i got that summertime summertime sadness

Today was okay, but not great; I started reading twitter too early, and it was too easy to doomscroll today. But I did do some excellent food-related stuff - mostly taking inventory of what's in my freezer so that I can cycle through some of it before it goes bad. I also read / reread some cookbooks to figure out what I want to make for the next few days - while I picked up a few things yesterday, it wasn't enough, and I can no longer survive on leftover takeout and granola bars.

So I thawed out some sweet potato hash and had hash and eggs for lunch (I did pick up eggs yesterday). Then I made up my grocery list and went to Whole Foods - while I want to support the smaller grocery store near Katie's house (which is where I'd stopped yesterday), they never have everything I need. But I was in and out of Whole Foods pretty fast, and now I have ingredients to try a bunch of new recipes, which is exciting.

Then I came home, put tings away, and ate the last bit of leftover Indian food at four because I was starving. I also talked to Terry for awhile - we were overdue for a catch-up, and it was great to hang out for a bit. After we hung up, I doomscrolled while texting with [censored] and Drewbaby, but eventually I rallied and made a late supper - a very simple, very tasty cannellini bean and tuna salad from Stanley Tucci's second cookbook (recipe on zee romance blog). It reminds me a lot of a similar salad that I used to eat at the cafe next to the Equinox in the Marina, but this one was substantially cheaper and twice as big. But I also ate it by myself in the silence of my house rather than people watching in the Marina, so who knows what was better in that equation.

sssanyway. I've got grand plans to write tomorrow, and perhaps make an attempt at a baked good, and perhaps also read a book and/or do some yard work, so I should probably go to sleep. Goodnight!

you clean up nice

I ventured out of my house today, which was v. unusual. I'm on the hunt for some furniture to make a cozy conversational nook in my kitchen (and by conversational nook I now mean reading nook, since there will be no conversations for the foreseeable future). I've also decided to bite the bullet and replace the shade in my bedroom, since it is more of a mockery of a shade than anything else. I think it is the type of shade designed for filtering light to prevent glare in the afternoon, not the type of shade that is conducive for sleeping any length of time past dawn.

So, I'd made appointments at a couple of stores down in Cherry Creek to take care of those items - stores are reopened, but mostly at limited capacity. Both Room and Board and the shade place I went to said that things have been crazy busy since reopening - clearly everyone is sitting at home and realizing exactly what they hate about their current house and everything they want to buy to make it better. As someone who always buys alcohol, housewares, and fancy groceries, I find myself resenting that other people are making those things scarce....but I'm glad that the stores are doing okay when so many others aren't.

sssanyway, my first stop was Room and Board. The design consultant I met with there was super helpful and fun - and I think we figured out a chaise, which was a different chaise than what I'd originally thought to order. It will look awesome with my bar cabinet and will also be a fun place to sit (both by myself while drinking coffee / journaling and with others when dinner parties are eventually possible again). So, after months of searching and dithering, it's good to finally make a decision.

Then I picked up a to-go salad from sweetgreen - there were several sweetgreen locations in the bay area by the time I left, but they just opened in Denver a couple of months ago. I ate the salad while sitting on a park bench, and it was tasty and delightful. Then I went to the mall to pick up something at Nordstrom and return something else. I hadn't been to the mall since March, and I probably wouldn't go back unless I was picking something up - but the setup for picking up is pretty seamless, so at least there's that.

Then I discussed window shades, although I didn't make any decisions. And then I came home briefly before running to Katie's to pick up my outdoor plants. After that, I grabbed a few groceries, came home, put tings away, heated up some leftover thai, and talked to Veronica. V was in good form and we had a lot to discuss, so that was great.

And now, after that recap (which missed the fact that I painted my toenails, but in other ways was pretty complete), it's time for bed - goodnight!

i tried going against my own soul's warning

I had a pretty great day, but I'm super tired and need to go to bed asap. I got up around seven and spent the morning alternating between doing some writing/meditation journaling vs. getting my house tidied up - my least favorite part of traveling (other than the possibility of getting the 'rona) is unpacking and putting things away, but I tried to tackle it as aggressively as possible.

I probably would have been more productive with the writing, or at least gone to the grocery store, if I hadn't gotten a grill delivery that took some time right in the middle of the day. The delivery was smooth but the grill is missing a knob, which they assured me they would drop off tomorrow - we'll see.

Then, a little after that, Katie came over and we had a delightful socially distanced dinner - we sat more than six feet apart, and we were generally quite careful about what we touched. She brought cocktails from Ash'kara, which were a delight; I ordered Indian food; and together we spent four hours going deep on all sorts of topics.

I could have kept drinking all night, but I have grand plans to write and run errands tomorrow, so that's the end of this post. Goodnight!

who are you when i'm not looking?

