Week in Review: Week 1,223,978

Or so it seems….

Monday June 8, 2020

I had the day off from work today. I took it easy. It was nice out – dry and mild – so I had the windows open for a change. As soon as the slightest bit of moisture comes in from rain or humidity, it is positively squishy in here. Gross. So I weigh my window-opening decision very carefully. And no one loves an open window more than me.

I ventured into Bagel Land. And I don’t know if it’s that I was SO EXCITED to have a Real Bagel after almost three months, or I’ve gotten blase about that whole pandemic thing, but I realized after coming home and eating my wonderful, wonderful bagel that I had forgotten to wash my hands after being out. I felt like I needed to call in the hazmat suit guys to hose me down with disinfectant.

Then I had the most glorious four hours reading on the sofa. I’d thought about driving somewhere but opted for the cool solitude of the cave. It was the right decision.

And tomorrow, back to work (from home).

Tuesday

Got to ease into Back to Work with a day of webinars on the patio with warm breezes and eau de low tide from the pond below.

An adventurous trip to the post office and a slice of pizza for dinner.

I’m livin’ large.

Wednesday

Met a friend after work to sit in the grass along the edge of an empty library parking lot.

It was National Iced Tea Day and you have to know I was all over that.

Thursday

Muggy and disgusting out. Almost time to close up the windows (it gets squishy in here when it’s humid or rainy out) and get Landlord Jim to put the air conditioner in. I won’t let myself ask him until I’ve thrown out the dead fern and put away the Christmas decorations (at this point I should almost just leave them out for this Christmas). Air conditioning will be my reward.

Okay, I have a question and maybe someone here has experience with this and will know what might help. First: new computer, new keyboard, new mouse. Keyboard has the most annoying lag. I type. I wait for letters to appear on screen. They may or may not. So I retype and now everything appears twice but with dropped letters. OR there’s not a delay, but it just drops letters. When you try to backspace to correct misspelled words, nope. Some days are better than others. Sometimes a computer reboot helps for a short time. Sometimes turning the keyboard on and off helps for a short time. Sometimes picking it up and shaking it helps for a short time. Oh, I’ve already changed the batteries, twice, so I don’t think it’s that. Uninstalling and reinstalling the keyboard driver helps for a short time. Removing the dongle from the processor and replacing it helps for a short time (are you seeing the trend here?). There’s something in utility manager (or whatever it’s called), under keyboards, I’ve turned all those settings off and back on. It is not every time I’m on the computer but for someone who spends as much time on the computer as I do, it’s Too Much.

There’s some program you can buy for $39 that’s supposed to magically repair all keyboard driver issues, but I don’t know how it can claim that when it doesn’t know the source of the issue, so I have been reluctant to spend that money. It says OR…you can do it yourself in just a few easy steps (great, I’m in). The “few easy steps” involved downloading like 12 different things and each one was supposed to take an hour to load. So I did the first part of the first step and then quit cuz 12 hours, no thank you. BUT whatever I did kept the keyboard pretty obedient for a week or so.

But the plot thickens. A few days in of cooperative keyboard, the mouse started acting up! Stopping just short of everywhere I was trying to move the cursor…cursor getting stuck, etc. That, I MIGHT be able to contribute to the rain/humidity. Everything in here is damp. The wood of the vanity I sit at is dampish. I tried using a leather folio as a mouse pad. That helped for a short time. I put back the book I usually use as a mousepad and it helped for a short time. It was worst when I was trying to edit pictures and I couldn’t stand it. I tried switching the keyboard and mouse dongles. Now the keyboard was bad again.

AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!

I’ve seen some other advice on the internet about going into dos (is it still called that?) and typing in all sorts of things, but that stuff scares me. I’m always afraid I’m gonna mistype something and kill my computer.

Oh, also, the processor is right next to the desk. It’s on the floor, but other than being raised up to the same height as the desk, I can’t get the dongle and the mouse (or keyboard) any closer than they already are. Some advice had been to make sure they weren’t too far apart.

Anybody? Anything? It is making me CRAZY. It’s doing it Right Now and it has taken For Ever to type just these few paragraphs.

Friday

Worked from home til after lunch then went into the office. I have to start going in 2-3 times a week, not for the whole day, but…as long as I’m going I take laundry and that ends up taking half a day, so. They’re brand new but they are the slowest washer and dryer I have ever dealt with. Then met up with a friend in a relatively desolate park where we just sat in the grass in our beach chairs. Met a beautiful Harlequin Great Dane and three greyhounds.

Saturday

Another day, another parking lot. Met two friends mid-day at a different marina parking lot. I got there much later than they did so it wasn’t a long visit. But it was a pretty day. And I got soaked by sprinklers coming on three times. Don’t ask.

