Over-indulgence

Wordle 680 4/6

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Yesterday I started the day with yoga. Exercise one, day 8, longer than the book says is needed, but there was a big gap in there between that and the one before.

Pancakes and bacon for breakfast. The kid came home when it was nearly done but had already eaten. 

In the late morning we heard from the parents of a friend of the kid. One of the friend's siblings had a soccer game in the park near us, so the kid could play with her friend meanwhile. She went on her own. I went to and from the park more than once to check on them while doing laundry. Around noon I tried to take my bike to the shop to get serviced, but they were so busy, the best I could do was an appointment for mid-May. In the early afternoon we went to Trader Joe's. The kid never likes it and could have made it easier, but it went OK.

We saw little of the kid all day. When not at the park, she spent most of it under her bed, allegedly reading but probably mostly watching videos on her iPad. Maybe we should have been more concerned about that, but in addition to the stuff above we also did the laundry and I changed some burned-out light bulbs, so we kept busy enough.

The big event of the day was a gathering for T. and the kid, an arts and crafts event for several friends to get ready for Teacher Appreciation Week stuff. I'd have the house to myself for at least 2 hours with absolutely nothing going on. I wound up smoking weed, I might as well admit, but reading a comic book I haven't read in a while and watching Better Call Saul, a show I had started on the flight home. A different and more thorough kind of relaxation than usual. I also did some of my physical therapy. I wasn't too rigorous, but was adequate in my opinion.

The girls' plan included snacks but not dinner, so I planned on an easy, light dinner around 7. I ate around 7:30 in front of the TV. They got home around 8:15.

Bedtime for the kid was horrible. Our best guess is that she was over-tired, with a sleepover the night before followed by a lot of socializing. I wish I had been more ready, i.e. making the beds before they got home, but I don't feel too bad about unwinding. I'm not sure how well I handled things while putting her down.

Finally Friday

Wordle 679 3/6

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Woo hoo.

Drove the kid to school and T. to work yesterday due to rain. 

Work was OK. The biweekly report was... not noticeably worse than average. There weren't too much problems and they were familiar problems involving different people than usual, which is nice I guess. Unrelated to that I got one important SOP approved, which is nice. 

I was more relaxed than usual, and more proactive. Maybe writing yesterday's post out was cathartic. I did my PT during a lull in the WAR in the late morning. Good for me. In the afternoon I played Warcraft and did the last dungeons I needed for that Infusion. Cool.

I drove to get the kid earlier than usual due to our evening plans. I picked up the kid and T. up at the school around 4:30. Then home to get ready. Just 20 minutes or so later, the kid's friend picked her up. She was going to a Spanish night at the kid's friend's school, and then having a sleepover at her friend's house after. Cool.

Then T. and I drove downtown for dinner with a friend, followed by Samantha Bee at the Kennedy Center. Cool. I wouldn't call it relaxing, but it was actually fun. We got home around 10.

Going feral

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Biked the kid to school yesterday mostly uneventfully, although there was a scare and sudden stop due to a car making a u-turn in an intersection.

Work was OK. Could have been better. Got the essentials done (one meeting, plus the notes to it, and some follow-ups on old tasks). In World of Warcraft, did some dungeons on my main and leveling and profession work on multiple alts. I officially got that warlock over the hump to 75 skill points - not "done", but unlocked everything I need/want to unlock. 

Had lunch around 1:30 and cleaned the kitchen around 4. Went to the store for some essentials after that and walked several extra blocks on the way home to get something approximating exercise. 

Picked the kid and T. up at the usual time. Dinner was pasta and broccoli. It was OK. Easy enough, certainly.

Solitude isn't good for me

The title is in reference to how/why I ate lunch and cleaned up so late. I was lazy or procrastinating in other ways as well. I haven't done yoga in the morning all week. I'd explain not doing it in the morning because I've been trying to put in honest 9-hour days, and had to start on time or earlier than usual due to all the various errands I've been running. I have no explanation for not doing it in the middle of the day in between workday stuff when I can be sure it wouldn't be a problem. I also haven't been doing my PT. Toe stretching at random, sure, but none of the stuff that requires thought or tools.

The proximate cause for yesterday's procrastination was playing Warcraft, but despite minor things like a new challenge the game hasn't changed much in recent weeks or even months, so why would my approach to it change? I suspect (in addition to possibly depression or fatigue; I still haven't properly relaxed after how tiring the vacation was) it's because I'm still getting used to having the house to myself 4 days a week, now that T. works outside the home. I need either more self-discipline, or a rigid routine that excludes Warcraft, or something, or I'll get pretty gross. 

I wrote a lot of that yesterday, but reviewing it, I think I should give myself a break about getting lazy once my wife isn't around, and think harder about depression or totally rational fatigue. I've been saying "I had fun on my vacation, and now that it's over, I'm looking forward to relaxation", since before it was over like it was a joke, but it's true. There was very little relaxing about it except for finishing a novel. It was The Doors of Eden, by the way. I found it lying around the house unsure of where it came from, started it around the flight out, read it during downtime over there, and finished it on the flight back. I liked it. I wish there was a sequel. Good world-building, literally, and also interesting characters. 

That's not nothing, but I killed myself on my feet and dealt with the in-laws nonstop, who I get along with OK but it's still a pain. And since we've been back, the kid had a Scout meeting Sunday, two guitar lessons instead of one plus the usual swim and the guitar lesson, plus behavior issues, plus my work which has been busier than usual due to catching up. It doesn't let up, either, because we have plans tonight and the next two days as well! 