I'm back in Colorado, thus ending nearly a month in ye olde Iowa. Today was entirely boring and uneventful - I got a decent night's sleep in Kearney, and then I had a bit of day job work to do this morning, so I didn't get out of there until 9:30ish. I also had to stop for breakfast, since the breakfast buffet was closed due to the 'rona - so I had hash browns and sausage patties from McDonald's, which was enough of a grease bomb to fuel the drive west.

I had to stop a couple of times to get gas and use the bathroom, but I made it home sometime around two. And then I was pretty much useless the rest of the day - I got my car unloaded, did three loads of laundry, and took care of a handful of minor things around the house, but that was the extent of my ambition. And now it's only ten p.m., but it's eleven in Iowa and I am going to try going to sleep early so that I can get up and meditate/write tomorrow morning rather than allowing myself to descend completely into vacation sloth. Goodnight!

jumping off your sinking ship instead of going down with it

I'm in Nebraska, which is too boring to deserve a post. But I had a great start to the day - I slept in a bit, and then [censored] and I hung out for awhile before grabbing brunch at a Mexican restaurant in his downtown. Then I loaded up my car and we said our farewells...it would have been nice to stay another full day, but I'm also feeling the need to get home, so I decided to embark this afternoon.

After saying goodbye to [censored], the rest of the day was boring...I drove for 5.5hrs and got to Kearney before deciding that I was no longer interested in driving. So I checked into a hotel and then grabbed dinner from a restaurant across the parking lot. And now I really need to sleep - goodnight! 

love is blindness, i don't want to see

I am still in ye olde Iowa, although there is a good chance that tonight is my last night here. [censored] and I had an overall delightful day in the northwest part of the state - he took me to a few of his favorite places around here. Of course, while northwest Iowa is relatively more prosperous than our part of the state, the towns are still small enough that you have to drive quite awhile between places to get to other places. But the tour was great - we went to a meat locker and bought some sausage (not a euphemism), then went to a cafe in Algona and ate some v. tasty sandwiches. Then, [censored] took me to a distillery, where we spent quite awhile talking to the owner - their bourbon is v. tasty, so it was fun to see their space.

After that, we drove through Okoboji, although there wasn't much to see and we decided we weren't willing to risk any crowds there. So we came back to [censored]'s apartment, saw his office, walked around downtown, and eventually went out for dinner. The first place we tried looked great, but it was twenty miles south of [censored]'s town and when we got there we found that they were closed for the weekend. So we came back and went to a restaurant with an outdoor deck - it felt safe from a social distancing standpoint, but our waitress and our food were pretty socially distanced from us as well, so it took forever to get served (and our entrees were lukewarm when they showed up). Worse, [censored]'s 'brisket' was more like chunks of unsalted roast beef in broth, which made no fucking sense. Ugh.

But we got to see a lot of classic cars driving by while we sat on the deck, and [censored] managed to keep from getting smacked in the face by the patio umbrella, so I guess it was partially successful. Then we came home and watched a bunch of tv and talked, and now I need to think about going to sleep so that we can hang out tomorrow. I may head west, depending on how things go....Colorado awaits, but we'll see when I get there. Goodnight!

yet i still recall as i wander on, as clear as the sun in the summer sky

I'm still in ye olde Iowa, but it's a different part of ye olde Iowa - today I drove up to northwest Iowa to see [censored]. I had a lot of unfinished business to take care of this morning, though - I had to wake up, for one, which was onerous enough. Then I loaded my car (using my dad's lawn tractor to haul all my stuff around from the walkout basement up to the driveway, thus saving myself many trips up the stairs) - this included a chair and a piano stool, both of which are probably unnecessary, but I will enjoy having them in my house. I also spent some quality time putting away the photos that we spent the last week sorting through - we didn't get through everything, but things are in much better shape than they were, and I'm looking forward to finishing it (plus possibly expanding to my mom's side of the family) the next time I have time at home.

Then I showered to get a century of dust off me, finished loading my car, and ate some leftover Mexican food to fuel myself for the drive. At that point it was noon, which was only ninety minutes after I'd planned to leave, so that seemed pretty reasonable. I said my farewells to my parents - it wasn't quite as dramatic as getting in a covered wagon and heading off into parts unknown, but in a pandemic you never know. So we hugged it out, and then I dropped my dad off in town before continuing north.

The drive to [censored]'s took a little over 4.5 hours (not helped by stopping for fuel and a bathroom). When I got here, [censored] gave me the grand tour of his apartment, which is v. nice. I also unloaded some stuff from my car (more than I need here, but some tings can't sit in a 120+ degree car for two days). Then we drove around his town so that he could show me the sights - it's a lovely town, with way more stuff than our neck of the woods (but northern Iowa has always had more money than southern Iowa). We stopped at the grocery store to pick up drinks, then got takeout Chinese, which was delish. We then spent the evening watching comedy shows and music videos, which is pretty par for the course.

