Friday Was Full

Well, Friday was a full day, so it was enjoyable in that respect.  I got a good night sleep and had an interesting dream about a long lost love.  Morning was soft and rainy with a gentle start.  A cup of coffee, a bowl of oatmeal, and then I logged onto work for a couple of hours - really long enough to process incoming email, answer some questions, check a couple of things, and then it was off to the office. 

I actually physically went into the office today for a laptop replacement.  We replace out laptops on a two year schedule, so now I am into a new HP Ultrabook with Windows 10.  That took about two hours, but it went smoothly.  The part I am most excited about there is it has Cortana and Dragon Naturally Speaking - whoo hoo - I have been wanting to get Dragon on my work PC for a long time but previously it was not available for our work computers.  I am looking forward to see if it impacts my productivity. 

After the laptop replace I swung by the office and cleaned out my old office.  Though I work entirely virtually now for the last year and a half or so, I still kept an office space for those rare times when I had to physically go into the office.  They've moving my work-group to another building so I've let go of my space.  I didn't have anything of value left there so most of it either ended up in the shred bin or in the trash can.  I brought a few small personal items back home with me. 

After cleaning my office I met Don for lunch at Black Angus in Milpitas where I had the prime rib, crispy shrimp, a baked potato and a wedge salad.  It was a fairly excellent lunch and a good conversation with Don.  From there I came home and found a surprise gift from work.  Our VP sent out a note telling everyone to go home at 2:00 PM local time to get a jump on the Easter weekend.  I liked that - it has been a long time since we had leadership that actually cared about the human aspect of work - so I took that as a very good sign. 

I took a brief nap, then back up for dinner, which was pizza and tasty.  From there, I wandered into the evening with incidental tasks around the house and the DVR. In short it has been a good start to the Easter weekend.  I am about to wrap it up and curl up with a book and read myself to sleep, so whoever you are and wherever you are I hope you're having a good night/day.

The Start of a Day

I slept well last night. I think I went to bed around eight thirty, read a bit, and then dropped right into a deep sleep.  Interestingly, I haven't had a dream in the last couple of days. I assume it is because I've been sleeping very deeply, just glad to be back in California and back in my old bed. I woke up at about five a.m. this morning, which is my normal time.  It felt very good.  I went outside and took a walk down to Maple Leaf Donuts and started the day with a cup of hot coffee and a piece of coffee cake.  I'm savoring those at this moment and contemplating how best to approach the day.  I've got a lot small errands that I want to take care of over the weekend, so I am just sort of plotting out the day, deciding what to do in what order.  I think if I keep moving smoothly through the day I should be able to get through most of them.  So, wish me luck for an ordinary day.

A Lazy September Day

The last couple of months have been pretty lean on entries from me.  Nothing major going on, just a normally busy life.  I thought I would refocus a bit here in the month of September and see if I can't write a little more.  I enjoy writing, I just don't always make it a priority. August was filled with work related stuff and with the beauties of late summer in California.

I went up to the Highland Games with Tony on Saturday and had a good time, eating food, wandering the fairgrounds and listening to music.  The music was a mixed bag this year - there were some good acts and there were some acts that mistook "loud with bagpipes and drums" for quality. One of my favorite acts is "The Browne Sisters and George Cavanaugh" and though they were good, their sound mixer was not particularly on the ball and oft times during their show the music was being drowned out by the crowd noise.  I think that is always a risk at any festival.

Yesterday was almost entirely a restful day.  I had breakfast with Tyrone at the Hickory Pit and then wandered home.  Something I ate didn't sit right and my stomach was churning (I suspect the fruit), so after getting home and watching a movie, I settled in for a two hour afternoon nap. For there, I spent a lazy afternoon watching assorted movies on the DVR and on cable, and then went to bed early.

I laid down at about 7:00 PM to read for a while (Dean Koontz's "The City") and fell asleep by 8:00 PM, which led to my waking up, wide awake, at about 3:00 AM.  I managed to fall back asleep after about an hour and then woke up at about 6:00 AM.  I haven't done anything today either, mostly just reading, surfing the web, and watching incidental television.  I am going to make a couple of family calls this afternoon and then meet Tony & Bob for dinner at El Burro at 4:00 PM.