Of course I've been coping badly when I'm trying to deal with all this shit! Although maybe our plans Saturday and Sunday actually will be relaxing. I fucking hope so.

I didn't bike, the kid did

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Yesterday I drove the kid to school because there was another passenger, another kid on our block at the same school whose mother would normally drive us but was having car trouble. Traffic was bad. Talk turned to biking. Months ago I mentioned our bike accident in casual conversation to the mother and I think it might have scared her off biking. I'm not sure our enthusiastic stories to the daughter made it better or worse.

Work was fine. Two meetings in the morning, both of which required some talking by me but just a little. Yay for delegation. In one meeting I learned something about how the engineers on our contract work that I wish I had learned years ago, which I obviously have mixed feelings about. I could have got more done overall but I got the essentials, like some of the follow-ups on stuff from during or before the vacation. 

A little after 3 I logged off to get the kid to the first of two errands, a bike lesson. I was nervous because I was so late for the last attempt, but this time we were exactly on time. Woo hoo. During the lesson I sent two personal (i.e. not work) emails following up on stuff with/from T., and listened in on a work meeting. I don't think I was closely involved enough to bill for the time but the meeting was high-stress for our team so I didn't want to miss it entirely. I wish I had thought to take pictures or a video because she was basically biking by the end of it. Cool.

After that, the next item on the agenda was a makeup guitar lesson for the one we missed over vacation. When the kid found out she threw a fit. Guitar is her least favorite extracurricular and she showed it. I had to bribe and cajole her every step of the way. Either we should stop making her do guitar, or we should stop putting up with this brattiness, or both. We got there 15 minutes late but I don't feel too bad about that because the main reason was the bike lesson, and I'm glad we prioritized that.

Dinner was tacos. Simple but almost if not completely new to us. Figuring out what toppings to get was a hassle.

All in all, a tiring day. 

Not exactly lonely

In the evening I had a bit of a heart-to-heart with T. A few days ago she asked me offhandedly if I was lonely. I said I had to think about it because so much today is different from pre-covid, for many reasons. After thinking about it I'm not lonely. My biggest problem with my social life is how much of it revolves around the kid. T. seems to enjoy chatting with other parents while supervising kids more than I do. Not sure if there's anything to do about it other than wait for her to age out of this stage (other than ask T. to do more without me, but that would be dickish), but we'll try to think of something.

A tiny bit of insanity is fun

Wordle 676 5/6

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Yesterday was busy but there's not much to say about it. Biked the kid to school on schedule. Had two meetings at work, both busy and productive. One was our team meeting so it involved dealing with some almost-arguments we had put off while our supervisor was gone, so it was kind of stressful because of personality conflicts involving this guy, but everyone was professional and diplomatic in the moment. I sent out a monthly report, which included organizing things a bit. I need to get to a few more follow-ups from the vacation or earlier soon.

At 5 T. walked home and we went to get the kid to swim class. We were a little late, but so was the teacher so it didn't matter. I went for a walk during most of the class. Better exercise than nothing.

Dinner was a stir-fry, including some leftovers and a new vegetable mix from Costco. T. and the kid didn't appreciate the mushrooms in the kit but I think it came out OK for something so easy, and appreciated the variety. It's hard to find something to do on swim nights. 

Maybe insanity is overstating it but spontaneity is fun

The title is in reference to events in Warcraft. In the regular weekly reset, the game introduced a bug, where a crafter needs to have all the materials for an item to craft it, where before they weren't needed if the buyer supplied them. This is a pain, especially in the case of Concentrated Primal Infusions, which requires doing 10 high-level dungeons to get. I had two-tenths or three-tenths of one just because, considered getting another for personal use, but didn't bother because the next patch was so close. 

But I got several people interested in items I could craft and willing to pay good sums for them, and just getting reagents for anything was a pain, and getting this last reagent was a much bigger pain but would also have a benefit to my character as well, so I got started on it. Did two dungeons yesterday, where normally I might only do one for the week and not this early, and they went well and were fun. I think I'm going for that infusion of my own after all, even though the crafting orders people had submitted have expired. 

Dungeons have been my favorite part of the game for a while and if they hadn't gone well I'd feel differently, but still, this is a reversal of my attitude about my main hobby in recent weeks. Just a reminder that challenges and spontaneity are fun.

Back to work and PT

Wordle 675 6/6

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That was close. A streak continues.

Biking the kid to school had lots of little annoyances, probably mostly related to the return from the vacation. 

At work I had 79 emails to clean out, which doesn't actually sound too bad for a week's vacation. No urgent action items or problems waiting for me. Three meetings I attended but I didn't have to do anything in any of them.

I had physical therapy in the afternoon. It was tough. The therapist seems to be putting more emphasis on my good foot than I have been. Need to get better about doing my PT, probably on both sides. I biked there, on my own bike rather than the ebike, so I actually got exercise yesterday.

Afterwards, T. picked the kid up and got her to guitar practice while I worked a couple more hours. Despite the outings I could call it a 9-hour day more or less honestly. I hope to do the same thing most days this week to reduce PTO needed for the vacation a bit.

Dinner was stuffed peppers. Good but time-consuming. 

At some point I want to record some thoughts from the week in more detail, I kept exhaustive notes on the two days at the park and had some more ruminations about family relations and California life, but this morning is too busy. Maybe tomorrow morning, maybe next week...

Relaxing despite laundry, shopping, and Scouts

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Yesterday I got up around the usual time, as horrifying as it sounds under the circumstances. I got the kid up after 8 to start getting her back on the usual schedule. Breakfast was simple, eggs and toast, since we were out of a lot of things. 