And now I need to sleep - we have plans tomorrow that require getting up at a reasonable hour, so I should probably sleep at a reasonable hour too. Goodnight!

what a long strange trip it's been

Tonight is my last night for the foreseeable future in my bed in ye olde Iowa. Tomorrow I'm driving up to my brother's town, which is 4.5 hours away - which means I should go to bed so that I can load my car in the morning and do all the other tings that I had intended to do today.

But today was a great last day. I got up, made some iced coffee, and sat on the back porch, where I meditated and then journaled. It was lovely, and while I am looking forward to having my own back patio again, I will miss the pond and the rolling green fields (but I will not miss the flies...Colorado's bug population is practically nonexistent compared to Iowa's). Then I spent most of the rest of the day taking care of a variety of tings around the house, including assessing the growing number of chairs in the downstairs living room (we collect chairs like some people collect thimbles or magnets, although chairs take up much more space). I also did a bit of photo sorting, although not enough; I will have to dump everything into boxes tomorrow, but it's generally in much better shape than when I started and the remaining stuff doesn't include quite so many unknowns.

Somewhere in there, I packed my suitcase, cleaned out the downstairs fridge, tossed a bunch of food and beverages that were in need of tossing, helped Mom organize some stuff that will eventually go to the secondhand store, etc. And I took a bunch of empty boxes and some trash into town, where I made good use of my dad's dumpster. My trash disposal in Denver is pretty great, but it isn't a whole dumpster to call my own, so there are advantages to being here.

For supper, we went into town and had Mexican food - it still feels v. strange to eat in a restaurant, and I am not inclined to do it in Denver, but the Mexican restaurant was pretty quite and so the distancing felt adequate. And after you get a 20oz margarita for $5, distancing doesn't seem so important anymore anyway (jk, wear a mask and wash your hands). But dinner was super tasty, and after we ate we had plenty of time to drive around the backroads some more. We went back down some roads we went down yesterday (including passing through Warsaw again, which is a town that no longer exists) and ended up in Powersville, which is a bustling metropolis in Missouri of approximately 80 people. It was an entertaining excursion, even if it kept me from getting things done....but after stuffing myself full of fajitas and a margarita, I probably wouldn't have gotten anything done anyway.

And now I really should go to bed so that I can get out of here in reasonable time tomorrow - goodnight!

chill after hours

I had a great day, but I'm weirdly exhausted and need to go to bed. I suppose I'm exhausted because I spent six hours in my dad's truck - but we didn't ever get more than twenty miles away from home. I dragged my parents on a quest to see a bunch of old cemeteries, of which there are a couple of dozen, all in varying states of upkeep and with varying accessibility choices. My dad drove, which was a really good thing - he has encyclopedic knowledge of who owned which farms and where the property boundaries are, and while some of the people he referenced were long-dead, it was still fun to hear the stories.

So, we hit up ten or so - some of them were more interesting than others, but all had an air of peaceful melancholy. There were a lot of markers for infant children, as might be expected in a frontier cemetery. There were some interesting stones, occasionally markers for Civil War vets, and many others that could no longer be read. Some of the cemeteries were down dirt roads, which was a trick since it rained over the weekend - luckily we were in my dad's truck, and not my Audi (or the Sunfire that I used to have - I would be dying somewhere if I'd attempted some of those roads in a two-door coupe. The stories and images sparked some ideas for me....not sure what book this will become, or how it will translate into a plot, but it was lovely to spend the day driving around with my parents and I'm looking forward to seeing what these stories become.

When we got home, I took a break and typed up some notes. Then I made chocolate chip chewies to reward my dad for driving me around. Then I relaxed / did some personal work / talked to Chris (a cousin on my mom's side who happens to be one of our nearest neighbors - he stopped by to get something and chatted for a long time). And now I really need to sleep - goodnight!

i used to call her baby but now she's a mother to me

No blog tonight - I had a nice day, mostly spent sorting photos, but I'm sleepy and need to get some decent rest if I'm going to accomplish tomorrow's agenda. That agenda involves more photo sorting - I made it through everything on my grandmother's side of the family, but that leaves a lot of photos on my granddad's side, and I'm not sure I'm going to get everything perfectly rearranged to my liking before it's time to head back to Colorado. But we'll see what dent I can put it in tomorrow. I also have grand plans to see some cemeteries, and I might try to force some kittens to play with me - you know, the usual.

But at this moment, it's time for bed rather than for ruminating over the day. Goodnight!

can music save your mortal soul?