I am going to take a run at house cleaning and incidental crap sorting today. I took tomorrow off from work because I could and because I needed it - and as a side benefit it will also give me a two day work week next week, which is going to be nice as well.

August was a pleasant month.  In August I focused on just making sure that I spent some of my time off as true time off - doing nothing. (Hence the need to devote some hours today to house cleaning.) I think I am going to carry that trend on through September.  A few restful weekends makes me hungry for a few more restful weekends.  It the fast paced sweep of modern life is it easy to lose track of the need to take time to yourself.

T.R. is on her extended vacation right now, which is something I have always envied. She should be wrapping it up shortly soon and I am looking forward to spending some quality time with her and catching up.  I have undertaken a small personal project that during that time frame that I will share when it is complete, for now I am enjoying it and curious as to where it will go.

Well, with that, I am going to slide back into the rest of the day.

Another Ordinary Day

Once again, the time gap between my posts comes as a surprise to me.  Time appears to be moving past at a very good clip.  Today started a bit strangely - there was a water main break in Sunnyvale, California and it caused the company to shut the plant down, at least for the morning, while they repair the break - so there was a flurry of pre-dawn calls waving people off from going into the office.  There is an automated system that is keeping us notified of developments and they're hoping to have the plant re-opened about 10:00 AM today.  Of course, for my, by 10:00 AM I am deep in my Thursday meeting cycle, so I am not going into the office today.

Yesterday, I tried to take the day off, but it turned into a pretty frustrating day.  If I look at it from the positive side I managed to get about a third of what I wanted to do done, so there was some goodness in the day.  Otherwise, it was frustrating.  I had a training session mid-day, from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM, but there were communications and connectivity problems at the start of the session - the vendor conducting the training uses a technology that is not allowed inside our firewall, so it took about thirty minutes for us to get set up - and by then I was behind the curve in the fast moving class, so I dropped out.  We're just going to have to reschedule it.

It hit one of my frustration points - because I am a planner, I get very frustrated when other people don't plan well and I have to deal with the consequences of them not checking the details.  It is a personal frustration point - I realize that not everyone plans like I do, so it is not a burden that I place on other people - it is something within me that I am aware of.  One of those frustration points that I have learned to work around.

So, having intended to take the whole day off, I ended up working six hours - basically the entire day.  I did manage to get some of the things I wanted to do done - I got the living room all cleaned and straightened, I got the kitchen and dining room about halfway finished, and I cleaned out the front closet.  I still have a ways to go - I want to pack some stuff up for donation and I want to pack some other stuff off for the trash.

I had dinner with Tony over at Mama Mia's and he commented that I was pensive.  I am not sure if I was pensive or mostly just tired from the day. I think tired was closer to the truth.  After a great pizza and a slice of tiramisu, I headed home and spent a quiet evening watching television, with a wonderful little conversation with TR before I called it a night. I woke up twice during the night from strange dreams that seemed kind of work related, but I suspect they were more simple processing dreams.  I am looking forward to the rest of the day, working from home.

A Pleasant and Ordinary Day

It is about 7:15 PM on Saturday night. It's been a good day. I slept well last night and had a pair of dreams.

One dream was an enjoyable dream – I dreamt that TR was riding around in a white convertible. The convertible was filled with her friends and they were all wearing vintage clothes. On waking the movie I immediately thought of was Mamma Mia, the dream had that Greek island feel, and the lightness of the move.

The second dream was about work. In that dream I had been sent to another building to perform a task, except once I got there I did not know where to go. No one else in the building seemed to know where I was supposed to go either. Normally dreams of being lost are anxiety dreams. However, this dream, did not have that feel. It just felt like par for the course. I am not sure what that says about my work or what that says about what my subconscious thinks of my work, where being lost is ordinary.

I started the day with a cup of coffee and a bowl of oatmeal. I was lingering into the morning watching programs off my DVR, drinking coffee, and listening to the gathering of the bird tribe on my patio, when TR called. We had a wonderful morning conversation which set me in just the right mood for the day.

