"It says here..."

I love the musical “Guys and Dolls”, partly because it’s based on the stories of Damon Runyon. And I love his stories. But from the opening “Fugue for Tinhorns” through “Luck Be a Lady” to “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat”, it’s just a delight for me—the songs, the characters, the nonsense.

I don’t know why, but lately I’ve been channeling Miss Adelaide, especially her “Adelaide’s Lament”. So that’s my earworm for you today, Vivian Blaine, who originated the role on Broadway (it was written for her), sings it in the 1955 film.

 

 

 

Local developments

Lotta activity in the ‘hood yesterday. Viz:

Dunno when this happened, exactly, but we had very high winds a few days ago and a couple of gully washers on Tuesday:

Then I noticed that someone has discovered two trees on the corporate campus are just right for a hammock and lazing away the afternoon:

By contrast, this guy was in quite the hurry:

 

 

 

Puffery

As you know, I walk mostly for the purpose of taking photos. Because of National Poetry Month, I have a backlog of them. Viz, shots of dandelions:

I can't seem to get enough of the puffs:

 

 

 

Hooking up

Maybe a couple of years ago, my Internet connection went to hell and I spent about four hours of a Saturday morning with Comcast getting it restored. Since I have their so-called “Triple Play” package, it was kind of necessary.

Somehow in the course of that marathon session, the Comcast support person bypassed my router and dumped wi-fi on the cable modem. I did not notice this until I was trying to hook up Cedric, the Roomba, to the network; it requires 2.4Ghz, and it seems I only have 5Ghz. This means that Cedric just rambles aimlessly around my house until either I guide him back to his docking station or he runs out of juice.

Some time last year, I ordered and assembled an adjustable standing desk to work on, because, frankly, it’s really bad for me to be doing all this work in an Ikea chair. I got it, the docking pod, the external keyboard, the mouse and the monitor all sorted. Then I discovered that that one spot in my house is a black hole in my wireless network.

Poop.

Well, in order to re-establish my router, I had to buy an ethernet cable, plus an adapter to my laptop. I got those about three months ago and they sat in my office like the refugees in Casablanca, just…waiting. Finally, this weekend, I consulted Google, unwrapped the cable and adapter and blow me if I didn’t connect the router.

And double blow me—that fixed the black hole.

Yesterday was the first day since 12 March 2020 that I worked at a desk, with a mouse and monitor and keyboard.

Now I need to sort the 2.4Ghz thing, because Cedric has become quite the slacker. 

 

 

Gratitude Monday: Pivoting

My Friday late-afternoon yoga lesson marks the pivot point between my work week and the weekend. Sometimes not completely—there are times when work slops over into “free” hours, and occasionally my instructor or I have had to reschedule to Saturday instead. But in general, the focus on yoga, followed by Friday night homemade pizza is my transition ritual.

A couple of weeks ago, since we are both two weeks past our second vaccination, my instructor came to my house and we did it in person, which is da absolute bomb. Bridge-up-the-wall is hard to explain over Zoom, but in person it’s pretty much a snap, and it’s one of those poses that you can picture getting you through a product governance meeting when all else fails.

Also, we had quite a post-lesson chat, and I can’t tell you how wonderful that feels to be doing across a room instead of across several router hops.

That evening, my power went out; it went out through the hood, so it wasn’t anything I did. I was sitting at table, watching an old Poirot episode, eating my pizza bianca insalata, when the lights and TV cut. But my pizza was already cooked, and I had my tableful of candles lighting my dinner, so I just continued on in the silence and peace of the start-of-weekend.

Power came back later, long enough to recharge my mobile, which was at 21%, and then it went back off for another hour or so. By the time it came back, I was ready for bed—reset half a dozen clocks and tumbled in.

So here’s my gratitude today: the blessing of yoga, personal instruction, the demarcation between work and not-work, and the reminder that I can get along fine with pizza, candles and my own thoughts.