Year 50 Day 84

Me, my mother-in-law, and my wife sitting in our basement. I and my MIL are sitting on a couch, my wife is at a card table in front of a just-started puzzle. A shelf full of movies and more puzzles is behind her.

Day 84: My mother-in-law is visiting for a couple days. After a pleasant dinner and walk around the neighborhood, we came downstairs to watch the World Aquatic Championships and work on a puzzle for a while.

Year 50 Day 83

An old photo of me at around three years old, sitting in my mom’s lap as she sits in a rocking chair, dressed in a pink robe, holding up a Playboy centerfold and showing it to me.

Day 83: Well, it was bound to happen eventually – not only did I forget to post, but I forgot to even take a photo on this day! As penance, a shot from my childhood, as my mom introduces me to the wonderful world of pornography.

Year 50 Day 81

Me standing outside our front door, holding onto the pull rope dangling from an antique cast-iron bell hanging next to our door.

Day 81: A bit of home improvement we’ve been meaning to do for a long time — mounting an antique cast-iron bell that my wife inherited from her great-grandmother. It hung outside her door for years, and this is the second home we’ve had where it’s hung outside ours. To mangle a Crocodile Dundee quote, “That’s not a doorbell. This is a doorbell.”

Year 50 Day 80

My wife and I sitting in front of a poster for the Barbie movie. I'm wearing black shorts and a black t-shirt with a pink skull and crossbones and bright pink Converse, my wife is wearing a pink sweater over a black top and skirt and light pink Converse.

Day 80: I’ll say a little more in a separate post, but in brief, Barbie is excellent. The less you know going in, the better, but even if you’ve been reading reviews and articles about it, there’s so much in here that will surprise you. If you’re even remotely curious, it’s worth your time.

Year 50 Day 78

Me standing in a parking lot outside the Highline College library, a very square, somewhat brutalesque 1960s-era building, on a sunny morning.

Day 78: Got to work and found that just about ten minutes before, the entire campus had lost power. The power company had been notified, but had no idea of the cause and no solid ETA for a fix, so it was back home for me! By the time I got home, campus was officially closed until 10 a.m., and we’ll see what sort of notices we get as the day goes by. Either the power comes back and I head back to campus, or I just work from home after ten.

Year 50 Day 77

Me in our bathroom with a toothbrush in my mouth and a disgusted expression on my face.

Day 77: I don’t normally go directly to brushing my teeth immediately after coming home from work. But then, I don’t normally get surprised by suddenly getting a clumsy bug for an impromptu snack during an afternoon walk outside. Ew.

Year 50 Day 76

Me standing in my office. The wall behind me is lined with white bookcases filled with books, plus various toys and knicknacks. The top shelf has Star Trek DVDs on one half, lots of stuffed penguins on the other half. In front of a closet is a grey chair that somewhat resembles the chairs on the bridge of the Enterprise 1701-D.

Day 76: Since back on day 61 I mentioned that I was having trouble finding an angle that didn’t show how messy my office was, I figured that since part of this weekend’s chores was cleaning up, I should provide evidence that I can make things presentable if I try hard enough.

Read more

📚 Hyperion by Dan Simmons

33/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1990 Hugo Best Novel

Still as engrossing as when I first read it, many years ago. Far-future space opera on a huge scale, but presented through a series of vignettes shared by members of a band of pilgrims (if this sounds rather like Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, be glad you got a good education in classic literature) heading toward what seems to be an unpleasant fate for all of them…and possibly billions more. Amusingly, while I knew that this was part of a series (originally two books, then four) because I have all of them on my shelf, I’d forgotten that the next book is not so much a sequel as the second half of a single story. Good thing I can just head upstairs and grab the next book to keep going!

NOTE: Given Simmons’ descent into right-wing politics, including Islamophobia and publicly attacking Greta Thunburg, he has earned a space on my “milkshake duckvirtual bookshelf, collecting those authors whose work I discovered, enjoyed, and might still enjoy, before later realizing that they are what I consider to be rather horrible people.

Me holding Hyperion