Musings of a marginally sane feline-appreciating female.

You never really realize how much you depend on cable, internet, and cell service until the cable and internet are down and you have a whopping 2 bars of 4G service. (I do get 5G if I go to the driveway, which is something I guess?)

Storm came through at 5 last night, lasted all of 15 minutes, power wobbled but held, but cable and internet noped out. ETA on restoration was 9:15PM, then 1AM, and now we don’t have a restoration estimate at all.

Mind you, this is far better than having no power or air conditioning. But damn, when you use the television as background noise during the day – IT’S REALLY FREAKY QUIET IN HERE.

At least I have something on tap today so I’m not just sitting around being weirded out by the silence. My favorite local bakery is celebrating Swiss National Day, so I will be popping over there to see what that is all about. My brother says it’s gonna be cheese and knives, LOL. I just love any reason to go to that bakery.

I remembered the little emergency radio and I’ve got that on with the local news station on and seems that we really lucked out on this storm. County has several thousand without power, and I’m guessing that has to be impacting the cable restoration. At least the heat has broken and the crews have decent weather to work in. 77° and low humidity right now, not bad at all if you have to be working outside.

Well, I’m gonna go enjoy this weather and see all about Swiss National Day! You have an awesome day.

I’m pretty heat tolerant, but even for me, this is a bit much.

Got over to the farmers market for more “no heat required” foods and heard the best words ever from the pasta vendor: “The ravioli is made up and then frozen, you can keep them in the freezer for up to three months.”  I’d just been hoping they’d hold a few days til the heat breaks, so that was great news.

I’ve since had snack peppers for breakfast part 1 and now I’m debating part 2.  I am suddenly realizing that I got a little loaf of pumpkin bread and have no cream cheese for it.  I’d hoped to not leave the house again today – maybe that can wait until first thing tomorrow. (At least until I remember something else critical.)

What’s so maddening about the heat – beyond the fact that it’s a very clear sign that we’re killing the planet – it’s a summer weekend. We should be able to get out and enjoy it without fear of passing out from heat exhaustion.

Have a good day and keep cool.

It’s another hot one out there today. How hot? Well, despite having the day off, I really wished I’d gotten up earlier to run my errands, which I rarely say. And, I bought fruit – and not just for Old Fashioneds.

We’ve got pineapple, watermelon, and grapefruit, and I got some chili lime seasoning, cause I’ve heard good things about that on fruit. We’ll see!

The market also had the GOOD variety pack of the Outshine fruit popsicles – lemon, lime, and tangerine!

Sadly, they did not have the Jarritos grapefruit soda – tried that for the first time a week or so ago, total impulse purchase from a little display, and now I’m wondering if it was just a mis-order and they don’t really carry it. They were also out of the grapefruit agua fresca, too. Big bummer on the beverage front there.

I have a hair appointment this afternoon and as a rule I just don’t cook after that as it is, but especially not today – gonna either be cheese & charcuterie, or a big COLD sandwich from Jersey Mikes next to the hair salon. Or both. But no hot food today for sure.

And I’ve got another negative Covid test in the books, yay! Yep, I am still testing whenever I’m people-ing and then 5 days after, cause that shit is still out there. (And masking up regularly.) And what’s maddening is that the only vaguely reliable data we have out there is wastewater monitoring, but unless I’m reading our state’s page wrong – Fairfax County Water Authority doesn’t appear to be participating.

When we were down at the beach, I didn’t mask up while eating, cause, well, it doesn’t work well, but everywhere I ate inside was well ventilated and not wall-to-wall people, so there was some risk, but it wasn’t like I was going into a mosh pit. Everywhere else inside, I did mask up because many of the shops and whatnot are rather small and likely never had the cash to do a major ventilation upgrade, and if I was gonna get Covid and could choose where – I’d rather get it eating my weight in seafood than in a t-shirt shop.

I didn’t see another single person with a mask on down there. And I am sure there were some anti-public health assholes out there, but really – I put so much of this on Federal/State/Local governments just deciding that they didn’t want to deal with it anymore and when you stop testing and communicating with the public about it – well, they think it’s done.

Shit, I’d love to feel like it wasn’t totally irresponsible to go out and about without a mask. But we’re just not there yet – I so wish we were, but wishing doesn’t make it so.

You have a great day and stay safe out there on all fronts.

Yesterday completely got away from me. Did the coffee run, farmers market, and grocery store and before I knew it, it was 3PM and I needed a nap, then there was baseball all evening. Go Orioles and Padres!!

If you’d asked me at the start of the season, “Can the O’s be in first place?” I would have said yes, because I always think that, LOL. And if you’d asked, “With all this depth and talent, do you think the Padres will be running hot and cold?” I probably would have said yes to that too, cause bless ’em, they can’t get everyone in sync. But they both had great games yesterday and I hope the O’s can keep it going, and that maybe this series is a good turning point for my Padres.