We did a load of laundry, then went to Costco for some of what we needed. (I didn't want to let T. go alone because of her shopping habits, e.g. junk food. She wound up going in without me anyway because the gas station line was so long. But, hah! I found her before she got anything on the list because she was so busy getting gardening supplies!) After that, home for lunch, leftover pizza, and more laundry. Then I took the kid to a Cub Scouts meeting. We biked. It required less involvement by me than most. Can't complain.

After that, I took her by another grocery store on the way home, for all the stuff we wouldn't want to get at Costco. Then home. The kid helped her mother garden for a bit and then got to play with her friend from across the street.

Dinner was chicken and broccoli. Not my finest work but edible. 

What I didn't do: everything else. I didn't deliberately exercise, biking on an ebike doesn't count, although I just barely hit my phone's step goal by running the various errands. I didn't do my physical therapy and I was also bad about it over the past week. I figured I was getting in enough activity otherwise, but maybe that should have made it a higher priority, not lower. And I played the usual Warcraft for a Sunday, but nothing too exciting went on.

Car museum and flying home

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Yesterday morning a car museum near the hotel was having a fundraiser involving coffee and donuts. T. and her parents were happy to call that breakfast, but the kid asked to go to the IHOP we had walked by, and I was happy enough to take her. 

After the museum we went straight to the airport. The flight home was uneventful. We took off around 1 PM, landed around 9 PM, had a hastily improvised pizza for dinner, and went to bed around midnight. Ugh. Monday will be fun.

Getting ready to go

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Yesterday morning we packed. T.'s godmother took us to the local Elks lodge, which she's a member of, for lunch. Fancier tham I expected. Then we drove to see these friends of T.'s parents, which happened to be in a park because their house was being renovated or something. 

Then to the hotel. It has a pool, which the kid appreciated despite the cold. Eventually we dragged her out and went to a Mexican fast food place for dinner. It was OK. 

Seals and the beach (but not both at once)

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Tough word.

Yesterday was more leisurely. Pancakes and bacon for breakfast, which I helped make. We didn't leave the house until after 11. Our first stop was to see the friend that T.'s parents were staying with. T.'s parents stayed at her place for some errand involving wine bottles while the friend drove the three of us around 

First we went to a marine mammal rescue center. Cool. Small and it was less of a show than the zoo back home, but still interesting, and more important in its own way.

Then we drove to the beach, had lunch, and got to see tide pools. We were joined by another friend of T.'s from college or something she doesn't get to see too often. I mostly poked anemones and played follow the leader with the kid while they all caught up.

Dinner was back with T.'s godmother, a chicken curry. It wasn't planned but I haven't been drinking much here. Wine last night, nothing at Disneyland, one glass of wine with lunch at California Adventure Land and one martini with dinner, a margarita at the Mexican place before that, and that's it. Unusual. 

Disneyland, day two

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Actual Disneyland. 

We had fun but it was tiring. Tuesday we wound up spending 13.5 hours in the park. I wanted to relax more yesterday and we did indeed get there later but we wound up spending roughly the same amount of time there. For me the highlight of yesterday was probably Splash Mountain but I'm not sure I'd admit it because I got soaked. Maybe Thunder Mountain is safe to admit to. The kid enjoyed those, did Space Mountain twice (I sat out the second time), and got a custom-built R2 model droid. 

I was grumpy by the end of the day, exhausted and footsore and blaming T. because I had suggested several off ramps before the route we were on to the end of the day that went ignored, but in the end we all made it back without any injuries or tantrums and slept long enough last night, so I don't feel too bad about it. 

Disneyland, day one

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It was technically California Adventure Land we spent the day at, but I wasn't aware of the distinction until we planned this trip.

Most rides were pretty mild, but there was still the Guardians of the Galaxy ride formerly known as the Tower of Terror, and a rollercoaster with a proper loop-de-loop, so I can't complain. The kid enjoyed them both. Maybe I'll fill in more details later, I kept notes (crazy, right?).

La Brea

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The big event yesterday was going to the La Brea Tar Pit Museum and park. (The kid noticed that the name means "the the tar tar pit", which is the soet of thing I'd do.) It was cool. We could poke spontaneous tar wells with sticks, which was closer to nature than I expected to be in downtown LA. 

After that, a late lunch with friends who live in the area at the Farmer's Market, which is misnamed. 

And that was the day, because getting to T's aunt's house, 30 miles, took an hour and a half. LA traffic is infamous. 

Dinner was at a Mexican restaurant for the six of us. It was good.

Brunch and iftar

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Yesterday the kid and I got up around 6:30. Early for her but due to jet lag it probably wasn't enough. We had arguments over getting her iPad and other devices and bothering her mother and I felt mysteriously sick. Headache and nausea. Didn't throw up but wouldn't have been surprised if I had. I would have assumed it was a hangover but had zero alcohol the day before. (Thid makes me reconsider some events I thought were hangovers!)

Anyway, the morning was relaxing otherwise. Around noon T.'s godmother's children and grandchildren came over to visit. The grandchildren were new to our kid, so that was fun.

In the afternoon I walked the kid ti the playground again. For dinner we went to an iftar event one of T.'s godparents children was invited to for his position in local government. Note to self, I want to fill in details on this later. Memory lane. Dinner didn't start until after sunset and there were speakers after, so it kept us out late. We're definitely on local time now.

Going to LA

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Got up at 5:30 yesterday. The Lyft picked us up at 6. Got to the airport at 7. Had Potbelly sandwiches for breakfast before the flight at 8:40.

