Life’s a Beach

Posted on July 14, 2019 by A Dreamer

I swear, nothing makes it more apparent that I’ve turned into my parents than the annual trip to the beach.

While I love the ocean, actually sitting on the beach is pretty much last for all I am excited about. It’s all the fantastic food, followed by a ton of peace and quiet, the wildlife – AND HOLY SHIT A DEER JUST LITERALLY RAN THROUGH THE YARD AND THEN JUMPED IN THE CREEK AND TOOK A SWIM AND JUMPED OUT AND WENT ON ITS MERRY WAY!!! (No lie, it happened as I was sitting on the porch typing this.)

And then, sitting on the beach.

Also, in true channeling my parents fashion – I wake up long before my alarm. (I suspect this has more to do with crashing early after eating way too much than suddenly becoming a morning person, but here we are.)

Though we got off to a slightly rough start this year – two hours out from the beach and the rental agency calls and tells me the previous tenants flooded the house we were supposed to stay at – they got us another place, while it’s not what I would have picked, it works well enough.

I like not being in a rush. I like not being stressed. I like being able to just quietly exist. Things that just do not happen at home.

Eastern Willet(?) standing in creek bed

What I think is an Eastern Willet

Some liquid sunshine:

A small yellow flower in sandy soil

Just a pretty flower

Bowl of crab claws with a glass and bottle of wine in the background

Crab claws from Coastal Provisions – fried in butter, wine, garlic, Texas Pete, & Old Bay. Amazing!

Night Sounds:

A plate of shrimp & grits

Shrimp & grits from Coastal Provisions

A plate with chocolate mousse cake

Chocolate mousse cake from Coastal Provisions

View of a creek surrounded by trees

View from the porch

Talkative crows:

Pato tacos with queso fresco, pico de gallo and sour cream

Pato tacos from the Coastal Cantina

Virginian Pilot newspaper and iced coffee

Morning rituals

7/16 11:26 AM – Edited to fix some caption issues.
Tip Jar

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Sure, tanks are kinda cool, but…

Posted on July 3, 2019 by A Dreamer

Not really appropriate for a 4th of July event here in the US. Yes, other places do that, but they’re other places. And moving 2.5 million from the Park Service for this bullshit. Not like they’re constantly overflowing with funds.

On the whole, the event is going to be a shitshow between the tanks (yes, I know they’re not all really tanks) the fireworks being moved AND used as a bribe on tariffs, and this fucking VIP section for 45’s speech – which will no doubt quickly turn into a campaign speech, which raises a whole other set of issues.

All this while we’re torturing people on the border.

And 45 has decided that he’s going to try to override the Supreme Court to get his racist citizenship question on the census. (Don’t tell me he doesn’t want to try to share that info with ICE.)

The only saving grace is that the weather is not looking good tomorrow and I hope it rains fucking buckets and ruins his day.

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I know there are bigger things I should be thinking about…

Posted on January 6, 2019 by A Dreamer

But I am genuinely enjoying watching the GOP lose the collective shit over this freshman Congress.

You can tell they’re lashing out in fear. And they should be afraid. They’ve gotten away with enabling 45 an his hateful policies for two years too long.

Hopefully we can get this shutdown over and done with here soon – despite 45’s insistence that he wants it to go on for months or years until he gets his way…

The D’s need to remind the GOP that Congress is a co-equal branch and are supposed to be one of the checks against the Executive branch and they need to do their damn job. It’s government 101.

We can’t go on with a raving lunatic wannabe dictator in the Oval Office who is essentially locking people out of their jobs and livelihoods because of his dumbass wall, destroying the economy his harebrained policies, and making us look like idiots on the world stage.

Representative Talib is right – it’s past time to impeach the the motherfucker.

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Welp

Posted on January 3, 2019 by A Dreamer

If you’d told me at any time in my life I’d be getting tears eyed watching Congress…

Well, it did happen once before, when the ACA was passed.

And again today. The House of Representatives looks more like the people it’s actually representing than it has at any time in my life.

And all the little kids to boot?

Fucking Awesome.

Let’s get some shit done FOR THE PEOPLE for a change.

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So far, so good.

Posted on January 1, 2019 by A Dreamer

Granted, we’re only a day into the new year, but not terrible yet, despite 45 having another weird tantrum laden day. Looks like Elizabeth Warren is running in 2020, which is fine, I was just hoping for a little more time before the shitshow that will be the Democratic race.

