< Notes...

First time replying to a MastoPrompt (a request for everyone, anyone, to offer a small poem about a certain word). The word was “alone”. My entry:

Assuming forgotten I felt despair,
sat there, alone, among empty chairs.
My child showed up, his smile all wide,
His ask “Talk to me, papa!” broke the divide.
Alone no more.

Random morning thought: underwear should never, ever, ever be white, or light colored. Speaking from a man’s perspective, of course. Can’t speak for the other side. 😅

Asked a friend who consistently walks 10,000 daily steps about his secret. He replied about setting interim targets, pretty much breaking the walks in three chunks. I think that’s a doable approach. I just need to wake up a tad earlier.

When I told him it gets boring for me, as I walk inside my neighborhood, and often feels like “walking on a wheel like a hamster”, he replied “It’s true it can be boring. You have to get your mind working while walking!” I need to get my mind to work harder, for sure.

Seven days ago I mowed the lawn. It rendered five 33 gallons bags full of mulched grass. Today I had to do it again (3 bags this time). With the occasional rain, and the shinning sun, our lawn is growing “a tad” too fast. I can’t keep up! 🥵

I want to learn Japanese enough so that I can converse with a cab driver, restaurant host, or hotel staff when I return. Yet, on the age of computing, I am failing to find a sound resource to do so. I would also like to enlist a Japanese national locally, so I can rent some lessons from.

If you know of any good resource, and/or anyone local, please let me know!

It is that time of the month in which I have to touch grass, literally. The lawn is almost knee high, so I am sure I will go through the three fully charged batteries this time. All under 91°F temperatures. Lovely.

Base solely on how much I like to eat spam, I think I am Hawaiian, or Filipino. Need to go easy, though, as even the “25% less salt” is super salty.

Wow! This Monday has been crazy just up until now. Truly crazy! I wonder what the rest of the day will pan out to be. Oh, and the rest of the week! 😬

And just like that Sunday almost ends, and, thus, this glorious weekend. Accomplished quite a bit. Dog tired.

Time spent looking for a public notary capable of handling a will: 5 hours. Some money spent on clothing. Craving for chili quenched (Steak and Shake’s one ain’t bad!). Saturday sunsets.

It’s now my turn. The challenge now is not to pass it to kid (he is a week away from his trip), and to get well before our upcoming trip. Ugh³!

Wife getting sick is the second worse thing that can happen, right after kid getting sick. Me getting sick will be the third. And the timming of it. Oof!

I welcome Mondays with love, with hope. Yet, no matter what I do, things that seemingly happen just on Mondays come to sour my mood. Why, o why?!

Friday has long sunsetted, but not over yet. What to do for the night? What to cook? Both important questions, for which I have nil answers. 😅

The weekend begins for me now, and I have absolutely nothing to do (well, I am sure Kim could find something for me to do, but I am not going to let her know I am off. Haha!). I am leaning towards going to mum’s to pet and feed her chicken. Then just lazy around, because if that is not a great use of my free time, what is?

There are days you are up, and look around and down. There are days you are down, and do your best to look up. I am having one of the second.

“This is a teenager” is an interactive webpage well worth watching. I can assure you! Take your time, go slowly. Read, and understand. Then, if you can, react.

Thoughts whilst walking at lunch time. For someone obsessive, having chrome faucets, door handles, and a only-glass shower is a major problem. The reasons are obvious, right? Possible remedy: use car wax to slightly coat the chrome surfaces, and Rain-X—or similar—for the glass surfaces.

Son got a little melancholic when I told him I might not be around for the next total solar eclipse in 2045. “Come on, papá, take care of yourself, exercise, and be healthy. You can do it!” — he told me.

I live for the people I love, for the people I care about. I want to continue, I want to be around. If anything, for him, for my family, for my friends.

About this one, it was sensational in TX, and other areas in which it was total, so everybody says. In Florida? Just another day.

I have to be the least excited around here about the total Solar eclipse. Our moon comes between our Sun, and us. So what? 😂

The Porch sells some mean (as in big), delicious hamburgers. After having one of those, with the two sides, and almost all of their humungous drink, I am ready for a nap 🤭. But… walk I shall.