It was fine. T.'s parents picked us up when we landed and drove us to her godmother's house I guess is how to describe the relationship. Relaxed other than taking the kid to a local park. 

Was in bed by 8. Lack of sleep in an objective sense plus jet lag is rough. 

Work, packing, forgetfulness, and stress

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Started the day with yoga and biked the kid to school uneventfully. Yay.

Every other Friday is busy because of a biweekly report we're responsible for, and yesterday was that Friday. In addition, an important document was due yesterday, and a meeting scheduled for Thursday afternoon was pushed back to Friday morning. It mainly fell to S., my teammate, but I had to help out when she had technical difficulties. In addition, I finished my draft of the document I mentioned yesterday. Good for me. In the end it was simple and straightforward once I finally got around to it, it just took time, but that was in short supply when I actually needed it. 

Around 2 I was thinking to myself that the day was going well, despite expectations. I didn't have the chance to enjoy it by playing Warcraft - I got in about half an hour of that during the day, but far less than usual. Instead I got to packing for the trip. I got as much of my stuff and the kid's straightened out as possible.

Around 4 I dealt with some last-minute stuff at work and logged off. Then I went to a happy hour for some parents from the kid's school. Another had considerately got mine there and she watched a movie while talking with friends. I planned to get her straight to gymnastics after that while T. attended a meeting online, but while there I realized that I had forgotten a change of clothes for her. She had worn a dress to school - can't do gymnastics like that. Several frantic calls later to T. and friends, and I stopped at home very briefly to get her a change of clothes. I got her to gymnastics less than 10 minutes late and tried not to take it out on her, despite how difficult it was to tear her away from the movie. 

I tried to relax during gymnastics after running a few errands. Not sure how well I succeeded. Dinner was pizza and wings.

I did my physical therapy at the last minute before getting ready for bed. I rushed but technically did absolutely all of it. Good for fucking me.

Emotional labor

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Made a mistake with my third guess.

Did the yoga first thing yesterday morning. Biking the kid to school was uneventful. I don't like T.'s bike - aside from any psychological issues, the motor makes biking so easy that I don't get any exercise, and the bike is so heavy that everything else is harder - but it'll work as the main mode of transport for the kid in the mornings. And maybe afternoons too, on the two days a week we don't have anything going on? We'll see. Didn't do it by bike before. 

Work was OK. The usual Thursday morning meeting I took notes at went well. We had a meeting with a team about their documentation later in the morning but they cancelled, and a meeting later in the day was rescheduled for today, so I had more free time than expected.

I spent most of it in Warcraft, playing open world content aimlessly. That malaise has returned. I've got that warlock's profession to the point where it would take great expense or luck to make incremental progress. As for competitive content, it doesn't matter. The next patch comes out in two and a half weeks and I'll be on vacation for one of them. I might do a dungeon or two before then for pure fun but that's it, and I didn't feel up for that yesterday, but I spent hours flying around anyway. I'm in the habit of paying for the game on a six-month payment plan, it pays for itself if I play 10-11 months out of the year, but if I were on a shorter plan this would be a good time to take a break. (Now that I write it out, this wasn't the only lull in the last year and probably won't be the only one in the next. Maybe I should go on a shorter payment plan and take breaks!)

I did get some productive stuff done despite that. I got started on a new SOP task I got last week. Getting started on it is disappointing, I had wanted to be done before my vacation, but (a) that's still possible and (b) there's no hard deadline. As for personal errands I returned a book to the library, went to the drugstore for shaving razors, picked up the dry cleaning, and did two loads of laundry. Or rather, one and a half, because T. had to take care of the last one while I got the kid.

She was sullen and kind of rude. I asked if anything was wrong. She said no. I said in that place can you please work on being more polite because this attitude isn't appreciated. She didn't say anything at the time, but a few minutes later asked about therapy for anger issues. She's aware of the concept from a friend or two of hers. I was surprised; despite recent moodiness, I had thought she was generally handling things in age-appropriate ways. I tried to be sympathetic, open-minded, and supportive.

Her emotional openness and my supportiveness were both immediately tested when we got home and T. told her to practice her guitar (because she hasn't since her lesson and won't be able to while we're gone!) and shower (because she didn't the day before and probably won't tomorrow!), both of which she generally dislikes. I talked her into doing a little "art therapy" before the guitar, with the promise of some time to text her friends between the guitar before the shower, she wound up doing some drawing during the guitar practice as well. And the shower was also delayed until after dinner, so she appreciated that. But even so, it was all a trial.

Dinner was pork chops and asparagus. I did my physical therapy after putting the kid to bed. I did all of it except the stair lifts and cold compress rolling. Close enough.

I didn't want to bike to the comic book store. WHAAA???

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Yoga first thing yesterday morning. 

Traffic is always bad and recently there was an accident near the school involving a teacher, so yesterday morning when I was getting ready to drive the kid to school, I remarked that we'd start biking again soon. She immediately threw a tantrum and wanted to know why I wasn't biking her in right now. Well, the immediate reason was it would take time to get T.'s electric bike ready and we were now at the last minute to go to school, but this caught me off-guard because I thought she preferred driving. What the hell? In hindsight, she prefers driving when it's cold, and prefers being a passenger to my talk of her learning to bike herself, but I'm not too surprised she was willing to bike in some sense. The tantrum was annoying, though.

T. agreed with me that it was a good idea to try out her bike, but honestly, I was reluctant. It would mean admitting I was wrong. I was opposed to her getting it until she made it clear that it would be her money, and even so it's a bulky thing to take up space in the pantry, and I think it's silly how little she uses it, so I've been unsupportive. Riding it forces me to admit it was a good idea to get. At some point I had hoped the kid could go straight from being a passenger to biking herself. That was wrong and maybe was crazy to begin with. 

