Hey There!
It's 7:54 AM EDT, 62°F, Humidity 86%, Wind 3 mph E, overcast
One can't really be too accurate about the timing of these events, but as I awoke this morning and looked at the time and then out the window, the feeling that The Long Grey has arrived was palpable. The Long Grey is essentially the period of time when sunshine is rare. There is not a hint of sunshine today, and sunshine will be in less abundance for the next six months. Time to get prepared.
Yesterday, after my morning routine, I watched the condensed version of the ball game. We are getting wins, but so is the team in front of us in the standings, so we're not gaining ground. But the wins are still important. Then DW came in complaining that the mice are returning for the fall, so I bought my fall collection of mouse traps and bait to get rid of them. it's an annual ritual. Then I checked on my rotisserie team, for which I have no significant moves to make. And finally I tried to get a long-term read on the winter forecast. It looks to be a 50-50 winter; could be mild, could be bad. The El Niño effect will be strong, but unpredictable.
In the afternoon I went down to the performing arts venue to usher a screening of the National Theatre of London's production of Hadestown. The production was good, with spectacular (if repetitive) technical effects, but I really wasn't pleased with the way the story concluded. And again, it's sort of an assault on the senses, a high-energy, high-paced operetta without scenes. I imagine young people love it, but I also imagine they don't really fully comprehend it either.
That took me to about 4PM. When I came home, DW was on the phone with her niece, who is trying desperately to get her mother into assisted living. We may be close. It would be a major accomplishment if it happens. I think DW's sister is finally realizing she can't go home again, so she's putting up less resistance. The finances will be a challenge.
I ate a meat loaf sandwich as an early dinner because I was pretty hungry by then. After that, I went upstairs and decided to update the operating system on my bootable SSD which has Mint Linux on it. I still don't know what to do with it, as there is no obvious use case, but it's always good to keep these things current.
The little 100W foldable solar panel came as well, so I set that up in the back porch just to look at it. Given the weather, solar testing might not be terribly effective this week, but at least it's there, and I can take it to the campsite and set it up.
We did not have an official dinner, so when 7 PM came we tuned into the WPBL championship Game 3. I watched a few innings before switching to my team's action. The SF Firebells came out swinging, and the LA Queens could not recover, so they lost 10-5, forcing a Game 4. I watched my team until the top of the 9th, when it was tied 3-3. I decided to catch the end of the game this morning, which I haven't done yet. While watching, I also flipped through some web sites via Kagi Small Blog, but didn't find anything too interesting. Between web surfing and watching the game, bedtime came around 11:15 PM.
That's all for now. 'Til We Meet Again!