A Simple and Ordinary Weekend

I've been intending to write all weekend, but the intention never turned to action. I've had a good but lazy weekend all in all, following a busy work week. This coming week should be busy as well, but I am kind of looking forward to it.

I saw the new "Dracula" movie this weekend and I would recommend it.  It is very entertaining and, uniquely for the genre, it has a lot of subtleties wrapped into the story, combined with solid acting, all wrapped inside a visually rich package.  Unexpectedly good!

Other than that, I have been kind of engrossed in the SPQR series of novels.  I am on the second one now and enjoying the read.  I've always had a thing for Rome, so any novel, any well written novel, set in Rome can definitely hold my attention.

Beyond that, consider the previous week to have been a simple and ordinary weekend.

Simple and Relaxing Day

It has been a good weekend. Saturday, I met Tony for breakfast in Fremont at the Classic Diner and then spent the day at the Highland Games.  I took my camera with me but due to a smudge on the lens, at first pass, I didn't get anything particularly good. I am going to take a run through them again tonight to see if there is something that can be salvaged, some portion of picture outside of the smudge.  I got home about six p.m., had dinner, watched a spot of television and was in bed, asleep, by eight p.m. or so.

This morning I lingered in bed for a while, had a short conversation with TR, then started the day with a long shower and breakfast at the Hickory Pit.  For there, I went to see the movie "The Grandmaster" which was a visually rich film. I enjoyed it, but I suspect it is not for everyone.  If you are in to martial arts movies though, or if you are in to spectacular cinematography, then I would definitely recommend the movie. Under those circumstances I would even go so far as to recommend buying the movie when it becomes available.  I know that I am going to add it to my collection.

After that I headed over to the car wash, then home.  At home, I watched an episode of "The Bridge", then took a short nap, followed by a hot shower and a pizza order for dinner.  Next, I spent the last two hours watching an amusing older movie - "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" with Robert Downey, Jr., Val Kilmer, and Michelle Monaghan.  That is another one of those movies that, if you have never seen it, I would definitely recommend it.  In a short period of time I am going to move over in front of TV and watch the latest episode of Copper live.

I guess, to sum all that up, it has been a great and relaxing day where I really didn't do anything.  I need more days like that.  Days of simpleness and relaxation.  Maybe I will manage to pull another one together tomorrow.

Simple Sunday with a Trance

The last official day of my vacation - a good day, all in all. Breakfast, a walk through Fry's, the movie "Trance", a greast little lunch, then some errand running and finally a quite evening at home.  I have some thoughts that I want to capture, but I find myself a little too tired to write much tonight.  I want to go to sleep early so I can get a good night sleep and get a fresh start on the day tomorrow.  I'm back to work first thing in the morning.

A Simple Day, With A Touch of Melancholy

Another easy day, though not without a touch of melancholy. It is a beautiful winter day here in California, with the taste of the approaching spring. As I moved through the day my thoughts turned, here and there, sparked by the slightest things, to melancholy and loss.  Not overwhelming, not all powerful, just those soft and bittersweet moments of loss and longing.

I had breakfast with my friends at the Hickory Pit, then a trip through Fry's, then I picked up a coffee table my friend Tony has lent me - a nice one, but a loaner only. It was a bit heavy so it took the extra hands to get it down from Tony's place and then up into mine.  Once here, I polished it up and placed it - it is nice and it fits right against the dividing wall between the kitchen and living room.  I had an incidental table and a printer stand there before and so it is definitely a visual improvement.

Once settled in, I ran back out and got my car washed (I was overdue), then home again and a quiet afternoon of reading, thinking, and watching a few shoes off the DVR. Brandy is going to make French Onion soup tonight at 6:00 PM, so I am going to swing through the grocery store and pick up a baguette and some mozzarella cheese.  I am also going to pick up the ingredients for an instant monkey-bread recipe that I am going to try.  It is pretty simple, so I will see how it works out.

Simple, Simple, Simple

Another very easy going day during which I did next to nothing of any significance and then went out for pizza.  It has been the most relaxing weekend that I have had in a while and I am grateful for that. I am winding out the last hour of the day with a cup of hot chocolate and the novel I've been reading. Simple, Simple, Simple.

A Disciplined Focus on the Basics

It looks like I have, temporarily, fallen on a different rhythm, a more work driven rhythm.  I got home last night and basically went into vegetable mode, due to the hours I’d worked.  I went to sleep early, about 8:00 PM.  As a result of that decision, I woke up about 2:00 AM, spent thirty minutes or so reading, and then managed to go back to sleep until about 5:30 AM.  When I woke at 5:30 AM I was rested and ready to move smoothly into the day.

I had an interesting dreams - it was a work related stress dream, where I was struggling with various aspects of the project that I’m working on.  My biggest worry bead is this: We’re currently “working without a net” on various portions of the project, were working without anyone checking our work, we’re working without an process of peer review and without many of the necessary project controls.  As a result, I have a persistent fear, not so much that I am making a mistake, but that I am missing something entirely - and I simply don’t know I am missing it.  The same holds true of mistakes - I am well aware that I could be making some terrible mistake and simply be totally unaware of it.

That was the anxiety trigger that tossed and turned my dreams last night, but in the dream was the possible solution.  That is one of the things I love about the way the subconscious works, the way it is continually seeking an answer, and then when it finds something it thinks will work present it to use in the form of images.

In the dream I was preparing to go on a raid of some sort.  It was somewhere in the dark hours of the night, I was in a room lit by a lantern, and I had all my equipment laid out on the floor, meticulously counting each piece, ordering everything, making sure all of the basics were accounted for prior to the raid.  I woke up with the realization that was the approach I needed - a simple and disciplined focus on the basics.