Got this gorgeous bunch of zinnias at the farmers market to brighten up the living room. They’re so pretty, and I have a slew of seeds I got at the Elizabethan Gardens when we were down at the beach and next year, I’ll have my own! (For me, gardening is the triumph of hope over experience, LOL.)

Granted, growing my own zinnias is dependent on being able to grow anything and the way things are going with the climate…a growing season isn’t actually a given anymore. THIRTY some years of voting in favor of the environment and yet, here we are. I don’t know how much more I can reduce my carbon footprint, and anything I can do in a year still won’t offset what Exxon does in a day, but yeah, my gas powered car that I drive 3400 miles a year is the problem. So forgive me if I’m tiring of the “vote harder” messaging from the D’s – stop asking me for money and start actually fighting.

On a less apocalyptic note, the house is still not a disaster! But I do need to tend to some things to keep it that way, so time to fire up the tunes and plow through the to-do list so I can chill the rest of the day.

You have a lovely Sunday.

You made it! Well done!

Work was again calm and sane yesterday, which makes me nervous, LOL. Really don’t need all hell breaking loose today. I just want to quietly cruise into the weekend.

Not that I have big exciting plans for the weekend, but I do have a lot of little things to catch up on around the house. Drawers to rearrange, clothes to put away, some shelving to get up, and probably something else I’m forgetting.

Maybe I’ll win the lottery tonight and I can hire folks to handle all that. Cause one thing I learn every year on vacation is that I am truly suited for a life of leisure where I do wonderful things for the local economy. The things I could do for the local professional organizing industry alone…

It’s funny how the older I get, my plans for lottery money get more and more boring. I’m at the point where really all I’d do is remodel the house, get a beach cottage, and stop working. Oh, and get the really super nice hotel room the next time I head down to Williamsburg.

I am getting so boring as I get older and I fucking love it.

You have a wonderful and boring day. :-D

I am not complaining, I am just confused, cause damn the week has whipped by already. And it’s been fairly calm and sane so far this week at work, too? There has been one “can you take X” and I said I’m already at capacity but if Bob can take Y, cause he’s already working something very similar… So, no overwork! And I didn’t much want to deal with Y anyway, so that worked well.

Post-vacation laundry is all done, and I did get everything out of my car within an hour of getting home, so go me. Granted, none of that laundry is in dressers yet, but it’s done and folded. And there might be all my not-dirty-laundry things I brought in that are still sitting in the entry hall, but, hey – not in the car! (And all neatly in bins, so that’s something, right?)

Still need to sit down and go through all my pics and do a photo dump, too, and go through all my shells I snagged and figure out what will be good for wire wrapping.

But damn, even though it’s not been a bad week, coming back off vacation is soooooooo hard. And I’m vaguely angry at how I’m generally wiped out at the end of the day even though all I’ve done is sit on my ass and play with spreadsheets. Last week I’d be tired at the end of the day, but I walked 5-8 miles a day every day and was out and about and whatnot.

But, only two days til the weekend, so we’re on the right track.

You have a great day!

Not scaries, to be sure, just not quite really ready for vacation to be over. Though I do think my transformation into my Dad is complete. Not only was I up every day before 7AM this past week – I went to fill up the car this morning and got it washed. It’s raining. But, that rain won’t get the salt and sand off the undercarriage! It does still need a solid vacuuming, but again, it is raining and I do draw the line there.

Probably only gonna do the barest of minimums around the house – having it fairly non-disastrous before leaving helps SO MUCH. (Thank you past me!!) But the super critical items are already done – cold brew for the week has been put up, Lily’s water fountain is in the dishwasher, AND I have the laundry going!

And I think I am going to spend the rest of the day relaxing when I’m not folding laundry.

You have a lovely day.

In all the world, my nest is best. :) The beach was great, but I’m also very happy to be back home with my LilyMonster.

While I don’t speak fluent cat, I’m pretty sure the earful I got when I got home yesterday was along the lines of, “Hey, that so called ‘friend’ of yours broke in twice a day, every day, and tried to bribe me so he could steal the TV, but I sent him packing every time!” A bit like this, but thankfully with no kicks in the crotch.

Though I did not need the jolt back to reality this morning of discovering my debit card had been compromised earlier this week. It was just a $1.99 charge and the problem is solved, no true damage done, but it’s gonna bug me not knowing for sure how it happened given that I don’t use that card online and only rarely in person in general.

The other bit of reality to handle this weekend is laundry. Very hot and humid this past week and I changed clothes A LOT.

But I think a nap with Lily comes first. You have a great afternoon!

Mildly being the operative word here, but it’s been tiny thing after tiny thing the past 36 hours.

Ordered usual breakfast yesterday to discover they have completely changed the item. Wasn’t bad at all just not what I thought I was getting.

