owlmoose | Entries tagged with mundane

Thursday morning, 8:30 AM

This is my view as the sun rises behind me, as I sit at the bow of a houseboat on the Sacramento River arm of Lake Shasta (or maybe it’s Shasta Lake; maps and signage are a bit confused on this point).

I sat down to write a post about my trip during my trip, a week ago today, but that's as far as I ever got. Except for this and a little time spent wrapping up and polishing my Remix Revival story, which was due, my houseboat vacation was not a writing vacation, for a number of reasons -- there was no good place to set up a laptop on the boat, very poor cell service and no wifi at all except at the marina, and spending the time focused on friends and reading and basking in nature instead. (Yes, reading. I finished five books in a week. I don't remember the last time I managed that.) But really, given the kind of nature I was surrounded by, who could blame me?

Some creatives are inspired by being out in nature; much as I could wish that were true of me, it's really not. I do my best work either at my own desk or in a cafe, the urban world bustling around me. I've considered whether there's any possible way for me to do such a thing now, in the pandemic times; would sitting masked at an outdoor cafe do the trick? Or would the mask be too much of a distraction? It's hard to say, which is why I haven't tried it yet.

Still, even if it didn't spark a burst of creativity, being out of town, surrounded by nature, and far from the bustle of the world was still a balm to my soul, a much-needed respite. I'm really glad we were able to make it work.

Current Mood: calm

If you saw any pictures of weird, orange or red skies out of the US West Coast yesterday, I'm here to assure you that they were not filtered or exaggerated in any way.

This was the view up through my skylight at noon yesterday, September 9th.

It lightened up a bit in the afternoon, but it was never any brighter inside than late twilight, and it was surreal and weird and I hated it.

This morning, things look much more normal. The light is pretty yellowish, but at least it's enough to see by. I'd compare it to just before a heavy storm -- not bright, but I don't feel the need to turn on all the lights. The tradeoff is that air quality is notably worse, but frankly I will take it. My brain has a model for dealing with this. It can't quite cope with a day where the sun never rose.

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Judge John Hodgeman

Normally I rather enjoy hot weather, but when 1. there's no possibility of escaping into a place with air conditioning like a mall or the movies and 2. the air quality outside is so bad that we can't open the windows in the evening when things cool down, it's really pretty terrible. Both of us are melting. I haven't seen the cat in hours. It's too hot to even heat up food in the microwave.

I'm glad today is a holiday, but if this continues into tomorrow I'm not sure how I will manage.

Welcome to the new reality I guess. It's not even fire season yet.

Current Mood: grumpy

Last week, my employer announced that we will not be returning to our offices in 2020. And the implication was not that we'll be back at the beginning of the year -- to the contrary, the lease on one of our offices is expiring in January 2021, and the email said the organization will work with any employees who still have offices there to help them get their stuff back. (The lease ending isn't a surprise; staff have been moving out of that building for at least a year now.)

It seemed inevitable, in a way; once Google [announced that employees would be working remotely until next July](), with Apple soon to follow, I have to imagine the dominoes will fall for the rest of the text companies and any other business where work can be conducted, wholly or in part, from anywhere with an internet connection. Still, I wasn't ready to hear that I'll be working from my house for at least another six months, and I need to really figure out how to create a better work space for myself. What I have isn't terrible, but there's much room for improvement. I've already put in a request for a second monitor, with a webcam -- I've been using the webcam on my laptop, as well as treating the laptop screen as my "second monitor", and it puts my neck and back into an awkward position for hours at a time. Even worse is my desk, which I truly hate. It's rickety, it's somehow both too small and too large, and I don't have a decent flat surface for writing. Also, the built-in keyboard tray is much too high. I've long wanted to replace it, and this will be my impetus to do so -- I just need to figure out with what, and also how to choose a desk without being able to sit it and see how it feels. Unfortunately, unlike with the monitor and any other tech equipment, for the desk I'm on my own. Time to poke around the Ikea website and other online furniture options and see what I can find.

Any recommendations?

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: "Where I Belong" - FFVIII, TPR version

So much for posting four days a week. I don't really have anything to post about today either, but I want to at least make an attempt at pretending to stick with my writing goals.