I had a v. good day in ye olde Iowa. The day was bookended with video chats, which was a bit weird (not the chats themselves, just the fact that I had two video calls in one day when I'm on vacation). The first was pretty shortly after I woke up, and it was with a woman named Alicia who also works in tech and is attempting to become a published author. We were connected via our mutual friend Alana (hi Alana!), and it was really lovely to meet her - we had a lot of common experiences, which is always a good thing to connect about. We'll probably chat again in a month or two, so it was nice to make a new writer/tech connection.

Then I spent most of the rest of the day on the back porch - it was rainy off and on, and so cool in comparison to the 90+ degree days we've been having that I wore my hoodie for part of it. I did some planning for my remaining time here, and I did a bit of journaling, and then I spent quite a bit of time talking to my dad, which was great - hopefully we'll get some more time before I leave. My vacation has been v. good for just hanging out on the back porch and talking to my parents, so I'm glad I've spent some time here before I go back to Colorado and end up in quarantine again at some point in the future.

At some point in the late afternoon, I decided that I should (re)tackle the massive spread of family photos. I decided to grab the pile of grandma's relatives from before 1940 and bring it upstairs for secondary sorting - this involved breaking those piles into much smaller piles based on who was in the photo, then putting those smaller piles into file folders for each relevant relative. There are still a ton of photos to go through in the secondary sort, but I think this method is a good one - it makes it easy to sort out what is a direct-line ancestor vs. what is an aunt/uncle or cousin in a previous generation, which becomes less relevant as the generations go on.

I did eventually take a break to have supper - Mom made fish, potatoes, and peas, with strawberries and cream for dessert, and it was pretty tasty. Then I did some more photo organizing, talked to [censored], took some photos of a double rainbow, and then ended the evening with a video chat with some writer friends. And now I really need to go to bed (and perhaps scratch my chigger bites) - goodnight!

wind chimes

Today was lovely - except for the fact that I woke up and discovered that my torso is covered with chigger bites from yesterday's efforts to mortar the cave. This is unfortunate, since chigger bites last for days. But despite being surly (and itchy) from that, I persevered - I got up, got ready, and the spend the morning taking care of tings around the house.

Sometime around eleven, Aunt B and Uncle B showed up with stuff to give to us (note: my mother's basement is coming a chair graveyard; we already have too many and this haul just added six more to the collection. But we had a lovely couple of hours together - my parents made brats, and baked beans, and five cup salad (which involves fruit and coconut and sour cream, just trust me).

After they were gone, I sat around, did some desultory stuff, and said goodbye to [censored]. The evening progressed through multiple rounds of sitting outside + several western movies (mostly for my dad), and ended up a semi-impromptu family dinner. Ritu (and a sleeping Bill), John/Jess, Chandlord, and Claudia/Sam all dialed in, and it was pretty much the same as usual. We especially went deep on nap dresses, slugs (especially slugs named Naner), snails (which are destined to eat Jess's garden, sleeping patterns of infants, yawning (fake, real, and suppressed), etc. So, it was lovely to see them all - but now I've been falling asleep in my chair for the last thirty minutes, so I need to go to bed. Goodnight!

so come out of your cave walking on your hands

Today involved way more manual labor than I am accustomed to, but it was accomplished mostly successfully (although I think I sunburned the scalp under the part in my hair - I usually put sunscreen there, but I forgot, and the part of the day in which I wore a hat apparently wasn't enough to save it). To make a long story short, we have a cave in our yard - it was the storm cellar / root cellar for the old house, and while the old house is destined to collapse, [censored] and I would like to save the cave. I have a lot of fond memories of it - it was a great place to sled from, since you could get some quick speed to hit the driveway with. I also liked just sitting on it back in the day; occasionally we would throw sticks down the chimney, which would hit a metal bucket below (which I may or may not have told [censored] was a witch).

So anyway, the cave is v. picturesque, but the mortar between the bricks is crumbling out and the inner walls are heaving with a century of moving earth. We couldn't do anything about the interior; the dome actually looks good inside, but the entrance could used shored up someday. However, we were able to mortar the entire outside. This involved three bags of mortar, two trips to the lumber yard in town, the use of an old and little-used cement mixer that we happen to have lying around, and a bunch of kneeling on a treacherous slope to slap mortar onto the cave. The end result looks pretty great, if [censored] and I do say so ourselves; the cave won't last forever, but hopefully this prolongs its life.

After the mortaring, we were totally hot and gross - we got super lucky since it was windy and sometimes cloudy, but it was still over 90 degrees, very humid, and completely miserable whenever the sun came out. I took a bit of a break then, but then I helped [censored] with his plans to build a new door for the cave - the old door rotted long ago, and vines were covering the remains, but we want to make a new door to keep animals out. We got about halfway there, although I wasn't as helpful with building as I was with mortaring - with mortaring I was able to spread a lot of mortar (and also get into the cement mixer with my baby hands to scrape it out), but with carpentry I was basically reduced to handing [censored] his pencil and tape measure over and over.