We had a big crowd at the Hickory pit for breakfast. There were seven of us which made for a lively table conversation wise. There were animated conversations going on at both ends of the table. Those who were sitting in the bridge seats could simply lean left or lean right and in another conversation. After breakfast we took a walk through Fry's. Then the guys headed over to Bob's were their weekend game. I stopped by to visit for a while because I wanted to talk to Pierre and Helen. I am trying to lure them out to San Francisco for dim sum and a trip to the DeYoung. They are in, will talk some point this week to actually pick a date.

From there I swung by the market to pick up groceries and a few odds and ends. After that a stop at target to pick up a new phone. My old home phone has been on the fritz for a while. Plus, I wanted to get a phone that would let me either turn the ringer way down or turn it all the way off. For reasons known only to the universe with the old phone if you turn the ringer all the way down after a while it turns itself back up. I assumed that the phone was resetting itself at some point. It was frustrating me because the unexpected ringing in the evening was loud and disturbing. The new phone has a much more pleasant ring tone and the ability to turn the volume way down and to quiet the ringer with the push of a button. I like both of those features.

Then, I wandered home. I spent a quiet afternoon in the apartment watching television programs off my DVR, reading, and doing incidental things around the house. Dinner was a bowl of vegetable soup and a tall glass of water. The evening is quiet and gentle. I'm going to fool around with my new electronic toy for the next hour or so. All in all, another beautiful day in California.

Wow.  It is hard to believe the last time I wrote was Monday.  I guess that is a sign that this week pretty much flew by.  I worked some long days, nothing crushing, just long. Today is my Friday off, but I started the day with a meeting, working my way through a technical problem that has been vexing the teams for a month. We may have found the solution today, so one of the vendors is off to implement a fix and then we'll do another set of testing.

I have an objective this weekend, but I do not know if I am going to be able to achieve it. I want to get through the whole apartment for a fierce bout of spring cleaning. I am going to follow up with a trip to the donation center and a trip or two to the dumpster.  I also need to go through my closet and get some clothes set aside for donation, since it is also about that time of year.

Other than that, I am looking forward to the weekend. There are not any new movies out that I want to see, but I have several old movies on the DVR that I am looking forward to. I think I will watch them as I am cleaning. One of the things I have been running into, which is a side effect from working too many hours, is that when the evening comes along and I get home, basically, I am low energy and just want to ease into the evening.  I have been successful at that.

Waiting For Pizza

It's a lazy Sunday here in California.  I am sitting in the living room, watching Justified, and waiting for the arrival of pizza and hot wings.  It was one of those lazy that, for me at least, seem to be too few and too far between.  Of course I realize that a lot of it has to do with choice.  Today, I made the choice to be lazy.  I may be even more lazy before the day is out, but that is going to be pretty hard too do.

I've spent most of the day reading my Doc Holliday biography and just soaking up the sun.  I've got all the windows and blinds wide open, letting that glorious light in.  I think that, because of the light, I am in a particular good mood.  I did try and go out for lunch, but I only got as far as contemplating it before I was ordering the pizza.  Days like this are gentle, simple and beautiful.

Been A While

It has been a while since I've written anything for here.  It has been a busy couple of weeks and I've mostly simply been focused elsewhere.  I started to write an entry this morning, but I didn't like the overall tone that it was taking, so I decided to set it aside and try again tonight.  Things have been going pretty well, just busy as all get out. It's been kind of stressful at work - we are in a state of high chaos, which is really nothing new, but it has been wearing on me.

On the personal side, I am doing pretty good - I am hoping to settle into February for a quiet and easy month with a lot of restful time spent at home.  Today has been a good example.  I had breakfast with Tony at Goodies and then we went out to see Monuments Men, which I liked.  Then, lunch at Chevy's.  After lunch I took a long and meandering walk through Westgate, just to stretch my legs.  From there, home to watch the Olympics from the DVR.  Right now, I am sitting here watching the hours sweep by and waiting for the opening ceremonies in less than an hour now.

So, I really don't have much to say tonight, it has been a while and it is good to be back.  I am tempted to take a  nice hot bath before the Olympics starts, but that might put me straight to sleep.  Thursday was an unusually stressful day at the office - the chaos was just getting to me, so I came home and I was basically exhausted.  I had a nice conversation with TR and then I headed for bed.  I was asleep by six thirty or so - and I slept all the way through until about five a.m. the next morning.  All in all about 11 hours of sleep.   Today was, consequently, a low and slow day.