At least my most annoying work project will move into the wrap-up stage as of Monday morning, freeing me up to do all the other things that have been piling up on my to-do list. And I think we can finish Persona 5 Royal tonight, which will be a nice way to kick off a weekend.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: DA Trespasser Soundtrack

T's favorite boba tea place was completely closed until recently, so he bought some tea leaves so we could experiment with making our own. They released a cookbook recently, and today we finally had the ingredients together to attempt a raspberry-pineapple tea fresca, which is maybe my favorite of their drinks (and a seasonal offering which they haven't offered in over a year). It's a little early for fresh raspberries, so we had to add a little extra sugar syrup, but for a first try with the wrong brand of tea, we came pretty close! It's nice to make treats for ourselves when it's harder to go pick something up.
Today brings probably the most gorgeous weather since this whole thing started, so we took a walk down to the farmer's market at the Ferry Building. Making that trek on a day with nice weather was probably not the best plan from a shopping point of view -- I think that's the most people I've seen in one place since FogCon. But it still felt more comfortable to me than the last time we went to Safeway: being in open air, plenty of space to pass people at a distance, lines well labeled with six-foot gaps. We didn't buy anything, so it ended up being more of an exercise trip than a shopping trip (although we did stop by a fancy market on the walk home to get the raspberries and a couple of other things we couldn't buy at Whole Foods on Friday), but it was good to be out for sun and fresh air.
After finishing Horizon Zero Dawn, I moved on to Persona 5: Royal, which T and I will be playing together. We're only a few days in, and if I recall we're mostly or entirely on rails for awhile, but it was lovely just to step back into that world again. The new content is being introduced slowly so far, just a couple of scenes at this point, but I look forward to both that and to re-meeting all my old friends again.
Working at home continues to be about the same. I'm very glad I'm only expected to put in an average of six hours a day rather than eight. (That's my normal work schedule, not anything special because of the COVID-19 situation. My five-year anniversary with this organization was last week, which blows my mind a little. Remember when this was a short-term gig that was supposed to be over in three months? Actually, you might not, because I talk so little about my dayjob here, but I assure you that was the situation when I started. Now I'm a regular employee, getting raises and higher levels of responsibility, and I was even nominated for a promotion (which I didn't get, but I'm well positioned for the next cycle, so fingers crossed). I've never thought I would prefer working at home, and I can now say with absolute certainty that I'd rather be in an office, but I'm glad it continues to be an option.
I did a Zoom call with some family yesterday -- my parents, my dad's two sisters, and my 14-year-old nephew, who I haven't seen in person since he was... 10? No, nine, five years ago, when my brother (his dad) graduated from college. I've had very little contact with him over the years, so it was really pleasant to have a bit of actual conversation with him. We're hoping he can come to California for my parents' 50th wedding anniversary, which is in June 2021. Let's hope that family gatherings, at least, can be happening by then. I've heard multiple people say that lock-down has put them in better touch with their family than ever before, now that we've moved to a norm of online video chat, so maybe that can be true of us, too.

Current Mood: content

All my writing and posting plans have gone out the window, but I can at least manage to do a meme.

( Cut for length )

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: CA: The Winter Soldier soundtrack

I moved the laptop all the way from my desk to the Poang chair in my bedroom area. (Since I live in a loft, my home doesn't really have rooms as such except for the two bathrooms; downstairs is a living room area and eat-in kitchen, while the upstairs has our bed and dressers in one area and our desks in another. So it's roughly like a bedroom and an office). I read in this spot pretty often, but I've rarely tried to type here, so we'll see how it works out. I think it would be better if I had one of those lap desk things. Maybe I should invest in one.

So, Week 3. Which was originally supposed to be the final week, but I don't think anyone truly believed it would be over so quickly. One interesting thing about moving to shelter in place is that I feel like time is moving faster. I no longer have the sense that every day is an hour and every week is a month. I suspect a part of me spent the first two weeks of March waiting for the other shoe to drop; now that it's fallen, and I have a better idea of what life is going to be like under these circumstances, I can settle in a bit and get on with the new routine.

We had our first virtual Thursday Night Dinner this week, which was fun. I appreciated the chance to talk to people that I'm used to seeing almost every week, and a few who aren't able to come regularly when we meet in person. I'm hoping we can get back into doing it on a regular basis, even if it's not weekly. I also briefly joined in a Zoom call with my dad and his sister, which might be the first time I'd seen my aunt face-to-face, even virtually, since my wedding over 15 years ago. So it's nice to be making connections with people, even though the circumstances are not what anyone would prefer. I'm more of an introvert than an extrovert, but I'm still missing real-life socialization, and I'm sure I'll be really eager for more of it once all this is over.

Current Mood: okay

It's been awhile since I worked the day before Thanksgiving, and I'd forgotten how empty the place can get around the holidays. If there were even ten people in the office, I'd be surprised. I half expected to see some tumbleweed roll by my cube.