But we made great progress, so that's all lovely. We were rewarded for our efforts with takeout Mexican food from our favorite (aka only) Mexican restaurant in town - Mom and Dad went to pick it up, and Dad knew me well enough to get me a giant margarita to go. So, dinner was great, and then I spent the rest of the evening slowly recovering (and taking a shower, which was even more important).

And now I really need to sleep - goodnight!

enough to make my systems blow

Sadly, yesterday/today were, like yesterday, also filled the death and memories (and a tiny bit of rain). To avoid burying the lede, I shall start with it - I got a text yesterday to tell me that my friend Tammy died last week. The text was from her sister; apparently Tammy had been sick for almost a year but hadn't told most of her friends, but she wanted to make sure we knew after the fact.

So, that was a real shock. Tammy (aka Tammmmeh) was one of my freshman when I was a junior RA, and she drew into Loro my senior year, and so we lived across the hall from each other two years in a row. We had a shared love of dim sum, the Olympics, bad television, late-night trips to Peter's Cafe (where we occasionally stayed up all night so we could go straight to dim sum across the street), mafia, more Olympics, fashion, gossip, and many other tings. Sadly, I'd lost touch with her the last couple of years; she'd moved to Chicago, where I never go, and I had moved to Denver, and life happened....and now she's gone.

Needless to say, I'm still processing. I called Claudia to tell her today (not a fun conversation, but good to talk to her); Shedletsky called me this afternoon and we talked for awhile. It's all strange and surreal, and I have many thoughts....but that's where I'll leave this for now.

//

So, compared to Tammy, the fact that we're anticipating continued kitten mortality really pales in comparison. It also made the slog through family photos weirdly more bearable - it's both great to get through them, and ultimately potentially meaningless in the grand scheme of things. But we've now gone through an initial sort of all four boxes, organizing by family branch and decade. My dad joined in the fun this afternoon and was able to identify many photos that my mom and I had no idea about, which makes sense since it's his side of the family.

The whole thing is like a multidimensional puzzle / the worst game of memory you've ever played - a lot of matching photos to groups and time periods, but made much harder because the photos were tossed very haphazardly into boxes (and moved around many times), which means you might be going through a stack of photos that has my great-grandparents in 1925 next to my second-grade photo alongside my father's report cards from high school. So, remembering if you've seen something before, and then where you put it, when there are thousands of photos is a real trick. But I've gotten real good at identifying some guy named Darl (who must have been my grandma's first cousin, which makes him my first cousin three times removed, which makes him pretty irrelevant), and I think I could pick Uncle Waldo out of a line-up now even though he's been dead for over fifty years (okay, maybe I would have trouble identifying his zombie corpse).

So we're making progress, and that's great. Yesterday I also went with my mom to the next town over the buy groceries so that I could cook some tasty tings this weekend. I experimented with tater tot casserole tonight - it's something that basically required gluten in its usual incarnations because it's made with canned cream of mushroom soup and canned vegetable soup, and those have flour in them. But I found a possible recipe on a gf site, then modified it to suit my intuitions. Basically, I browned some hamburger; then cooked an onion, a carrot, some celery, and some garlic; and then added gf flour, beef stock, milk, soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, and paprika. Combine that all in a baking dish, line up tater tots in neat little rows on top, bake it, and you have something that's pretty good. I think it was probably better than the original, except for the fact that I got my ratios slightly off and the worcestershire sauce needed to tailor it back this summer.

And now, after having finished the fourth and final box + watching some tv with [censored], it's time for bed - goodnight!

we'll paint it red to fit right in

Today was a v. different #smalltownlife day from the last few, full of rain and death and memories. Yes, that was unnecessarily dramatic. But it rained quite a bit overnight and early this morning, which was desperately needed - it interfered with our plans to do a cemetery crawl around the small half-abandoned cemeteries in the county, but the rain was v. necessary for the crops, so it was a worthy sacrifice.

So, since there was no cemetery-hopping to be had, my mom and I started tackling the boxes of photos that we inherited from Uncle Mark, who seemed to have taken them from Gram's, thrown the boxes into a shed, and never organized them after that. We spent several hours this afternoon sorting things out by side of the family + decade, and after several hours of work, we'd gotten through one of the four boxes. So, that's good progress, but perhaps not as fast as we need to be - and now we still have to go back through those piles to decide what we want to keep vs. what we want to send to other relatives vs. what should be tossed.