So anyways, work wasn't too busy (one meeting, productive, minor follow-ups on it and the meeting the day before), so I spent most of my day procrastinating on biking. In addition to the usual, namely Warcraft until I got a headache, I also:

• Cleaned the kitchen earlier than usual.
• Rotated my winter and summer wardrobes. Didn't want to bike across down in long pants in 80-degree weather, of course, and didn't want to get just one pair of shorts out. 
• Started a giveaway pile with a few long-sleeved sweatshirts I never wear that are kind of ratty.
  
• Put away the sleeping bag and inflatable mattress that had been spread out on the floor of the guest bedroom since the guests left. 

I couldn't put it off any longer a little after 3 and left. My destination was the comic book shop, to get some short boxes to make it easier to sell almost exactly half of my current collection. Getting them secured on the cargo bike was the only hard part, but I had bungee cords. While there I heard from T. She had got off work early and was walking to the kid's school, so I had to admit where I was. I met them there. After some negotiating, we put the kid on the bike carrying the boxes and T. took the bus home. We got back only a couple minutes before her. 

Dinner was chicken and green beans, with a lot more onions in the green beans than usual to use them up. I did the bare essentials of physical therapy, the toe yoga, after dinner, but I really should be more thorough and do the other parts as well. Oh well, I'll be spending a lot of my time on my feet on vacation...

Moderately good on all fronts

Wordle 662 5/6

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Started yesterday with yoga. Exercise 1, day 4 of 7 recommended. It's going fine but I doubt I'll be able to keep it up on vacation so there will be a break before exercise 2.

Work was OK. Two meetings, neither one too bad. Got a document finalized and in front of the reviewer. 

In Warcraft, in addition to the post-weekly-reset chores, I changed my warlock's professions and did the early-to-mid-level stuff in the new profession (or rather, old profession I returned to). Not important, but somewhat fun and novel in and of itself, and a few days ago I said that I wasn't enjoying the game partly because of various things wrong with alts; well, this fixes one of them.

Around 4 I ran some errands by bike: to Target to pick up those new headphones and to a nearby grocery store for dinners for the next two days. I wish I left earlier than I did, partly out of a general principled aversion to procrastination, partly so I would have had more time to look for "nice to have" stuff rather than the bare necessities, and partly because of random problems (the back gate stuck again! 3 trash cans were in the way! Target couldn't get the theft prevention device off the headphones without special tools!), but even so I made it back with 10-20 minutes to spare before the last minute to get the kid. 

Normally T. would have gone to swim class with us, but she had late meetings, so I took the kid. While she was in there I walked to a store a couple blocks away, more to have something to do than to get anything I really needed although I did find a few things. 

T. made dinner: fried rice and kung pao chicken from Trader Joe's freezer bags. I did the toe stretches, the bare necessities of the physical therapy, after dinner. I also tried to figure out the new headphones, but couldn't get them working well enough to want to sleep in them.

Good reasons to be tired

Wordle 661 5/6

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Got out of bed around 5:30 yesterday - like I said, didn't sleep well. Started the day with yoga - exercise 1, day 3. At this point it's just stretching and breathing exercises. Not a panacea but there are worse ways to start the day. 

Had breakfast and got the kid to school uneventfully and had the house to myself - T. would normally be home Mondays, at her new job, but had some in-person meetings. Generally low on motivation and organization yesterday while at home, as is typical for days when I'm short on sleep. Low executive function. For what it's worth I did take the next steps on trying to sell my comic book collection: verify that I could buy the right size of boxes at the nearest store, and respond by email to the two people who expressed interest.

I left on time for the physical therapy this time. That went well enough. More strenuous than usual. Still not intense aerobic exercise, but more than I'd expect just from doing the stretching exercises around the house. After that, a quick stop at the phone store for a new charger because mine has been finicky lately, although I haven't opened the package because I'm not sure the old one wasn't just dusty. I wanted a new case but they didn't have my model. After that, home for some quick, minor chores around the house and one work email, and then out again to get the kid. The guitar lesson went well. T. met us around when it ended and we drove home.

At home I had one chore to do on my computer, paying some kid-related bills, and I also ordered a noise-cancelling headset from Target for pickup today. Let's see if this helps the sleep issues. After that I took the kid to the park. We wound up spending over an hour there, playing with friends and strangers. I took a couple laps of the park to stay active, but with my errands earlier I had already reached my step goal for the day. Good for me. 

Dinner was pasta and leftover salad. Once again, easy and fast. I feel like I should challenge myself more, but why mess with something that works well? And this week is a bad time for it considering that we're traveling soon.

Slept better last night than the night before. Maybe the secret is just to exhaust myself? I hope not, for many reasons.

Easter

Wordle 660 4/6

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Yesterday I wanted to start the day with exercise, but didn't feel up for a walk after the day before, so I got out that yoga book. Exercise 1, day 2, if it even counts with such a long gap in between.

Pancakes and bacon for breakfast, despite some anxiety about it - haven't we had enough sugar lately? Shortly after that we went to meet some friends at a park for a casual Easter gathering. Grownups hid eggs, kids looked for them and climbed trees and generally played, everyone snacked a bit.

After that we went home and just relaxed for about an hour. Then a short walk to a library to return an overdue book. While out there, a neighborhood parent texted and asked if the kid was interested in a playdate. Of course! So they spent about an hour in the park near the house playing, and incidentally we caught up with the parents. We also bumped into a former neighbor who had moved overseas and was back visiting, so that was nice. I also called my parents just to say hi. 