But I had a few things to do, so I did them. I bailed around 1pm, grabbed some lunch, then came home to meet T at our preferred boba tea place. I might do a little more work from home, but more likely I will kick back with my milk tea, do some writing, relax before I have to start my cooking for the night.

Edit: oops, forgot to hit post. The cooking began sooner than expected (see today's #livebaking thread for more details), so that and eating leftover spaghetti and meatballs for dinner is all I've done tonight. But that's fine, as long as I get the writing in eventually.

Current Mood: relaxed

Rehearsal tonight, tomorrow, and Thursday; concerts Friday night and Sunday afternoon. We're doing Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms -- new to me, and I've come to like it quite well although it will never be in my top tier -- and Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, which is easily among my favorite pieces to sing, maybe in the top five. It's just so much fun, and takes you through so many moods and emotions. The Bernstein a boy treble soloist; he came to rehearse with us last week, and I was impressed. Looking forward to the show, although I can already tell this is going to be a long week, between all the rehearsal and everything I need to do at work.

To start a major project that has nothing to do with writing in the month of November.

Live and learn I suppose. At least I've made a good start on getting the photos scanned.

Current Mood: contemplative

I am here to compose my daily entry, sitting at my desk, a kitty loaf beside me. Tori used to come bug me while I was working, but then a few years ago we set up a couple of boxes next to the chair and put an afghan on top of them, and now she sits here quietly, waiting for pets. Works great for both of us.

( Cat loaf )

Today I slept in as best I could, given the time change, went out for a late dumpling lunch and boba tea with T, and then hopped across the bay for pizza and Fleabag at E's place. We watched the entire second season in one sitting -- we all preferred it to the first season, but more about that in my media wrap up tomorrow. A nice day, sunny, although with the slightest nip in the air to remind us that winter is around the corner. Let's hope so; we could use the rain.

Current Mood: good
Current Music: Stravinsky - Symphony of Psalms

I made a lemon poundcake!

Complete Twitter thread with progress photos here.

I used to bake a lot when I was young, but I fell out of the habit in adulthood even though I really enjoy it. I'm much more of a baker than a cook -- I like following a recipe and feeling confident that the final result will come out like its supposed to. This one came out just a tad undercooked, probably because I was using a new pan that's a little smaller than the recipe calls for. But sometimes baking experiments work -- I added a bit of orange zest and juice, instead of using strictly lemons, and it added some nice depth to the flavor. It's all about learning where playing a little looser with the recipe will have good results, and you can only know if you try.

Current Mood: creative

Fall in California is sometimes called "fire season" -- September and October are often the hottest months of the year, and after the long dry summer (the last rain is usually in late May or early June, and it doesn't start again until late fall), vegetation is dry and ready to go up with the smallest spark. Add into that the high winds that are also typical (particularly in Southern California, where they're known as the Santa Anas, but they've gotten more common in NorCal as well), and you have a recipe for wildfire. Climate change patterns are exacerbating all these issues and making the fire season longer -- it goes well into November and even early December now.

Bad enough as all this is, the real problem right now, and the thing that makes me want to yell and throw things, is the reaction of our power company, PG&E. Not every wildfire is caused by downed electrical lines or sparks from power substations, but a high percentage of them are, including the fires that so badly damaged Santa Rosa, my hometown, in 2017 and last year's Camp Fire, which killed more than 80 people and destroyed an entire town. After facing numerous lawsuits, PG&E -- which is a for-profit, publicly-traded company -- has declared bankruptcy, and then, instead of spending money on long-deferred power line maintenance, tried to give big bonuses to its executives (fortunately that plan was slapped down by the courts).

So now, in their infinite wisdom, PG&E has decided that the correct course of action is to turn off power to potentially millions of customers (1.3 as of this writing, up to 2.8 if they widen the area) in order to prevent fires from starting. How's that working out so far? Well, Sonoma County is on fire. AGAIN. Most likely because of a faulty transmission tower -- the same thing that caused the Camp Fire. Fix the power lines? Take responsibility for their actions? Nope, just shut off the power, which is not just an inconvenience but can threaten lives. Depend on a respirator to breathe or a refrigerator to keep your insulin cold? Too bad. It would be a bad enough plan if it worked; it's not working, and the lack of power makes it harder to communicate with people about evacuations.