Hit the butcher yesterday and we had crab cakes for dinner tonight and they were excellent.

Worked out. (Did not manage a first day hike, but maybe will do a first weekend hike or something.)

And here’s Lily:

Lily, a black and orange tortoiseshell cat, caught mid yawn

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And here comes 2019

Posted on December 31, 2018 by A Dreamer

While I am incredibly happy to see 2018 in the rear view mirror, I can’t help but be a bit hesitant in welcoming 2019 with open arms.

So much of 2018 was being incredibly angry at the current administration and all its assorted atrocities, and nothing I could do changed any of it.

We’re starting off in a government shutdown because of this administrations racist and stupid attitudes towards immigration, and to add insult to injury, 45 wants to make up for his utterly failed economic policies by freezing federal pay – after screwing these employees over with furloughs. (And government contractors, too, even more so.)

I am cautiously optimistic that the new and improved Congress might be able to do something quickly, but I’m also not holding my breath.

On a personal note, 2018 was pretty much all work. I did get out of town a couple times, which was definitely nice, but it seemed I just spent my evenings and weekends recovering from work the rest of the time. And with busy season right here, it looks like that will be the first two months of 2019 as well. But hey, I get to work remotely and that’s something. And I have a job, which given what this administration is trying to do too the economy, that’s definitely something.

So, I hold out hope that 2019 will be better than 2018, but I’m steeling myself for the possibility it could be worse.

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How did I forget this existed?

Posted on November 12, 2018 by A Dreamer

Habitica RPG

Seriously, this is the best to do app I’ve ever used, because it has repeating options, reminders, severity, it works across platforms – AND IT’S A GAME.

I’d been using it a while back and cannot for the life of me remember why I stopped using it, but last week a coworker reminded me that it existed and I downloaded it again and fired it up again. Shockingly, my character was dead, LOL.

Nuked my settings to start fresh and I have had the most freakishly productive weekend. Got stuff over to the UPS drop off, UNPACKED from my trip (that usually takes months) and have worked out 4 days in a row.

I cannot Do The Thing. But I *can* Do The Thing, click the ticky box and get the dopamine hit. I feel there are lab rats out there experiencing a lot of secondhand embarrassment for me. But, I’m getting things done.

I still wish I could figure out why I stopped using it – from my old lists, it was the last semester of grad school – nothing horribly traumatic that I can recall around then, maybe I switched phones and didn’t download it again, but regardless of why, I’m a little annoyed with myself for abandoning it in the first place.

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We shall not forget.

Posted on November 11, 2018 by A Dreamer

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
    Between the crosses, row on row,
  That mark our place; and in the sky
  The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
  Loved and were loved, and now we lie
      In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
  The torch; be yours to hold it high.
  If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
      In Flanders fields.

John McCrae, 1915

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I am old.

Posted on November 10, 2018 by A Dreamer

How do I know? I am far too excited about new household appliances.

Last month we replaced our 30 year old furnace. Tonight it’s going to go down to the 30’s and I’m very interested to see how well it does in this first snap of cold weather.

And next Saturday, we have a new washing machine arriving!! The old one still works, but leaks and the gasket or whatever that is degraded is of course the most expensive part of the whole thing and the repairman said we’d honestly just be better off replacing it – but that in the meantime, just doing small loads would work. So we have. Cannot wait to get a big giant load of laundry done all at once again. :-D

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I survived the conference!

Posted on November 9, 2018 by A Dreamer

And it did not kick my ass nearly as bad as it did last year. Seriously, at the end of it last year, I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to do it again. Ever. This year, I’m tired and my feet hurt, but bring on next year.

Can’t quite figure out what was different this year, but I am putting it down to more time for myself, and I think we may have started a little later in the morning this year. And I steeled myself for the worst going in, so that probably helped.

Also, had a great time with one of my coworkers who is about as introverted as I am. Nice to hang with someone who is as awesome in person as they are online at work. (Weird aspect of working remotely.). We introverted all over the place.

And he reminded me that Habitica RPG exists. I cannot remember why I stopped using it, but I found my account, remembered my password, and I am going to be getting some shit done around here.

And major props to my brother for picking me up from the airport. I think if I’d had to walk all the way to a car to drive home, I would have probably laid down and taken a nap halfway there.

And now, I have a long weekend.

ETA: Just checked my Fitbit, and I walked 35 miles. This may be why my feet hurt a bit.

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