It's hard to toss things when they're interesting. Case in point: what do you do with my great-grandma's picture album (almost a diary) from her teenage years in the 1920s? It's full of photos of people we don't know, notes about events that are long gone, and enough dust to choke you. But it also has v. amusing bits, like her list of the 'boys I stepped out with', which got up to #36 (fun fact: my great-granddad was #19); photos of all the fun she had with other teenagers around her; and the newspaper clippings from when she and my great-grandfather + another couple eloped to the next county over and got married in the middle of the night (the newspaper was clearly scandalized). But how do you preserve something like that? And how do you cull through hundreds of photos of the past and make it into something that will continue to be interesting in the future?

sssanyway, we threw in the towel around four and I sat on the porch to get some fresh air and journal. Sometime shortly after that, my mom noticed that one of the kittens was weirdly lethargic, so this turned into an effort to save it, which (despite my dad running into town to get milk replacer, and despite my mom attempting to feed it with a syringe) sadly turned into a funeral. We think our cat had too many kittens to feed successfully, but hopefully the remaining four make it....

I couldn't stay to play with kittens, though - I had plans with Hannah (who is both a friend from high school and a distant cousin) to go to her house for dinner, so I headed that way. We had a lovely three hours on her back patio, watching the wilderness beyond her yard and discussing all sorts of fun and interesting things. I could have happily stayed another hour, but since the drive home is treacherous and full of deer waiting to total your car, I got out of there around ten.

And now, I should really sleep so that I can accomplish something in the morning - goodnight!

put me in coach

Today was lovely, but I supposed all vacation days have a higher likelihood of being lovely. I spent most of the morning on the back porch, journaling and organizing some of my notes. In the afternoon, my mom and I made a quick trip to the museum in town. It's been around for a long time and I actually worked there the summer after my freshman year (minimum wage, sitting waiting for tourists who rarely came and turning the lights on/off as the visitors came and went). But they've put a ton of work into it in the twenty+ years since I worked there (I do not like saying 'twenty years') and it was great to see the expanded bits. I'll probably have to go back sometime next week and look at stuff when I have more time, but it was a great outing for the afternoon!

Then we came home, and I spent some more quality time on the porch while my mom made steak and twice baked potatoes. Then my mom and dad were telling stories of some of their escapades in the sixties and seventies, which were pretty entertaining. We ended the evening on the back porch again, watching lightning flickering endlessly in the north - hopefully it rains here overnight, since we need it.

And now I need to sleep - goodnight!

fractals

I've been dozing for the last hour already, so this will be brief - but today was the first day of a long vacation, and it was a great one. I got up, made some coffee, and did an hour of day job stuff, which may sound like a contradiction to today being the first day of vacation - but there were a handful of things that I didn't get to before I signed off last Friday, and getting them done today was important for other people at work. Once that was done, I could sign off with a clear conscience.

Then I helped [censored] with some stuff, and then I made some sweet potato hash with italian sausage. I spent the afternoon messing around, going to the Round Barn, etc. And I said farewell to [censored], who had to go back to where he lives so he can work tomorrow. The day ended with some quality time with my mom on the back porch, and it was all v. lovely.

And now I need to go to sleep in my bed instead of in my chair - goodnight!

i think i know how these things go

I had a nice day in ye olde Iowa - I slept in a little bit, then made some iced coffee and spent the morning cleaning up downstairs and organizing the stuff I'd brought into the house and dumped on the floor in the downstairs living room when I got here last week. Then I spent the afternoon on the back porch, taking care of a variety of personal tings and making some plans. That all got derailed when I decided to play with the feral kittens who have taken over our porch - they weren't sure about playing with me, but I held three of the six (possibly three of the five, since we haven't seen the sixth today) and they were super cute. However, since I'm allergic to cats and I'm especially allergic to feral cats who are also covered in pollen, I then had to shower immediately.

After that, I went into town to wash my car and pick up a couple of things at the grocery store. I got home in time for supper, which was last night's pulled pork + fresh sweet corn, 'basket bobs' (the veggies that usually go on kebabs, but tossed into a basket to grill instead, which saves a ton of time), and leftover five cup salad. That was all super tasty, and it made me want a nap...but I pushed through. I then spent the evening reading old books about my county while off-and-on watching a Western (Silverado, which starred a very young Kevin Costner as a no-name actor around a bunch of much more famous actors, which was kind of funny).

And now I need to sleep - goodnight!

lessen the distance between us

I had a v. lazy first day of vacation...but not the laziest of days I've had here before, so I'll take it. I slept in a little bit, then showered, made some iced coffee, and went into town to pick up [censored] since he'd taken a vehicle into town to leave there. Then I spent the late morning / early afternoon hours messing around with my laptop, planner, journal, etc - I'm trying to come up with an adequate system to track my notes, photos, memories, etc. while I'm here, and that requires trying to structure data that is completely unstructured.