Dinner was grilled lamb chops, roasted cauliflower, and mashed potatoes. More elaborate than usual, but T. asked for it for Easter.

Over the past few days I've continued to work on my comic book collection. Yesterday after several passes downgrading things from the "probably keep" category, I got up to a roughly 50/50 split between books to keep and books to sell/give away. Getting the number to give away any higher would require tough choices. Unfortunately I have five long boxes and 50/50 doesn't divide evenly. At this point I'm planning to buy a short box or two and sell 2.5 long boxes but let's see how well that works.

Didn't sleep well last night. Looking into noise-cancelling headphones or something like that.

A quick trip to the zoo

Wordle 659 3/6

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Yesterday breakfast was simple: bacon to go with the boiled eggs that had been painted the night before. We left relatively early, a little after 9, to go to the zoo. Took the bus. It was a fun visit, but rushed because their flight was later that day. We missed the American Trail, the bird house, the cheetahs, and a few other things. 

Left by 1 by metro, got home exactly at 2, did the last-minute packing, and I drove to Dulles. 

T. drove back because I was tired, both from all the walking and in general. We stopped twice for shopping, both more Easter stuff (T. is insane) and some actual groceries. After we got home we did a little laundry. I was exhausted after walking around the whole zoo and back. Dinner was beef tips and a cucumber salad. Easy and popular.

Change of plans: museum

Wordle 658 4/6

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Yesterday I worked about an hour in the morning on those trainings but mostly took the day off. T. worked a full half-day. Her working and not me is very unusual. While she worked, my sister and I took turns supervising the kids and getting ready, outside when possible. When I was supervising them, I walked in loops around the park.

Around noon we all got in the car and drove to the Air & Space Museum. There was some confusion and delays about getting started (walk in, need to use the bathroom, there's a line, after that the kids were hungry but the on-site food option had a very long line around noon, so T. went back to the car to get the snacks, and then we had to find an authorized snack area...) but once we did, it was fun. It was new to me and my sister and nephew, but not T. and my kid. The kids' attention span was reached around 2 PM. Then we had a late lunch there. The line was shorter but still slow, and the kids don't eat much, so we didn't get the food until after 3, so it was basically dinner. 

Then home, and Easter-related stuff. We nibbled on the cookies from the night before while making candy eggs from a kit T. got and coloring actual eggs. While my sister and I put the kids to bed, T. hid Easter eggs for them to find this morning.

A normal workday plus family

Wordle 657 4/6

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I dropped the kid off at school with my nephew for company. While we were gone T. walked to work. Shortly after I got back, I had a meeting, and my sister took her son to the Museum of Natural History to see the dinosaurs and stuff. While they were gone I had a normal workday, or more relaxing than normal. My morning meeting was busier than usual, but both meetings scheduled for the afternoon were cancelled. I finished a draft of one document.

My sister and her kid got back around 2 or so, tired from walking around the museum (and about halfway home). A little after 3, the three of us went to get my kid from school. I've never actually picked her up at pickup time. Traffic was as bad as I would have guessed. 

We took her away from a Girl Scout event, which I hadn't known about. We probably wouldn't have done anything differently if I had known, but at least we would have planned it better and let them know about it in advance. Then we drove to REI. (We'd normally walk there if coming from home, but it's on the way from the kid's school.) My sister wanted to look for a raincoat for her son, among other things, and while we were there I wanted to look for a new medium-weight winter coat since my leather jacket is falling apart. When we didn't actually need the kids' opinion on clothes, they played hide and seek and spied on us. Oh well. Didn't cause trouble as far as we know.

T. walked from there and joined us. By the time we finished shopping it was around 5, so we went home to drop stuff off and left soon after for dinner. We went to a taco/quesadilla place near H Street. We liked it but it was too weird for the kids. Glad we didn't try to take them anywhere fancier than these two places for dinner. It rained while we were there and we got soaked on the way home. 

After getting home the kids decorated Easter cookies from a kit T. had bought. In the evening T. tried to reserve parking at the zoo for a trip today but was surprised that not only was that not possible, going to the zoo would require an entry pass, which we had never heard of before. Luckily we could get one for tomorrow, but this requires changing some plans.

Bedtime was better than the night before, but still not great. They entertain each other too much. I did my physical therapy - most of it, the parts I could do without props - at literally the last minute before bed.

Hosting family

Wordle 656 5/6

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Yesterday we had the house cleaned. We do this every few months. She arrived right around when I took the kid to school. T. got her started and I came back and worked like usual at first. She started cleaning upstairs, and when she finished, I set up a folding table upstairs for me and my computer and she cleaned downstairs. It was fine. Work wasn't too busy - discussions with my coworkers, but little to actually do - and I've handled worse disruptions even when it was. 

Meanwhile I was texting with my sister, who was traveling. Around 1 she let me know that she was off the plane and getting on the metro, so around 1:30 I drove to Eastern Market, returned some library books, did a little shopping, and picked her and her 5-year-old son up. Cool. The big city. My sister has been here at least three times before, and in other cities often, but this is my nephew's first time in a city bigger than Burlington. I had fun playing tour guide as we just drove by the Capitol and Union Station on the way to get the kid.