Just A Tuesday

It is a short week here at the office. We had the holiday on Monday and then, due to the nuances of scheduling, I am off on Friday. I think I can handle a three day work week!  Additionally, because it is a light week, it is quiet here.  Whenever a holiday falls in a week it reduces the cost of taking the entire week off.  For example, if I were to have taken the week off, I would have only had to spend three vacation days to have nine days off.  That is a pretty good cost benefit ratio.  I am sure, for many of my coworkers, they make that very same calculation - and for those of us who remain in the office to work, we get the added benefit of a quiet week.

I feel rested today but I actually didn’t sleep well last night. It was a fitful night.  I think I must have been up and down about half a dozen times before I finally woke up.  It was like I could not fall all the way into the deep sleep cycle. I dreamed, but I don’t really remember what I dreamed about.  For the last week or so the theme of my dreams has been the toppling of a corrupt regime.  Probably influenced by a wide variety of inputs - the Game of Thrones here at work, the BBC show “Copper”, and the dawn to dusk coverage of the events in Syria.

As I sit here on a “listen only” teleconference, I am realizing that I am actually pretty clear headed and in a good mood today and I am not really sure why.  I danced with the monkey mind a bit this morning on the drive into work, but what able to set it aside.  Driving, commuting, traffic - these are all stressful things some days. 

Today, as I was driving up Lawrence Expressway toward the office, I found myself stuck behind a school bus.  I felt my temper starting to rise up - but I recognized it as an opportunity to break the pattern of the monkey mind.  I took a deep breath and deliberately slowed down and simply followed the bus at the speed the bus was moving.  I flowed.  It is always nice to flow.  It disrupted my monkey mind and allowed me a rather pleasant experience on the commute.

I noticed this morning that I need to devote a bit of time to housecleaning. I seem to have picked up most that a usual amount of dust, which I am going to blame on the heat of the last couple of days and the fact that, each night, I slept with the windows wide open and the fans blowing. 

Writing that little segment there also reminded me of something I need to take care of in regards to the apartment.  I was moving some furniture the other day and as I turned I caught the thermostat with the edge of the piece of furniture.  Unfortunately, there was a little bit of mass and velocity involved in the turn and the thermostat exploded into multiple small plastic pieces.  So, I need to report that to the apartment management complex so they can get the repairs schedule.  I may have just bought a new thermostat, and if that is the case, well, that is the case.  It was an accident and it was my fault, so that makes me responsible for it.

I have a light meeting schedule all week, which is amazing.  I am going to take advantage of it by trying to get some of the stuff in my backlog cleared out.  I would love to get it down to zero.  I am not sure if I am actually going to make it that far, but I am going to give it a try.

Another Nice Sunday

Okay, I sat down to write tonight and I started off with a good laugh.  I noticed that, on the previous entry, I called it a "Relazing" day. I think I was inventing a word there. It does, in a way, describe the day however.  Today was a similar day, with a little bit more mood.

It was a gray morning, cool, humid and typical of a late summer. I lingered in bed for an extra hour or so, until about six thirty AM, then woke up and started the day.  I was kind of moody when I started the day, I was thinking about old wounds and scar tissue.  I didn't really dwell on it but it was spinning around in the back of my mind through most of the morning.  I made a note to myself to write a longer entry on the topic of "Wounds".

Then, when I was driving over to meet Tony for breakfast, I heard an old song by Phil Collins - "In The Air Tonight".  I don't know why, but I was listening to the lyrics in the song and it seemed to kind of dovetail with my thoughts on wounds.  It wasn't a black morning, but it verged on it.  Fortunately, breakfast was a good (a waffle, sausage and two eggs over easy).

Tony and I then swung back to my place and watched the last two episodes of Dexter, which were enjoyable.  Then a quick lunch and I headed over to Target to pick up some groceries and some odds and ends to prepare for the week ahead. 

