain today.

It was difficult to observe the severe back pain that one of our colleagues had to endure today, but she is a senior person on the new phone system selection team, & the vendor was in to discuss the final quotations/specifications today, & our colleague was the host for the meeting. During the ET lunch, she popped a Darvoset (I don't really know what that is), & that got her through the meeting, but she had to go home after that.

I worked until about 7:45 pm today, & while the office was empty, I was able to turn my XM trance tunes (channel 82) up nice & loud & was able to create, for the first time, an animated video avatar that is really cool. I recorded some sound with it & send it off to my ET colleagues. I don't know if they will like it or not, but my wife LOL'd which is a good sign that I did ok. Pretty cool web app & pretty fast too. It took me a while to get the still photo that needs to be uploaded into the proper proportions, etc., but once I did that correctly, the web app did the rest. Email me if you want the URL of the site, which is in Israel.

More Woodshed; Numbers; New Meeting

I got quite a bit done on the woodshed today, & I am finding it much easier to work on now that 30% of the 8' high wall is up, so any violent trespassers or dogs will be much easier to deal with, & I am not exposed as I was when first working on it. Little by little, & the Tibetan Prayer Flags are helping, imho.

I needed to get a report in to my boss, & I was not inspired to do it since it is an artificially produced billing for some of the work I did earlier in the year. The client won't be happy to find out that my boss all of a sudden is going to charge them a rental fee on each of the laptops I use in the trainings I deliver, & that was not part of the original agreement, but my boss is a little naive about this sort of thing, so I shall look at it as a learning experience for him. I am not really involved, except to provide the data from which to calculate invoice amounts. Anyway, I used Apple's new Numbers app which I recently got, & it was fun, so instead of just getting the structure of the report laid out to complete tomorrow, I got the whole thing done & sent off to my boss. Cool. That allowed me to relax with my wife when I got back from my meeting instead of having to work on it.

I attended a different 12-step meeting than I usually do, & it is good to change things up every once in a while. I will try this new schedule for a while & see how it goes.

Son Sighting; Door Jam; Woodpile In Motion; Tiny Dent

It was cool to be jammin' through the lumber yard/hardware store & to bump into my oldest son. We didn't have much time but we chatted briefly (he was on his mobile to his brother, my other son) & he took the time to stop by the car in the parking lot to say hello to his mum too *:-) Nice.

What cracked me up was that he was there to purchase some metal brackets that will let him return the house jack that he borrowed from his brother that is currently pushing the floor up under the door jam that goes into my granddaughter's room so the door will close without having to winch it shut *:-) He has been taking flack from his wife & from his daughter about it, & he wants to make the improvement permanent. Good on ya', son, there will be more of this in your future I predict *:-)

I was mister magic today, as far as my wife was concerned, because I was able to move a large woodpile (one full cord) from one end of the property to the other, all in about 1.5 hours, which blew her away. I must admit I was able to concentrate on it because I had my iPod on & was jammin' to trance, hence the focus & speed *:-) Whatever. It sure is nice to get a compliment from my wife though *:-)

However, & she doesn't know this yet, but toward the end of the woodpile transfer, when I was pretty tired, my hand slipped just a little as I was tossing a piece of firewood into the truck bed, & one end of the wood bounced against the rear fender, making a small dent. I tried to rub it out with my glove, but that only made it more obvious because it took all the dust off & made the area stand out. Oh well.

IM; Email; Gossip; Boundary Fence/Woodshed

Surprisingly busy day at South Swamp today, although I was only able to discern this from the number of IMs & Emails I received. I have the sound for incoming IMs & Emails enabled, & each is different, so as long as I keep a window open up in my office area, I can be outside or in another part of the house & hear the signal ok, which supports my multitasking obsession.

A colleague & I gossiped on IM for a while about the nearly chosen Chief Warlord, & made remarks back & forth about our ability to work with each of the candidates. So far there is only one, who if chosen, will cause me to immediately send out resumes looking for elsewhere to do what I do. Hope that isn't necessary.

During my lunch hour, since I am telecommuting today, I was able to get a nice piece of the woodshed wall/fence moving along, & was even able to stack a small amount of wood inside. I will need to purchase more supplies to finish it though.

PO'd For 13 Hours; Tomorrow Might Be A Big Day For South Swamp; More Lunch!

Yup, its true. Within one minute of me getting home last night (~1900), the power went off & it was not restored until 0830 the next day. We slept to the cheerful chirping of the 11 UPS boxes we have *:-) Several calls at different times to the utility outage status line yielded different lies at different times. so I finally gave up, which they knew I would, & went to bed to try to sleep the best I could. Oh well. More support for my wife's opinion that we are close to the conditions that exist in "3rd world" countries, if we take a real close look.

