Every day's a holiday

It is still slick anywhere that the sun hasn't hit. Our house faces north so we get very little sun on our drive. I had an appointment to volunteer at the dog shelter and so took out the car. I nudged it forward until it started to slide down the hill then just tapped the eccellerator and rolled out to where it was dry and I could get control. It was 'fairly' safe and definitely fun. The tires didn't even leave a dent in the ice on the drive. Nor did they leave a dent when I tried to back up the drive. I almost made it when the car started to spin and drift right where it would have either slid off or hit the side of the garage. At that point I put it in neutral and rolled back down. I tried three more times and never quite made it. I was within a foot of hitting concrete and traction but that was not enough. So here is our current condition:



I'm going to stay down there until the drive gets maybe a little slushy and then try it again. I don't want to leave the car down there. So I'll figure it out. Later.

Meanwhile I went to the dog shelter to meet with someone and start a new volunteer job, intaking new dogs. They need someone to help calm and manage new dogs that are just starting out. I thought it might be up my alley and have been trying to connect up with the woman in charge but she didn't show this morning (icey road delay) so I helped at the kennel. Dog walk and then put in a separate crate so the one where they spent the night can be washed out and bedding replaced. It is the first thing every morning and it is really hard. So I put in an hour. One dog was really jumpy and pulled me at the wrong time and I went down. Thank you Pickleball, I was fine. Nothing hurt. No one was watching. The dog laughed but was a good sport about it.

Another dog bit me when I tried to put a coller on him. He didn't have much for teeth so it was not much of a bite. Work with dogs, get bit. It's the norm. I'm used to it. He was just scared and didn't mean anything by it.

So, an eventful morning. I'm taking our two dogs out for the first walk they've had in three days. Hopefully it will go better.

Watching the game.

Beaux in winter

Beaux just takes a good picture.

It was raining in Seattle when I left and is a little drippy here this morning.

The Seattle airport, SeaTac, was weirdly a bit of a mess.  The security set up was not nearly as efficient or as well equipped as the one in Austin.  To get on the plane we had to go outside on the tarmac where the jets were taking off and landing (far away from them but still on the same ground with jet fuel and noise and fumes) then up a set of ramps to get into the plane.  I can only assume they are doing lots of work somewhere and this is the temporary result of that work.  But the difference between the Austin airport and the Seattle airport was striking.  We'll see how temporary that is in five months when I do it again.

The flight was uneventful.  I was wearing my hoodie and put on the Bose sound killing head phones, flipped up the hood, put on four or five episodes of Pluribus, and disappeared from the world for a few hours.  I've got a routine.  Crawl into my cave and return when the metal tube has deposited me near where I'm going.

All is well here, nothing went amiss while I was gone.  Beaux is very happy to have me back and I was thrilled to see him.  Similar experience with Dana and Toby but in Beau's case lots of enthusiasm and body wagging.

My weight is unchanged after a week of different eating and everything else and no exercise.  So that is encouraging.  It will be nice to get back in the groove with measured food and pickleball. Time to get serious about losing that last ten or fifteen pounds.  I've already reached my initial goal only to find it is not actually the one I want.  But I'm happy with the progress and ready for more.

A week off from exercise is too long.  I can feel it.  And the immediate snap back to form that I enjoyed when I was younger isn't going to happen now.  I'll need to put in a lot more effort and focus to get back to where I was a week ago.  It slips away so quickly.

I do miss being able to go down to the Timber Ridge library at 6AM and read the physical WSJ paper with one of the residents.  He never even looked up when I arrived but acknowledged me on his way out.  Companionable silence, coffee, and someone to have the paper ready.

But I trade it off for quiet house and morning coffee and feeding Beaux.

I've got lunch today with my networking group but that's it.  Such a nice schedule.  A couple of other things to do with scheduling later in the week and accounts of one kind or another but nothing pressing.  

I do kind of like my schedule.

So I wait for a couple of days to be sure I didn't pick up any virus during the travels.  Finger's crossed.  I didn't notice anyone who looked sick and did spend some quality time washing my hands in the airport.

Time to walk the dogs.  

Lights are down and packed back into their box with the extension cord and the two smart plugs.  All ready for next year.

I spend the morning mostly going over financials.  I'm using a new system, Monarch, that is really a great set up with so much of the work already done.  Our finances are such that I could do it mostly in my head but it is nice to see all the transactions go by and I'm getting things set up so it is green when we're making more money than we're spending and the reverse when things are not going well.  Once I get it right I'll hand off reports to Dana so she can see it too.  Having a tracking system that is on my phone and on my PC is really so much nicer.  If I'm sitting in a waiting room with nothing to do I can look at the finance app and tweak a bit. 

This is the first month I've started a more disciplined subscription tracking system.  I created a Google spreadsheet and linked it to the first day of each month.  So I go over any subscriptions that are not required to actually survive.  The recurring expenses that are absolutely necessary are already in Monarch so this is an ancilliary system.  It is in my calendar and I can go over the coming month and be sure nothing needs to be cancelled.  I save the cancelled entries at the bottom so I can remember what I did in the past.  It will help.

 And I at least logged into TurboTax.  Not that I can do anything with it.  Likely more than a month before I can do that.  Last year I had filed and THEN got another report of income.  I can't remember what it was but it was a small one so I just ignored it rather than submit an amended return.  I'm ready to file today if only everyone else were ready.

It looks like I'm in the same tax bracket.  Zero change for all the noise about how much things are changed this year.  We'll see how it goes but I suspect I'll break even, or close.  

Other than that it is time for a nap.  My brain is full.

