An Update

Sing Credence Clearwater Revival to me.  I dare you.

Tomorrow will be the conclusion of two months in Lodi.  Not much changes out here.  The site has reached a point of low visible change.  We're doing deep work that produces a lot of soil to be hauled off, but at the end of the day doesn't look that different.  Eventually yes, but not so much right now.

So then there are my evenings.  I get up early.  I'm talking nearly Ninja Space Monkey early.  Nearly.  I'm on site between 10 and 11 hours, typically and then I get back to the hotel.  I make dinner, and read a little.  I tend to fall asleep around 9:30.  I am reminded of the anger my mother speaks of occasionally about how I when I was very little, she would find me smiling and quiet in my crib when she came to get me in the morning.  I'm no less quiet now, and actually quieter than my parents ever were in the morning.  I really don't like a lot of noise until I've been up for at least half an hour.  Or more.

This has made breakfast a bit of a trial at the hotel as they have both a television going with KCRA morning news as well as background music.  I do tend to get the day's ear-worm there though.

Reading has been good.  I finished Pratchett's Discworld, and have blazed through three Stephen King books.  Doctor Sleep is really a great book that answers the questions "Whatever happened to Danny Torrance after the events in The Shining?"  The fun thing about Dan Torrance is that he is about my age.  If it's been several years since you've read The Shining, I would recommend re-reading it before hitting Doctor Sleep.  It's not essential, but it keeps you in the mindset.

Now I'm moving on to a book by Andy Weir.  The route to getting to this book for me was a little circuitous, but still kind of cool.  I read a lot of webcomics.  One of the oldest out there, and truly the standard for regularity in internet publishing (he's missed only one update in over 5,000 strips, and that was a software or server failure) is "Schlock Mercenary".  It has been the source of much humor over the years, one of my favorites coming from an AI saying, "Please don't make me add "rounding pi down to 3" to your list of crimes."

On the side, Howard Tayler paints miniatures, reviews movies, and occasionally reviews books.  Recently he recommended The Martian by Andy Weir.  I immediately recognized the name from a now defunct and truly missed webcomic "Casey and Andy".  Please note that the link goes tot he first strip, because the last strip is incredibly full of spoilers.  Another strip full of geekdom jokes, it makes me all the more exscited to check out the new book.

All Grown Up

What common phrase is it that we all suffer through as children?

"Don't worry, you'll grow into it."

I had issues with shoes.  I rarely got to wear a pair out, and if a pair did happen to wear out, then it was a sure sign of shoddy workmanship.

Jennifer talks about growing out of pants in a season.

And where does that leave me now?  It has taken years to be comfortable in clothes that fit, specifically ones that do not have room to grow into.

Now this isn't an attack on my parents.  I know how expensive shoes are, and as a necessary wearer of Stride-Rites due to narrow ankles and wide... whatever you call the end with the toes, I was not cheaply dressed.  We developed a pattern of buying the shoes as a first stop in the mall, then doing the rest of the shopping.  If Erik was uncomfortable walking or developing blisters from walking in the mall, then the shoes got returned (this happened more than once).

So, now I am becoming comfortable with wearing clothes that cling and hug.  I will admit that I still have trouble buying shoes without allowing for at least an extra half an inch of room in the toes.