I don't know if we can do anything to hold PG&E responsible. Governor Newsom is certainly saying the right things. But in the end, I think the events of the last few weeks have shown like nothing else ever could that allowing public utilities to been owned by private, for-profit companies is a terrible idea, and I hope we can move away from that model as quickly as possible.

Current Mood: angry
Current Music: "Fragile" - Sting

I miss memes. And given how many folks are relatively new around here, this seems like a good time for one. Ganked from

oracne.

( Behind the cut for your convenience )

Current Mood: good

I was going to post at least twice a week this month. But then I:

1. Kinda forgot that I made that a goal
2. Went houseboating for the weekend and had basically no internet access, not even a working phone
3. Got sick
4. Started rewatching Person of Interest because if I don't have an epic show watching project going on then who am I, really?

I am determined to write something real about PoI this time, at least, because I was so excited about it when I watched it the first time but then I just kind of left it hanging? So I'm saying this here and now as a way to commit to it. Yes I am.

Current Mood: okay

1. I was good and got my flu shot today. We rewarded ourselves with boba tea afterwards. I have only recently discovered boba tea, mostly because I realized I didn't have to have actual boba in it (or any other toppings). It's just a nice sweet milky tea beverage.

2. I'm almost caught up on Arrowverse -- pretty much only the season finales to go. Just in time, too, since Batwoman premieres on Sunday.

3. The downside of all this TV watching is that I'm barely reading right now. But I did go to a reading by Annalee Newitz last Saturday, where they read from The Future of Another Timeline and answered my question about their favorite weird fact learned from book research with the story of Sol Bloom, a politician who initially became famous for his role in the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. And this Saturday (tomorrow), I'll be seeing Marie Brennan with

forestofglory. So it's not like I'm lacking in things to read once I'm done.

I disappeared, but I have returned. We went to LA for about a week. The main event was the scattering of my in-laws ashes, so it was a sort-of mix of family obligations and relaxing vacation. On the way back, we stopped overnight in the Monterey area, then spent a day there doing 17-Mile-Drive and going to Point Lobos Nature Reserve. I've been both places, but not for a very, very, very long time, and T had never been to either. The scenery was gorgeous, and we saw many birds and seals, as well as a few otters bobbing around in the kelp (sadly too far away to get a good look or any pictures, but just knowing that I am in the presence of otters makes me happy). T got some seal pics, which I will share once they're ready. I put a few bird pics on Twitter.

Now I am home, probably until the end of September although I'm hoping to get together a houseboating trip sometime before then. Work is ramping up again, though -- my main project was ending, so I lined up some new ones, and then they all got going at once. Isn't that always the way? I even had to turn a couple of interesting things down.

But anyway, I'm glad I got at least one bit of a summer vacation, even if it wasn't entirely a vacation.

Current Mood: good
Current Music: "Everything You Want" - Vertical Horizon

Friday: Friends cooked spaghetti and meatballs and invited us over, followed by a sampling of Girl Scout cookies. Thin Mints continue to rule the pack. Much yummy food and fun conversation.

Saturday: Slept in. Made chicken marsala for lunch (that was supposed to be Friday's dinner before we got the invite out) and watched Moonlight, which was a beautiful movie with brilliant acting, if a bit short on plot. Dinner was all-you-can-eat crab at a charity dinner in Alameda. I won two bottles of wine and two bottles of vodka in the raffle! Even more yummy food and fun conversation.

Today: Slept in again. Bacon and eggs for breakfast. Soon I'm heading out to another friend's house for Indian takeout and season 2 of The Marvelous Ms. Maisel.

Pretty good for a rainy weekend, I think. :) I hope all is well with all of you!

Current Mood: good

We put up our tree last weekend. Today, just before I got home from work, T decided that the tree alone wasn't providing enough atmosphere, so he set our tv to play a video of a fireplace. Then the built=in music wasn't doing it for us, so we plugged in the Pandora "Electronic Holiday" playlist, which is serving up all kinds of fascinating covers. All it wants is an appropriate holiday beverage (eggnog, say, or spiced cider), and I can settle in for the winter. (Too bad I still have a week and a half of work to go.)

Current Mood: content
Current Music: Trans-siberian Orchestra - "Christmas Eve / Sarajevo"

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KJ

Entries tagged with mundane

Thursday

Overcast

Hot hot hot

Remote

Haha

Five things make a post

Quarantine meme

Change of Scenery

Quiet

Concert week has begun

Maybe it was a mistake...

Day in the life

For today's creative endeavor...

Fire weather

Meme!

Once upon a time...

Can three things make a post?

Poof!

Weekend

Holiday spirit