I fucked up the dinner order last night. (The restaurant saved me – thought I was just getting “no mods” sandwiches, my dumbass managed to order them all PLAIN.)

Hear that cat has taken a swing at petsitter. His reaction? “She’s a cute demon monster and we’re gonna be best friends!” Thank god for that, LOL. I love his attitude!

Got wrong coffee this morning – still cold, sweet, and caffinated, so totally fine, just not what I ordered. Lids will then not fit 2 of the 3 cups. No idea how long I struggled at the pickup counter, LMAO.

Hit drugstore/grocery store/Walmart for cups with lids to just have in the car should this lid situation persist. Nothing above 16 Oz. Get festive reusable tumblers.

AGAIN this year someone has walked off with one of the the house keys, leaving only one. We have 3 people going different directions all week.

Get copies made because I know the rental office is overwhelmed. Text brother on beach as to where I am headed. Informed that I am missing dolphins. Of course.

Stop at coffee shop as it is the easiest place to turn around. Get iced coffee. Now lids fit perfectly.

Turtle food is for box turtles, not aquatic turtles. Walmart again.

Get to house, try keys, hardware store did not cut them correctly, they do not work.

Sit down. Have beer. Take shower. Break deodorant stick. Fortunately inadvertently packed a second one.

Grab power bank to juice up phone while I am on the porch. First one, dead. Second one, dead. Somehow the third one, which hasn’t been touched since last year, still full? I’ll take it! (I swear one and two had been charging at home, but I guess not?)

Any few of these things, fine, but all of them right in a row is a bit much.

I’m going for a reset tonight with a very stiff drink at dinner and I’m gonna have both my guys double check me before I tell my order to the waiter. 🤣

It is Thursday. I have had to remind myself of that multiple times already this morning. Work/Holiday/Work/PTO has scrambled my internal calendar, to be sure.

Speaking of PTO, I got through yesterday without telling anyone off and getting fired! Go me!

And my god, the social media wars… I don’t know about y’all, but I am getting overwhelmed with all this – and yet, in the past week, I’ve signed up for BlueSky and Threads, if for no other reason than to see what’s what and preserve my username. (Gotta protect my brand, LMAO.) I cannot even imagine the current hell for social media managers.

So, by my count, we’ve got 3 pseudo-Twitters out there in the running now. (I know there are more, but these are the big three that seem to have real traction.)

Mastodon – Love the decentralization, moderation has been good at least in my experience and I’m on one of the larger servers (I know that seems to vary wildly,) familiar mechanics once you’re signed up. Downside – folks have a hard time finding a server and finding their people.

BlueSky – Got an invite last week and went ahead with signing up, though I’m not thrilled about ownership by any stretch. Pros are familiar mechanics, found Twitter folks real quick, easy to sign up – IF you can get an invite code. Can’t speak to moderation.

Threads – This could be the Twitter killer, but they need to do a few more things. This definitely feels like “Twitter is on the ground and bleeding out, what can we get out the door this sprint that actually functions?” Again, the mechanics are very familiar, and signup is super easy – BBC was just saying they had 11 million signups in the first 7 hours. If you have signed up, you’ve seen it’s pure chaos right now and folks definitely want a viable Twitter alternative. Big downside is it’s fucking Meta, but at least you know they have enough engineers actually working on it. If they can do the following in short order, this could end Twitter:

• Boot the Nazis. They’re already there, get rid of them immediately.
• A chronological/following tab. They’ve said this is on the way. Folks don’t like the home feed with a bunch folks they don’t follow in it. I get why the home tab is the way it is, it theoretically helps you find new folks to follow, but it’s just too fucking chaotic for me.
• Federation. They’ve also said this is on the way, and from what I understand, they’re going to use the ActivityPub protocol, which means theoretically, I could find all my Twitter folks on Threads and then follow them from my Mastodon account. That would fucking rock. (BlueSky is supposedly going to federate as well, but they’re going to use Authentication Transport, and I suspect Twitter will use AT as well if they ever federate.)
• Open up to the EU – fix whatever GDPR issues you’ve got straightaway (which I’m betting has something to do with the fact that they track WAY too much) – it’s better for all your users in general.
• DM’s. I don’t really need them, but folks are absolutely clamoring for them, and I’m surprised they’re not there yet.

If they can do this – and we know they have the engineering staff, if not the will – it could be the final death blow to Twitter. And put a hurt on BlueSky as well – why wait for an invite code when Threads is right there and open to all?

I don’t think this hurts all the various and sundry Mastodon instances at all – they’re over there happily doing their thing and doing a pretty good job of scaling up every time Twitter has a crash, and if Threads federates, great, if not, who cares?

And I’m enjoying the fact that this has GOT to have Musk freaking the fuck out. Nothing like basically setting $44 billion on fire and having everyone laugh at you while it happens.

And on that note, I have to remove myself from social media and go do a metric fuckton of laundry.

You have a fantastic Thursday!