I want to do something different this weekend, but I don’t know what. I don’t know why I chose to wait till the weekend; I could do something different today. Yet, it is human nature to pick a special occasion, to do something special (different, in this case), and we generally consider weeekends a treat.

Rainy day, my kind of day. Tomorrow is forecasted to be too. This is what I call a nice weekend!

“You have got to exercise more”, said the doctor. Not just exercise, because I do. He said more. I know, Doc. I know.

Having grown used to hear the rubbish truck picking up the bins before 07:00, this eerie silence is throwing me off. They are slacking today!

Class Action Lawsuits are worthless, from the monetary point of view. You get cents, or a few dollars. Not worth it. Yet, there is no way to avoid them, and you must remove yourself from each one of them you might be unlucky enough to be on. Removal, to add aggravation, must be done via old fashion paper letter-in-the-mail. Ugh!

Last night, after partner finished cooking, in, and on the side of kitchen sink: 5 big knives, 2 small knives, three cutting boards, three frying pans, two medium size pots, one large pot, two colanders, many chopticks and spoons. A full rubbish.

Can’t believe we are almost at the half of the first month of the year mark! It seems to me I saw fireworks just yesterday. Lunar New Year is fastly approaching!

If I am lucky to live until I am 80 years old, I only have 1280 Sundays remaining. That number sure puts things in perspective, doesn’t it? You can add the extension to your Chrome, or Edge browser.

Was too busy—or too lazy—to drop a note on new year’s evening. I have been using iOS Journal, which now holds some notes I would have dropped here otherwise. Journal has bugs, and it isn’t great, but I am betting on it getting better.

It is already 2 January 2024, but not too late to wish you all a happy new year!

Why should I be happy? How can I? My friends Chuck, and Justyna, have cancer. They have suffered, and continue to suffer, very, very much. Their family, and friends, suffer.

War rages on in Ukraine, in Israel, in Palestine. Conflicts, and deep poverty, remain in Africa, Asia, Central, and South America; pain and death everywhere. Children are being exploited, and women, and people all over the world. There is so much suffering, and horror. How could I be happy? Where can I fit a bit of it?

I can’t be happy. Nobody truly should.

Looming upcoming changes at work. As of 8 January 2024, show up to office on Mondays and Wednesdays. Mandatory. As of August 2024, show up to office three days a week: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Also mandatory. This is going to be the biggest mistake of 2024.

Miscellaneous things. Every day when I wake up I feel thankful by the simple fact I did wake up. I also think of everyone I care about, and wish them well. Yes, that means you.

Even with my deafening tinnitus I try very hard to enjoy a moment of “silence” each day. I do my best to welcome each Monday as if it was a Friday.

Between being sick, then work, then house problems, I have ended up having no inspiration, nor desire, nor words to bring here. “Nothing lasts forever”, I keep repeating to myself. Then again, that’s one of my problems, literally.

This week recount, starting Friday 6 October 2023.

• Pickup my friend (but brother in reality) Martin at the airport. He will stay with us until Tuesday, 10 October.
• Took Martin around town all Saturday, watched movies at night.
• Went to Saint Augustine, “the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in what is now the contiguous United States” on Sunday. Watched more movies at night.
• Took Martin even more places Monday morning, went to The H for dinner. Yes, you guessed it, more binge occurred at night.
• Went for breakfast at Chick-fil-A, lunch at Don Julio, and then talked to Martin non-stop till it was time to take him to the airport. We had lots to catch up. Still have much more.
• Missed my friend all night.
• Worked mostly on Ubuntu related tasks the rest of the week, till today.

On January 2021 our Chief Information Officer (CIO) was hired. His last day will be 15 November 2023. He is moving to greener pastures at Texas State University. Go Bobcats!

It is going to be an interesting period this year end… and half of the next.

Light rain has come to change my afternoon plans. Perhaps it will let me bike? Haven’t done it for the last four days, and I am starting to miss the lack of pain in my legs.

Rainy Sunday, my kind of days: rainy, and Sunday. Wish there was more like these, more often!

It is that time of the week again, in which the front lawn and I spend quality time together. The backyard time will come soon after, otherwise jealousy ensues.