I followed that up with a nap and a book, then a long hot bath.  Once out of the bath I made a pot of sausage and vegetable soup from scratch.  It was pretty good - it is a recipe I have been working on for a while.  It is not quite where I want it to be, so I think next time I am going to try a different sausage.  It was a little too sweet this time around.

Then I watched an episode of History Detectives and that brings me right into the now, in the present moment. I tried calling out to the ranch tonight but there wasn't any answer.  I suspect they were sitting outside on the porch in the waning sunlight, the typical habit on a South Dakota evening. I am mirroring it here, except I am sitting in the living room with the air conditioner on, since it is still a little muggy out there.

Tomorrow starts a three day work week, which I am looking forward to. I've still got a tall pile of stuff stacked up in front of me, but I made some fair headway last week and I am hoping to make some more fair headway this week and next..  This evening though, I am just going to ease into the evening, watch the clock tick the hours off, and concentrate on just being.

A Straight Forward Day

A pretty straight forward day.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  Coffee and toast to start the day, the latest episode of "Spartacus: War of the Damned", breakfast with the guys at the Hickory Pit, a walk through Fry's, three loads of laundry, a couple of games of pool, an early dinner, a phone call to the ranch, and now I am settled in just watching the evening slowly spool downward.  Beautiful.

Before I Fall Asleep

All in all another very nice ordinary day.  There was a bit of hustle to start the day, but I had started early deliberately, so I could get a couple of tasks completed. Other than that, the day went well.  A productive morning, a simple lunch of fish and chips, then a relatively quiet afternoon. The commute home was smooth, I had a simple dinner, watched the latest episode of "Justified", called my step-dad, spent some time browsing through Flipboard on the iPad, and now I am contemplating slipping into bed early and spend an hour or so reading before I fall asleep.

Today Was An Ordinary Day

Today was an ordinary day. That was an amazing little thing. It was the first Monday in recent memory where I did not battle severe stress points during the day.  I went in, I worked, I took lunch, I worked some more, I went home. Simply amazing.

It Wasn't A Quick Note

Just thought I would take a few minutes this morning and enter another quick note.  Yesterday was a nice day, mostly spent in a semi-coma because of the long run of work hours.  I spent the morning online in queue waiting to get tickets to San Diego Comic Con (with a million other geeks) - and I was successful.  I missed out on the four day pass with preview night, barely, but I got four one day passes for me and three for Tony (no Saturday pass for Tony), but we can make a run at picking up the extra pass later in the year when the tickets come up for resale.  So, that was definitely the high point of the morning and once again, San Diego Comic Con here I come!

Then, breakfast at the Hickory Pit and we went out and say "Beautiful Creatures" - it was a little sedate for a movie, since it is, basically, a love story - but it had some great supporting turns by Jeremy Irons, Emma Thompson, and the always talented Emmy Rossum.  I can't really recommend it for the theater, but I would definitely recommend it when it comes out on cable or any of the flavors of On-Demand.

For there, we had lunch at Red Robin - chili burgers - and I went for a long walk around the entirety of Westgate and Westgate West, then stopped at Office Max and REI to pick up some incidental things.  From there, it was home, a spot of television (mostly staring comatosely at the television because I was too mentally dead to engage in anything that required thought).  Then, a nice long conversation with my step dad Bill, still in the convalescent hospital getting PT. A bit of reading and the off to dream land about nine P.M. 

Then I slept about ten hours straight and woke this morning rested and bright eyed and bushy tailed.  I am ready to leap into the day.  Well, okay, maybe not leap into the day, but definitely go out, get some breakfast, and then spend a little time wandering, letting my brain do a further bit of decompression for the stress of the last couple of months.  I am also hoping to get some time to sit down and write an exceptionally long entry hear and talk about some of the things that have happened. Maybe I will spread it out over a couple of entries.  But first, most importantly, breakfast at the Hickory Pit.

A Natural Emptiness

I did my best to stay "off the grill" today.  I need the low key weekend and so far it has been pretty good. I stayed up late last night reading "The Cloud Atlas", slept well and woke refreshed. I watched "Fringe" and "Haven", then met Tony and Ty for breakfast at the Hickory Pit. I did a walk through at Fry's, then home for a while. I met Richard for lunch at Pacific Catch over at the Pruneyard.  After that, a few quick errands and then home again.