I was in Times Square in 1978 at about 10PM.  It was not the chaos it is now, not a million people.  But did have a lot more porn theaters then.  My wife and I stood on the sidewalk until one of the NYC cops on horse surged into the crowd to break up a fight behind us.  Those horses are massive and she was pregnant so we decided that we'd see the rest on TV.  Walked back to our apartment on 86th street and it was fine.

In the 80's I was stationed on the west coast and learned that I could watch the ball drop at 9PM.  Only once since then have I intentionally stayed up to midnight.  And I didn't much enjoy that.  A party.

On Dec 31, 1981 I did stay up for two New Year's eves.  It was Singapore and at the time they were actually half an hour off from what is now Singapore Standard Time.  So they had New Year's Eve and then a second one half an hour later.  Singapore was much more interesting back then.  There were a lot of Aussies drinking and wandering around the streets singing Aussie songs.  They'd be thrown in jail now.  

Going to church on Sunday was about what it has always been.  The pews all around us were filled with my friend's family.  He and his wife have three natural children all nearing 20 and one of whom was giving his account of his missionary years in California.  They also have three adopted children in the 8-10 year range acquired from a druggy mom and dad.  So, six in all.  Mother and father and M-I-L and F-I-L.  They are all ridiculously nice and personable.  Really good people.  The people were fun.  Religion is about as dull as always.  I envied the youngest child who climbed all over and under the pews while the service was going on. 

Surprise, they don't have wine or even pretend wine (grape juice) nor do they transmogrify the water that they do have.  Just bread and water. 

I survived and even wore a coat and tie.  And am good for a few more decades.

Our attendance was appreciated.  All that mattered.

Three straight days of pickleball Mon-Wed.  It completely screws up my brain if I'm playing on a day that is not Monday/Wednesday/Friday but my body held up well.  I could play tomorrow.  I'm no more sore than playing every other day.  A tribute, I think, to being lighter on my feet.

Speaking of which I'm holding at 192 at the moment.  I dropped from 200 to 191 so quickly I was kind of getting concerned but now we've plateaued off, it seems.  I've put more effort recently into making sure I get enough protein.  It is a lot of work.

My tastes have changed a lot.  I don't enjoy fat as much as I used to.  It can make me nauseous.  Bacon.  Ham.  Too many cookies.  Etc.  I drink black coffee more than I used to.  

If they could invent a drug that would make me like vegetables I'd be golden.  But, alas, they all suck.

I'll be down in the 180's in January.  I've got 10 more pounds before I reassess where we are.  The plan I'm on renews for $1200 on 21 January.  Every 24 weeks.  I'm good with it for at least another half year.  The ground is moving all over between oral Semaglutide (I don't mind the shots at all) and insurance looking at the whole thing again so six months from now it will be different and maybe covered.  Or I'll hit 175 and start weaning myself off.  Lots of negative publicity over the end game but lots of screwy people in the world telling their stories.  I'm not likely to pay $2400/year for me and another $3k for Dana forever.  

Even then, there are worse ways to spend money.  Hell, YouTubeTV costs a grand per year.  

All for now.  If you've read this far, Happy New Year.  If not, so it goes.

 

They have this really cool ball machine at Tejas Pickleball.  It runs on a rechargable battery and has an app that does all kinds of amazing things.  You can tell the ball machine where it has been placed on the court, tell it what kind of shots you want including a shot series that you particularly want to practice.  How to rush the net and then get back quickly for a lob then back to a deep shot.  You can collect a bunch of different routines and link them together and practically play a game against the machine.  It is really amazing to do.  But it requires focus and effort and a lot of brainwork and time.  I have the app and know how to use it and, give that time and focus, can run it through its places.

So I requested some ball machine time.  The guy running things set me up with a block of time but opened it to anyone else up to a total of four people.  Three others signed up.  I got there and was in the process of setting up the machine and linking the app when two them showed up and said 'hey, I think this M button will run the maching just fine' and proceeded to take over and use the machine in its lowest possible usage.  Just same ball at same place over and over.  They were extatic that it worked and were running around like elementary school kids (they are likely a few years younger than me).  Didn't ask my opinion, didn't acknowlege that I had any place on the court or operating the machine.

I left.

Next time I need to figure out a way to lock everyone out and use the machine the way it is supposed to be used.

It was really not a happy event for me at all.  Monday I'll talk to the big guy and see if we can figure it out.

He inherited much of his personality from his Mom. He can hilariously funny and is very quick witted but just has maintained the dour demeanor throughout his life which included two marriages (no real causation there, just correlation). But recently every picture I see of him is like this:



The girl is someone he met a while back who lives four hours from him. They have been friends for a long time but, until recently, he has claimed that it is only friendship.

She travelled to my other son's wedding with him and they continued to NYC for a few days there.  And that was the end of the friendship and the beginning of something more.  

He's going to change jobs, move back to Des Moines, and they are going to share a house.  And I expect to see more pictures of him smiling.

Merry Christmas to me.

I got a newsletter from the Texas Humane Heroes shelter that had this in it:



Better pictures than I got.  I'm guessing he isn't there any more or won't be soon.  I'm not checking.  But he came from the same kind of background as Beaux so he will be the most grateful little guy.

Meanwhile both Beaux and Toby are getting better.  Still.  My only guess is they both are suffering from allergies on top of their fall respiratory infections.  Beaux is about 95% with only occasional coughing.  Toby sounds terrible much of the time but is still far better than he was.  He's on his third antibiotic and it is helping.  He's got trachea collapse that will never get much better so he frequently sounds like he can't breathe.  Sounds bad but he does not appear to be in as much distress as is Dana.

Today is another beautiful day that requires a bike ride.  So I'm off.