In the afternoon, we had no plans besides relaxation, but the kids didn't make it easy. Around our house, nothing was more interesting than spying as my sister and I chatted. At the local park, the kids quickly lost interest in the playground. There were bigger kids there and it's hard to share. I suggested going to the JO Wilson playground, a short walk away, and Swampoodle, a little farther, near the restaurant we were planning to have dinner. Almost to the first park my nephew fell and skinned his knee. There was a lot of screaming and blood. I jogged home for the first aid kit. By the time I got back the tears had stopped but they started again when we used an antiseptic wipe on him. We were surprised to find that the first park I had suggested was closed. In hindsight I should have realized it might be reserved for kids at the connected school during and shortly after school hours, but we rarely or never try to go there on schooldays. 

Swampoodle was a hit, though. T. met us there. Eventually we dragged the kids out of there and to the Indian restaurant. Indian food was also a hit.

Bedtime was hard. I think the kids kept each other up, and were just too excited to sleep.

Comic sorting and afternoon errands

Wordle 655 5/6

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I dropped the kid off at school yesterday like usual, and then dropped T. off, not at work but at a doctor's office for a blood test, only a block off the usual route.

Work: three meetings, but all were easy. In between I finally, completely finished inventorying my comics. A few statistics: 

• 1,325 total, publication dates ranging from 1980 to 2022, although it's hard to be exact because I didn't track that exactly. Maybe I need to redo all this! Ugh. 
• 153 issue 1s. Also five issue 0s, one issue -1, and a few decimals.
• 14 different publishers, counting Marvel and Marvel France as one. 930 issues are Marvel, 214 DC, most of the rest are Image.
  

I also worked on categorizing them by how much I want to keep them. Still have a couple hundred to go.

Around 3:30, T. and I both logged off work for a few errands. First to a car wash because the car was dirty in general and we're expecting company. Then to Costco for Easter candy for the kids. I'm ambivalent about this. Like we don't have enough junk food in the house. Oh well, they'll have fun. Then to school to pick up the kid. She made it difficult. Apparently playtime had just barely started and I was cruelly taking her away from it. 

From there to the swim lesson. While T. watched, I went for a short walk. Not a lot, just to get close to my step goal for the day. 

Dinner was fried rice. Afterwards I put away my comics, including two boxes in the shelf over the closet, which I'm never doing again. (Literally! I'll bring them down one more time to sort as needed for sale, get rid of at least two boxes and hopefully three before we renovate the house if I have to recycle them, and from now on store them somewhere easier to reach.)

Malaise, procrastination, and stress

Wordle 654 4/6

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Yesterday work was OK. I got the last inputs I needed to finish that old document that came back, and said I'd have my work on it done the same day. Unfortunately I both procrastinated (Warcraft when I shouldn't have been, more on that in a minute) and underestimated how much time it would take me to finish. 

I worked on that until the last minute to get a bus to physical therapy, but it turned out I should have left 5 minutes earlier because the next bus would have got me there late, so I walked. Sometimes I think it's crazy to walk that far, but when the weather is nice, fitness is the goal, and I have no other source of exercise in a day, why not? Physical therapy went well enough. In addition to the exercise we talked about the future. Next week I'll have a running examination or something like that to get data about when I can return to normal, and what that means.

After that, I went to the barber's for a haircut. It's short now. Then a quick trip to the grocery store, and then home, just barely in time to go with T. to the kid's guitar lesson. After that, the kid played with friends at the school playground for a while, and then we went home. I tried to finish the SOP but realized I wouldn't be able to in a reasonable amount of time, so I took her to the park while T. attended a parent's meeting. (I kind of wish I hadn't gone to the guitar lesson! I could have finished the SOP!)

Dinner was pollo asado (I think it's meant to be cut into strips and served in fajitas or something like that, but we enjoyed it as an entree itself) and green beans. Easy and good enough. Afterwards we called my sister for some planning for her visit. Putting the kid to bed went well enough. During the usual evening TV we tried to plan a trip for our wedding anniversary in September, but got frustrated because a deal T. had seen had gone up in price a lot without warning. I can't be sure but I suspect it was just barely not false advertising. After all this I was so tired I fell asleep a bit on the couch before the episode was over.

The reason for the title

I'm not sure if it's depression in a biochemical sense, an age-appropriate midlife crisis, or a totally rational reaction to the status of these specific things, but my hobbies are making me feel nihilistic these days.

• Warcraft: I've done basically everything on my main that matters that I enjoy, at least until more content comes out next month. There's always more stuff I could be doing on that character but it doesn't matter or I don't enjoy it. I have lots of alts with the potential for fun and rewarding content but they all have something that keeps me from investing too much in them - wrong server, wrong professions, too redundant with other characters I have. I could stay on top of the "chores" in one or two hours on Tuesday and twiddle my thumbs for the remaining ~19 hours I usually play per week. 
• Comic books: I own exactly 1,319 comics, barring counting errors. I have got about four and a half boxes in a spreadsheet and still have about half a box to go.
  
• That includes the complete runs of four series I enjoyed (180 issues plus some tie-ins) and about 5 collector's items that are already worth a decent amount of money or might be someday. It also includes some longish runs (let's say from 4-6 series, totaling about 200 issues) of other series I like but missing big fractions of them. The rest?
  
• A random assortment of stuff I thought was good when I bought it but my tastes have changed, stuff I thought was an investment but was wrong about or should have known better to begin with, and some completely random junk. For every J. Michael Straczynski or Jim Starlin, there's a Chuck Austen or Rob Liefeld. 
• I don't exactly regret the time or money I spent on this. There are worse hobbies for an introverted boy and young man, and the quality of comics aren't much worse than Sturgeon's Law would indicate. But I do regret not sorting it and trying to sell the dreck years ago. Because, barring a miracle today, I'm going to have to put these boxes back in storage this afternoon and then get most if not all of them out again when I find a buyer. (I don't plan to sell them all, but chances are slim that I'll be able to get them all sorted perfectly today, because other stuff is going on.)