I will say one thing about the level of work and personal currents running now - they have inspired many vivid but half-remembered dreams as my subconscious stirs around. Today, when I woke up, and then at various times through the day, I thought about the metaphorical boxes that I find myself in as I move through my ordinary days.  The power of habit is a powerful thing.  Our lives are infused with a hundred habits, from the simple to the complex and then back again. Somewhere in there, underneath that layer of habits, is our true self.

That search for the true self is the quest that can consume our days, if we have the courage to undertake it. Sometimes I think I have that courage, but then other times I don't think that I do. As we go through life, life inspires us and wounds us in equal measure.  Each event, each inspiration, each wound, is a thread on the tapestry of our life. Our life is not a single thread, not a wound, not an inspiration, but rather it is the sum total of all of that. Often, we cannot see the full sweep of the tapestry unless we find some way to take a step back, to get a little distance.  To do that, we have to go off the grill, we have to fnd a place of stillness from which we can observe, from which we can experience.

It's a little after nine o'clock PM here right now, I am sitting on my chair in my living room, everything turned off except a single light and my laptop.  I close my eyes and I can hear the sounds of traffic in the distance, through the open patio doors, the quiet rush of the freeway a mile or so away. The clock on the kitchen wall ticks loudly in the stillness.  The sound of my fingers on the keys is a distinctive rattle and click.  There is a distance conversation from the courtyard, but distance enough that I hear the murmur of voices but cannot make out the words. It's a beautiful moment all in all.  Simple and still. There is an emptiness within me, but it seems as if it is the emptiness that should be there. A natural emptiness.

All Of That Aside

(Image is "A Bowl of Flowers" from the 2012 Pleasanton Highland Games, an original photograph.)

I'm sliding into the evening watching the Emmy awards.  It was a pretty good weekend. I feel rested and ready to tackle the week ahead of me.  It would be nice to have a couple of more days off, but isn't that always the case.

Tomorrow I took the day off from work to run a friend of mine in (and out) for a medical procedure and I plan on taking the day entirely as it flows. I will most likely log on at some point and do some work, as the opportunity presents itself, and there is at least one meeting that I would like to attend that is scheduled for the morning.

I need to put in about four hours of review for the last set of requirements that I need to get over to the vendor and I would really like to do that clear of any distractions, so I am going to do it from home, virtually, when I have the window.

I've been working on getting the spare bedroom re-arranged to be more conductive as an office - I probably only need to spend a couple of more hours, so I might tackle that tomorrow as well.

All of this aside though, there isn't really anything special planned in the week ahead, so I am going to take it like I took the week before - slow and easy and disciplined, one day at a time.

A List For The Day

Today was a quick and full day. (I worked 56 hours in the last pay period, so if it seemed to me like I didn't have any time off, that is largely because - I didn't.)  In order, here were the events of the day.

-Woke, a light breakfast, coffee and a shower.
-Sorted and bagged laundry for a little later in the day.
-Phone call with my mother, feeling the ground out regarding ongoing familial excitement.
-Breakfast with Bob and Tony.
-Tony and I caught "Brave" (outstanding animation, enjoyable story)
-Drove home and picked up my laundry
-Five loads of laundry at the laundromat on San Tomas Aquino Road and Campbell Avenue.
-Bought some strange things at Ace Hardware - six sponges, Elmers spray glue, rubber feet, and a slender dowel.  I am going to do some mad engineer work and see if I can create a vibration absorbing mount for my video camera.
-A late lunch of honey walnut prawns from Tsing Tsao.
-Watched "Kick Ass" on DVD, while folding laundry and doing dishes.
-A nice telephone call with T.R., who is on the verge of starting a Great Adventure.
-Worked for a while, specifically did a stupid survey, sorted email, and worked on project.
-A brief call with my sister.
-A brief exchange of text with my brother.
-Watched the last forty minutes or so of "Snatch".
-Programs the DVR to capture half a dozen movies in the next couple of weeks.
-Wrote this.
-Heading off to bed to read myself to sleep and start again tomorrow.