But eventually I stopped staring at screens and attempted to help [censored] with one of the projects that we're trying to accomplish this weekend - we're trying to protect the old cave (root cellar) in our yard so that it lasts another few decades, but none of us have even been in it in forever and so needed to examine it before coming up with a game plan. [censored] did all the (literal) heavy lifting by beating back the weeds and pulling up the rotted plywood and former door that covered the entrance, then going in and pulling out the interior door as well (in much better condition, but had fallen off the hinges). The cave is actually in surprisingly decent shape inside, although I certainly wouldn't trust my life to it in a tornado - and there were no snakes or skunks, just a whole flurry of spiders.

So we examined the cave, then went into the lumber yard and bought some mortar to test out our mortaring skills (and I bought some work gloves to protect my delicate city hands). We didn't get around to mortaring, though - instead we drove around and looked at properties and generally gossipped about the local surroundings.

Then we came home - supper was calling, and it was delish. My dad made pulled pork in his smoker, and my mom contributed baked potatoes, layered lettuce, and five cup salad, and it was all super tasty. After that, we were all pretty low energy and the tv signal wasn't coming in due to heat/storms...so I sat outside and journaled for a bit, then retreated to my room. And now it's time for bed - goodnight!

starting from zero got nothing to lose

Today was the last day of my week of working from Iowa....which means vacation starts now! Of course, I had a ton to do before I left, so I got up around 7:30, showered, made some coffee, and then slogged from 9ish until after six. It was a constant slog, too - I didn't have as many meetings as I did the last couple of days, but I had a million things to cross off my to-do list, so I had to stay buckled down.

But, I got to the point where I felt comfortable calling it, so I guess I'm on vacation. Of course there are still a few things I want to try to do this weekend before being off-off, but they're minor and won't take much time. And then I can slide straight into writing / family stuff / Iowa stuff for a few weeks, which will be delightful.

When I finished working, it was just in time for supper - my mom made a ribeye roast (similar to prime rib) and corn on the cob and layered lettuce, and it was perfect. We had some drama after dinner involving a raccoon and a kitten, but everyone who was meant to survive is still alive, so I guess it wasn't that much drama after all. Then I hung out in the kitchen and inadvertently got into a political discussion with my parents, but we went to our corners after eleven, so I've been unwinding / taking care of some tiny bits of work stuff since then.

And now it's time for bed - I want to spend some time tomorrow thinking about how to maximize my vacation, or at least how to effectively annoy [censored]. Goodnight!

chandelier

I worked a ton today, so I really need to sign off and decompress for approx thirty seconds before going to sleep. I got up in time to do a few hours of work before my meetings began - thanks to be in the central time zone, my first meeting wasn't until eleven, so I was able to crank through stuff this morning. But then I had a meeting from 11-12, a break for lunch, and then meetings from 1-6.

At that point, I had to switch into Iowa mode - my mom made sweet corn for dinner (the first of the season! my dad picked it up in Des Moines today), so we ate corn as one should in July. Then, my mom and I went into town for a sort-of socially distanced (at least it was outdoors) gathering of some women that we're in a club with. It was good to see them all, and I sincerely hope I didn't take them coronavirus (although some of them are being less careful than I am, so ultimately I probably wouldn't feel compelled to take the blame on that one).

Then we came home, and I've been working for almost three hours - which means I should throw in the towel and go to bed. Goodnight!

life is hard enough with one identity

I had a long but good day - I worked pretty much nonstop, with a bunch of meetings and a relatively important presentation in the afternoon, and I wasn't done until six. But then I had time to relax - I hung out with my parents, enjoyed one of my favorite meals (cheeseburgers and fried potatoes, along with broccoli salad - my mother knows me well), and then sat on the back porch. I read part of the town's centennial book tonight - it was published in the 1970s in honor of the town's centennial, and it has a bunch of stuff from various points in the town's history. It's interesting stuff, and I'm looking forward to diving in more when I'm properly on vacation.

But right now I'm not on vacation, and I have a million things to do in the next few days, so it's time for bed. Goodnight!

when we were kids

I'm going to go to bed immediately - I slogged all day, took some wee breaks for food / talking to family, and then did some more slogging tonight. I have one more week...four more days...before vacation, and we'll see if I make it. But for now I really need to sleep - goodnight!

i have a dream about her, she rings my bell

Happy Sunday from ye olde Iowa! Today was pretty lowkey, all in all. I got up relatively early (for me in Iowa), hung out, made some coffee, and then did some planning + day job work for about ninety minutes. I'm working from Iowa this week and I have a lot to get done, which means that it was smart to try to get a bit of a head start on it today.