Yoga, a puppy, and shopping

Wordle 653 2/6

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Damn I'm good.

Yesterday morning I considered exercise options and cracked open that yoga book I bought last week. Not sure what to think; of course, it was only the first lesson.

• My first thought was that it was hard literally finding the space. Our house is cluttered. In fairness it's a little worse now than usual due to the cleaning process and T.'s job; she has stuff in the living room that would normally be at her desk. But even so, it's a small space with a lot of things in it. Normally the back bedroom is a good place for it, but (a) right now it has my comic books in it and (b) it's right next to the kid's room so I wouldn't want to do anything there before she's up. This is why I want to declutter!
  
• It was too easy; remembering the instructions in between doing them was harder than actually doing them, in general. Of course, it's day one of lesson one, I don't want to read too much into that, but still. 
• Near the end, but definitely before it was completely over, I heard the kid moving, which made it hard to relax. I'm not trying to keep this a secret, but she would be a distraction, especially since the living room is the TV room. Part of the reason morning exercise would be problematic.

Anyways, we had the usual Sunday brunch of eggs and home fries, and left fairly soon after to drive to Reston to see friends. It had been a few months, and they had a puppy the kid would love to play with. We hoped they would tire each other out.

After that, lunch at an upscale taco chain I found annoyingly high-tech (pushy social media presence, and the hand dryer in the bathroom was in the sink???), followed by shopping. T. was still interested in more work-appropriate attire, and the kid wanted sandals. They both got what they wanted without that much stress and I actually enjoyed some parts of it myself, so can't complain. I'm not sure how much detail about parenting I need to go into here. Like, the kid mostly resists the end of a playdate and the same happened with the puppy; is it worth mentioning each time? Or the usual food issues.

Anyways, by the time we got home it was dinnertime. Pork chops and broccoli.

I finished inventorying the fourth box of comics yesterday, in between everything else. I have five boxes, but the fifth is stuff I already knew I wanted to keep. Now I need to go through the list and figure out what I need or want to keep or not, and actually find a buyer.

Bedtime was hard for the kid. Not directly my problem because it was T.'s turn to put her down, but after T. finally came downstairs she wanted to watch an episode of a show we've been watching, and I might have appreciated going to bed earlier myself. Especially since I just don't sleep well in general.

Haircuts, birthday party, cleaning, and Warcraft

Wordle 652 3/6

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Yesterday we had those cinnamon rolls for breakfast. We wanted something fast and easy because the girls had haircuts scheduled for the midmorning. T.'s was uneventful; the kid and I played played games on our phone and read meanwhile. The kid's went well too, but she got something kind of fancy.

After that, home for lunch. About half an hour later, I took the kid to a friend's birthday party. Getting there was a pain. Her friend lives on Bolling Air Force Base and there was a problem with the guest list at the gates. The party itself went well considering that the kid only knew the birthday girl. I was glad to be there myself. The weather was beautiful and I hadn't been to BAFB in a long time - my old job had parties there now and then, but by now that has been seven years ago. They also redid the South Capitol St. bridge and I've seen it many times but haven't been over it since then, so I wanted to drive back over it. That too was a pain because I thought I could get out through Bolling's north entrance (the host even said I could!) but it was barricaded. When I finally got out there, the bridge was fine, but going home from Capitol St. S. was a pain. So there was a lot of driving. 

Meanwhile T. had been doing the laundry and cleaning the house more thoroughly than usual, since we have company coming. We helped a bit but I also took the kid and a kite to the park for a bit. The kid's friend across the street was also able to come over in the late afternoon.

Dinner was pasta and Brussels sprouts. Easy enough. I did most of the physical therapy while watching TV with T.

In a random pickup group in World of Warcraft, I got the final raid boss down. Yay. Pressure off. Goal achieved. I truly can relax and do other stuff if I want. Annoyingly, I never got the seventh boss, the second-to-last! Maybe I shouldn't worry about it, there's nothing time-limited about it. On the other hand, maybe it'll be easier to get into better groups now that I have the achievement...

Rough work day, productive personally

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As usual, dropped the kid off at school.

It was the biweekly report day at work. It didn't go well. Multiple reports late, some miscommunications about data, and our usual managers were out so we had to handle it ourselves. Ugh. Also, one of the documents we've been trying to get updated got increased management interest. I think it was productive and we have a good plan for it (at least, good plan for our team), but who knows. Also, someone reached out to me about something I had been putting off, which is always embarrassing.

Despite that, I felt OK. Maybe my mood is purely a chemical issue unrelated to how life is going. In the afternoon I went jogging (almost the usual route from eight or so months ago but not quite), so let's get that positive feedback loop going.

T. came home shortly after that and discussed a grocery list verbally. She asked for cinnamon rolls. I did a little comic inventorying before we both went to get the kid from school to gymnastics. While she was in there I did the shopping and also got Chinese/Korean takeout for dinner. When we got home, we found that I had forgot the cinnamon rolls. Ugh. My memory is famously bad, but T. also suspected I had done it on purpose for health reasons. That stung a bit (wait a minute, what's wrong with shopping healthy?), so while she was reading to the kid, I did the math and decided I could drive to the store for the cinnamon rolls. On the way I got gas. Two pumps weren't working so I had to prepay. Leaving that I drove over a construction sign on the ground and had to check to make sure I hadn't done any damage. Parking was hard when I got home too. But getting the cinnamon rolls was uneventful...