A fresh rumor surfaced today at South Swamp, which is that the new Chief Warlord may be named tomorrow. If so, that will be a big deal. I am interested so that I can plot my own course going forward, whatever that means *:-)

Management went out to lunch again today! That is unbelievable. Even if the company ends up paying for it, at least they are all talking/listening to the same subject when they are at lunch. I hope they do it every day *:-)

TGFT; Same Perception; Lunching Management

TGFT (Thank God For Trance) is still my motto of the moment. Listening to my iPod trance tracks really helps, no matter where I am or what I am doing. Trance seems to be created with the same reflective synaptic pace at which my brain resonates, which is very relaxing to listen to. Kinda like a recognition & acceptance. Thanks.

Human Resources received my written evaluation commentary on the Chief Warlord candidates today, & I asked a peer to take a look at what I had written but only after she had turned hers in as well. That happened toward the end of the day, & although the form of the submissions was different, the message that we sent was nearly identical, but in our own words of course. That made me feel good, because I respect the intuitive capabilities of this colleague. A sad commentary however, is that another of our colleagues will not submit any comments at all, & states that he doesn't care. That is a total cop out, since his current boss, who he says he really likes & hopes to continue to work for, is one of the candidates. This position is common for him however, & so, since I am his friend, I will not say or do anything to try to influence him one way or the other. It is his decision, and his consequences.

A few of our managers actually went out to lunch together spontaneously today, which very rarely happens, & what do you know? When they came back, they had some very good ideas for growth, improvement, & future path-making! Gee, ya' think?

Holiday Highlights

Both grandchildren were up at our house for a visit today *:-) Our grandson is doing really great & my nickname for him, which I will probably not use very much because his mom may not like it, is "Tank". He is already solid, and really moving fast *:-) Our granddaughter is really neat, & we had fun playing with 3-dimensional geometric shapes today, & also her dad let her out into the yard to pick her first pear off a tree, for real. This was not as simple as it sounds, because the yellowjackets are everywhere at this time of year, & we moved carefully not to piss them off. When our granddaughter was getting tired, she wanted to climb the stairs one more time up to Granma's fiber studio, & so I went along to provide support in case she was too tired to make it. She did ok, & then when in the studio, she was clearly tired, & while she was looking around I showed her a hand-spun, hand-dyed, hand-woven blanket that her Granma had made, & she reached for it, took it from me, lay it down on the floor carefully, spread it out all by herself, then looked up at me & said "sleep", & lay down on the blanket...OMG that was so cool *:-) She is neat & only 21 months old.

Hot Again; Dump Run; Triangulated

I found it interesting today when, just by walking while outside in the sun, heavy perspiration broke out. I took it easy, even though I worked, & hydrated properly *:-) GFM *:-)

As I planned I was able to do the dump run today & because we have to show our driver's license in order to get into the transfer site, I was benefited because the attendant noticed that I have reached the age where I get a discount *:-) Excellent *:-) So, talkin' trash was cheaper today *:-)

By timing my work carefully, & only taking the tools that were absolutely necessary out to the boundary line where I am building my woodshed, & where the neighbor has a short fuse, I got the upper part triangulated which will make it as strong as it needs to be. The neighbor stayed home nearly all day but finally left & I got the work done. I did other jobs around the current fencing too, so for me it was a good day *:-) Got to eat a hot fudge sunday with almonds, & my wife made a nice meal for me too *:-)

Heat Handling; Errands; Pain

Most of last night & today was spent creating initiatives to handle the very hot weather. We left all the windows & doors wide open last night, with fans moving the slowly cooling air into the corners of the house. I closed up at 0730, & we made it through the day pretty well, but of course the 3rd floor bedroom/viewing studio got pretty hot. I just opened everything up again a little while ago, & we are starting the cool down process again.

We went out together & drove to various places, some fairly far away, & successfully got several important errands done. I also was able to get a small amount of fencing/woodshed building done because the boundary line neighbors were both gone for a while. It was hot work.

My left knee continues to provide me with quite a bit of pain, & it is constant. The night before last I got only 7 minutes of completely pain free sleep, & that was just because I happened to find a pressure point that relieved the pain for a bit. I slept ok last night, but the pain continues. I forgot to put ice on the knee tonight while watching a dvd, dammit! I will try to remember tomorrow *:-) If at all possible, I will be making a dump run tomorrow.