Dreams of Dreams of Showers

Not a bad Wednesday.  I woke up this morning from a dream of taking a shower - in the dream I was in the shower and I could here the alarm going off, so I stepped out of the shower to pad naked into the bedroom to turn the alarm off and woke up reaching for the alarm to turn it off.  It was a strange sensation, where dream and reality merged and were confusing.

A simple breakfast, a quick conversation with T.R., then I was off to the office for a three hour meeting to start the day.  It wasn't the most productive day - most of it was eaten by meetings and reading requirements.  I guess that building a knowledge base is productive, but I can't say that I usually think of it as being productive. Tomorrow should be a regular day and then Friday, which is my off-Friday, will have a four hour coordination meeting in the middle of the day, from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM.  I am hoping we don't eat the whole time period, but I suspect we will.

Meanwhile, tonight, I am settled in for a pleasant evening watch "The Green Lantern" on DVR.  Not a bad day, all in all.  Oh, I did feel compelled to mention dinner, because it was outstanding - slow cooked sweet and sour chicken, with green garden peas and mandarin oranges. Truly outstanding.

Looking Back

Looking back over the entries for the last couple of weeks, I noticed that it has been a while since I had written anything personal. I seemed to have been focused quite a bit on work.  Art is definitely imitating life there, since work has been my focus as we’ve gone through the transitional phase here at The Evil Corporation.  So, I thought I would take a few moments and make some personal updates, in no particular order.

No San Diego Comic Con 2012: The great tragedy of my summer.  Due to the high demand we were unable to get tickets to Comic Con San Diego this year.  It was definitely a bit of a heartbreaker, since that is usually the “Geek High Point” of my summer.  I do have the time off and I may still head down to San Diego on Comic Con weekend.  There are a lot of events that surround the convention that are not official events, but are still very fun, and of course, San Diego is a beautiful city. 

We Discover Haruki Murakami: T.R. made a brilliant discovery earlier this year that has colored the entire year, literature wise. She found and let me to the author Haruki Murakami, whose works I have quoted several times in the last couple of weeks.  He is a prolific and brilliant author and I am currently consuming two of his books at the same time – IQ84 and The Elephant Vanishes. Reading wise, this is shaping up to be the year of Murakami.

Adventures in an IPO Boot: I had a callus removed from my right foot a March and it healed up nicely.  When I went back for a follow-up, the podiatrist did not like the way it had healed, so he removed it again and put me back up on the IPO boot. I’ve been limping around on it for the last three weeks. On my last appointment, the removal site had completely healed, but he wanted me to stay off it for another week, to make sure it did not get irritated.  It has been an inconvenience that has influenced and shaped the last couple of weeks, since it takes my habit of pointless wandering and walking and puts it on the back burner, just as the spring is unfolding around us.

I Write:  I continue to write, working on my novel, though it seems to be continually transforming itself into something else. I would, at this point, call the act of creation a slippery one.

I Simplify: I am poised for another round of simplification, probably this weekend.  I’ve got more stuff that needs to go. It’s good stuff. It is interesting stuff. But, in the end, it is just stuff. I would say it is about five or six boxes worth, mostly odds and ends and knick-knacks.  I keep joking that I am going to end up living in my apartment, wearing a robe, with one blue bowl and my big screen TV.  I continue to enjoy the journey.

I Contemplate: I have been focused on contemplation.  I am reading a pretty good book right now, called “The Buddha Walks Into A Bar”, which is a basic and simple introduction to the concepts of Tibetan Buddhism, without all the religious overtones. I’ve learned some good things. I’ve also been listening to Tolle and Adyashanti. T.R. and I are both in a year of spiritual exploration and growth.

A Perfectly Ordinary Day

It was a supremely easy day today.  I slept in. I had breakfast at the Hickory Pit. I wandered Fry's Electronics and bought a pair of movies for my collection - "In Bruges" and "The Guard". From there, I did a couple of loads of laundry, stopped at the market and then wandered home.  The afternoon was spent watching "Hope Springs" on the DVR, followed by an alternating afternoon of napping and reading "The Elephant Vanishes".  Dinner was a simple ham and potato salad, followed by an easy evening online and a few pleasureable hours with T.R., during which I learned a lot about computer keyboards and the quest for a silent keyboard. All in all it was a perfectly ordinary day. Sweet.