Then came home and blew off my to-do list and lay on the sofa til almost dark, reading.

Sunday

Headed out early with a friend to my favorite spot: Peconic River Herb Farm (which I just showed a week or so ago in Throwback Thursday). We walked around, enjoyed all the charming details, sat in the shade on the wooden swing at the edge of the river and listened to the bullfrogs. Did a little photoshoot, which I will share on Wednesday. I bought a couple more plants. We went to cute little lunch place with outdoor seating. I had a “many wonderful things blended together” smoothie, watermelon and berry salad. AND. The most delightful piece of pistachio cake. It was small, light, refreshing, and just the right amount of sweet. Pistachio cake is not something I see too often so it’s usually my choice when I do see it.

Oh, and after today, here’s a realization: I’m not going to be doing much this summer. I am normally hotter than anyone I know (not in the good way), but with a mask on??? It’s ridiculous. Once I’m hot and sweating and the mask is soaked and I can’t take a breath of clear air, I get a little claustrophobic feeling like GET THIS THING OFF ME I CAN’T BREATHE. And then you get in the hot car with other people so you’re STILL wearing the mask and can’t get the air conditioning on your face CUZ MASK. Nope. Pass.

Yesterday I did buy two linen masks off Etsy. I know it’s a No Clothes Buy month but I really need to find an alternative to these blue masks before it gets any hotter.

Now I’m home and I’m just waiting for the sun to go down a bit so it’s cooler…and for Landlord Jim to be done burning the weeds. It’s a thing he does. With like a giant blowtorch thing. Men, amIright??Anyway, once it’s safe to go outside, I intend to clean the back of my car out (which still has stuff from my move here over a year ago) so I can load it up with stuff for the dumpster at work this week.

And that week is in the books!

WHAT i’M READING

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. I know I read this many years ago and liked it…but couldn’t actually remember it. She is a lovely storyteller and had an interesting life. This is the first in a series of autobiographies. It starts with her as a young girl not too long after The Depression; living with her brother, uncle, and grandmother in the poor black section of a small town in the south…and ends with her at 16, living with her mother in San Francisco, and having just had her first child. 4.25/5

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff. Hmm. It’s a good story, it’s an interesting premise. It has some chapters that are way too high-fallutin’ for me – one of the main characters is a playwright who revises Shakespeare and makes other subjects Shakespearesque and it’s all a lot of whom whomp to me. It is certainly surprising. I like when I can be legitimately surprised and don’t get to page 3 and am pretty sure I know where it’s all going. It didn’t hit me emotionally in any way and I really save my highest recommendations for those that do. So I will recommend it but not in the OH MY GOSH YOU HAVE GOT TO READ THIS BOOK way. If someone asked me if it was worth reading, I would say yes. 4/5

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin Diangelo. I’ve been working on this one slowly, have restarted it twice, but it’s going to be awhile til I’m done since reading nonfiction for me is just…not good. I try so hard to pay attention and I think I am and the birds sound nice outside and the blanket feels cozy on my legs and did i drink the last of my iced tea and Jayne get off me and OH. Three pages later I realize I have no idea what I just read. So my goal now is just to read a chapter a day. Maybe I can stick with it better in smaller chunks. This was a problem for me in school. As much as I love to read…I love to read STORIES. Fact Books (ha ha, aka non-fiction) just don’t hold my attention, no matter what the facts. But I’m sticking with it.

WHAT I’M LISTENING TO

Remember when I said I hard time reading non-fiction cuz “facts” just don’t stick with me the way a story does? This is why I love so many of the NPR shows. They take some little bit of information, some fact, some bit of news – that would normally just roll off my hard head – and turn it into a story. You hear from the real-life characters. You hear their voices, their passion, their emotion. They make facts palatable.

This week my two favorite podcast episodes were:

1. Planet Money: Patent Racism. I wouldn’t usually listen to a Planet Money podcast. It’s exactly what it sounds like: a podcast about the economy. I must have hit it accidentally and I was driving so couldn’t change it…and I’m glad, because it was really good and…the phrase I seem to be saying every day these days, “eye-opening.” I don’t want to try and “bullet point” the whole story, which I don’t want to do because I’m hoping some of you will listen and I don’t want to spoil it. It’s 25 minutes. It’s very interesting, a little shocking, and a good listen.
2. The Daily (from the New York Times) The Song That Found Me. There’s an article by the same writer but…if you can…listen to the podcast…so you get the emotion in the voices. And there’s a wonderful surprise. It’s 21-minutes long.

The Daily is the one I try to listen to, uh, daily. If I can only get to one, this is the one.

WHAT’S COMING UP

Monday: Week in Review

Tuesday:

Wednesday: Outfit Post & Field Trip

Thursday:

Friday: Not sure yet

Saturday: Work from Home Wardrobe