After that, I ate some lunch, took a quick nap, took a shower, and thought I might do some more stuff around the house. Instead, [censored] and I drove over to our sister's house to pick up a piece of equipment that my dad had loaned her a couple of months ago - her son used my dad's excavator to install some tile in her backyard, and if you have no idea what I'm talking about, you're part of the blog audience who doesn't live in Iowa. Before we went over there, [censored] and I did a tour of his properties to find some log chains and other equipment, and then he hooked onto a trailer using one of my dad's work trucks that was capable of pulling the weight of the excavator (my Audi has a hitch, but I don't think it would have worked).

So we drove over there, and [censored] loaded the excavator while I talked to Jackie. Then we drove back, dropped the excavator off, and returned the truck/trailer. All told, this exercise took close to three hours, but it was good bonding time with [censored] and I got to see my sister, so I'll take it.

Then we came home, ate supper (leftover brisket + perfect fried potatoes), and then [censored] and I went out to Logan and Sammi's house. Logan is [censored]'s best friend from high school, just as Katie is for me, and it was really fun to see them. Of course, if one of them has the 'rona, we now all have it. And now, on that fun note, it's time for bed - goodnight!

steady as she goes

I already fell asleep once tonight - so stopping in quickly to say that I had another great day in ye olde Iowa. Aunt Kathy and Drewbaby came down for the day, and we spent most of it on the back porch, watching my dad watching his smoker while he made brisket. We also had bratwurst and potato salad for lunch, and at some point in the afternoon Kathy and I split some rosé.

So it was all quite nice, and hopefully it's a sign of many more lovely days to come while I'm here. But now I need to sleep again - goodnight!

are you my life force

I had a lovely first day in ye olde Iowa. I got up earlier than I usually do on Iowa days because I had left some tings in my car that needed to be brought into the house before the sun turned scorching. So I accomplished that, drank some iced coffee, talked to my parents, etc.

At some point [censored] needed to go into town to pick up his string trimmers, so I went with him - and we ended up taking a v. long tour of part of the county. The tour started with the intent of seeing a newly paved road in town (v. exciting! although I miss the pothole that I used to veer around when driving past the cemetery toward the high school at slightly too high a speed to avoid being late many years ago). But we meandered through other parts of the county and ended up on a v. long dirt road - we're verging on a drought here, so the dirt road was passable, but I would not recommend it after a rain. It dumped us out at an old, nearly abandoned cemetery - most of the burials were in the 1870s-1890s. Of course, the cemetery isn't completely abandoned since it still gets mowed (my parents' responsibility, weirdly enough, since they're in the township government). But it feels miles from anywhere, and so very different than my life in Denver that it's always a bit strange to re-immerse myself in life here.

Then we came home and I spent the afternoon messing around the house and outside. Tonight, we had another round of family photos - Jackie and Shawn came over, and we did a bunch of group and individual shots. It was nice to see them, although it was brief; it was also nice to see Allie, although coming to visit us a few days after flying to North Carolina seems like a good way to get the 'rona.

And now I'm exhausted and need to sleep - goodnight!

white wings in my pillows and blankets

I'm in ye olde Iowa after a mad scramble to get out of my Denver house + a v. uneventful ten hour drive. The drive went pretty fast - I only stopped twice (in North Platte and Lincoln) for gas + bathroom + caffeine, so I was about as efficient as I could be. I got home just in time to interrupt the end of the movie my parents were watching, but they were fairly kind about it. And [censored] showed up after I did, so now we're all reunited.

But this brief blog will have to suffice - I need to sleep so I can get cracking in the morning. Goodnight!

take me down to paradise city

I had more work to do this morning than I wanted to, and then I spent a whole bunch of energy late in the day to run a ton of errands. I also got a coronavirus test, which was probably unnecessary - and it hurt about as much as I expected, so that was fun! And I dropped several pots of petunias off at Katie's - I'm headed to ye olde Iowa for an indeterminate length of time and she's graciously agreed to water my indoor plants once a week, but the petunias need more water and have now been slipped inconspicuously into James's watering duties. We hung out far apart on her porch for awhile, and I would have preferred to stay all night...but I had many tings to do, and so we parted ways.

I also dropped some work stuff off at Kelly's, got a car wash, got gas, got some rosé, dropped off some stuff at the post office, and picked up takeout pizza to eat tonight + have for tomorrow. And I spent some quality time taking care of yard stuff, which I really should have done this weekend - but I think I either dug up or cut off every little attempt that the nearby tree of heaven is making to colonize my yard, so hopefully the yard will survive a couple of weeks without me.

Then I did some stuff around the house, cleaned out my fridge, etc. And now I'm mostly packed, although I still have to throw some stuff in bags and load my car - but I think I should pause for tonight and get some sleep. Wish me luck getting out of here tomorrow - goodnight!