Good morning. Hello. How are you? #1118
The end to my three-hour standoff with Jane, Dune 2 thoughts, Mitch, AI licensing deals bum me out, voting uncommitted in the primary, Solar roof progress, 90's touring goth bands
Good morning. Hello. How are you? Happy Friday. I am alive. I am out of the car. The total time of Jane’s and my standoff yesterday: just under three hours. Eventually, her teacher and a school counselor came out to the car and they got her to enthusiastically head in to school in maybe five minutes. Which is hilarious cuz somewhere around the one hour mark, Jane and I were talking and I said “I bet if your teacher came out right now you’d go right in.”
And Jane answered: “Probably.”
I didn’t know such a thing was an option. I had emailed her teacher a couple periodic updates because I couldn’t say for sure if I was excusing a tardy or an absence. When I sent one around 10:00 saying I was probably giving up soon, the teacher said “Wait. We’ll come out.” She also told me next time I can just call the office and one of the counsellors will come out.
It was amazing. I went from feeling like an utter psychopath locked in a hopeless situation to the world’s greatest, kindest, most patient dad. Real emotional roller coaster.
Also Jane and I were both never mean, never unkind. Occasionally she’d raise her voice, and I’d say “let’s be kind” and she’d go back to being kind.
At one point I said: “your willpower is phenomenal. Don’t let anyone take it away from you. It will serve you well in life. I am proud of it…
“… but you shouldn’t use it on Mommy and Daddy.”
I didn’t see her the rest of the day or night because of my schedule, but when I caught up with Emma last night before bed she said that the times she tried to bring up the incident, Jane didn’t really want to talk about it, and I tried this morning, and she didn’t really want to talk about it either. Maybe in a few days. Or maybe it just wasn’t a big deal to her. Maybe if those counselors hadn’t come we’d still be there.
Man. That was crazy. Crazy!
In the end, all worked out. Except it was Leap Day and I was so excited to talk to you guys about Leap Day because I fuckin love Leap Day. And I forgot in my short GMHHAY from the truck cab yesterday. Alas. But I will tell you today: Leap Day rules, and I should have given them employee’s Leap Day off and if I am ever a CEO on a Leap Day again, everyone gets it off.
Yesterday was exhausting I am exhausted. After Jane, I came home and had to plow through all my work in, like, an hour, because I had taken the afternoon off, and I thought I’d have all morning to get my work done. Luckily the load (share the load mr frodo all lower case) wasn’t too bad and I got through it all.
Then Emma and I went to vote and I have to confess, I did it, I voted “uncommitted” instead of for Biden in the primary. Of course I’ll vote for him if I have to in the general. And I feel kinda bad because he has done a lot of great stuff, at least within the context of our small-minded governmental horizons. But on top of everything else this morning, I read about the the killing of a hundred (hundreds?) of Palestinians as they were trying to get food from the few aid trucks allowed into Gaza because the crowd was — as the Israelis put it, their words — “moving in a threatening manner.” Well okay, then. Better shoot a bunch of kids. And use tanks. Checks out. What this has to do with Biden is a good question because the way I clock it there is only one human being on the planet who has even the potential of power to stop this endless death, and that is Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.
And he does not.
I will take a misguided, probably-well-meaning-but-too-stuck-in-his-ways old man over a fascist any day, but, for now, that’s as far as I take it.
Okay so then I went to see Dune Part 2 and it was fucking awesome. I will not say too much about it, no spoilers or anything, but if you care about not tainting your experience, skip the next paragraph:
The heart rate monitor and the noise monitor on my watch both went off at the same time. It was intense! I get where Villeneuve is coming from on his comment that “dialogue is for television,” and the sparse dialog very much works in this film. But also I disagree and I think Zendaya especially deserved a single meaty speech somewhere. Rebecca Ferguson is amazing. Somehow I didn’t know that Christopher Walken was in it, he ruled. Honestly, I think it might have been better than Dune 1, and my expectations were higher. I haven’t felt giant urges to re-watch Dune 1, but i would re-watch this in a heartbeat. I cannot believe how fucking good it looked, everything looked so good. The Emperor’s ship. The Harkonnen fireworks. Oh my god the Harkonnen fireworks. Am I gonna have to read these books again? Lord help me.
First film I went to in a theater since No Way Home three years ago. I guess I only go to the theater for Zendaya films that is weird. I wore a mask the whole time. CO2 levels never got over 600. Only about 30 people in the theater and they were all behind me except for a couple about six feet away. I sat in the front row. It was majestic.
Discovered in the cartruck this morning that Bandcamp has an awesome CarPlay interface — arguably better than the actual iOS interface — and you can easily listen to all your music in CarPlay and I am very excited about this and I will be making extensive use of it in my endeavors to listen to more Laudadio and Aaron and the Lord and all of the new Cranes re-releases.
Also Cranes and Miranda Sex Garden are both doing shows these days in the UK. I mean, not together, but still. God. Living in England must rule.
Oh but that orchestral Sigur Ros show is coming to Durham this fall I am so excited.
Solar Roof people are back. Went up to the attic yesterday to inspect their work and there were a few fuckups with where the wiring was laid and whatnot. I texted the boss this morning and this is the amazing text I got back:
I love people who use verbal transcription. It’s always such garbage for me in iOS. I don’t understand how it works so well for other people (looking at you Katherine and Lisa).
Anyway then we did a pools/storage meeting. We interviewed a new employee and sorted out the closing on the construction loan for the storage facility. It closes today at 2. Apparently our wives have to be there. This would have been good to know earlier. Emma accommodated but she loves last-minute appointments about as much as I love phone calls out of the blue. But IT IS HAPPENING. I am excited. $5MM. Insanity. Lunacy. The pool company has been quite the journey indeed.
Oh jesus! I forgot! I also spent an hour finishing up sanding the wall patch job and then meticulously vacuuming and wiping down every surface in the extra room that the (now two) neurodivergent pediatric speech therapist ladies are renting. Got covered in dust, had to shower. Man how did I cram that in. SO MUCH.
It’s not painted (hoping to go the paint store today with a sample), but it’s occupiable!
Oh man I have so many other topics. Should I save them for long essays or should I just plow through them. I will save the shelf bracket saga for later. That’s a good one. On the other ones, we’ll do some quick commentary here:
Mitch McConnell is stepping down as Majority leader in the fall. Or Minority. Or wherever they end up. Do I grasp that this is a Trump victory? Yes. But I can still be smug about it. Good riddance. Here is the song I wrote about Mitch for good measure:
I am deeply, deeply disappointed in Automattic for signing an AI licensing deal against Wordpress.com and Tumblr content. I know this is inevitable for basically every social network — the day Substack does it is the day I nuke this entire site and move it to another platform. But honestly, I thought higher of them. Matt Mullenweg is one of the, perhaps the only, internet titan I still deeply respect. And they’re our largest client so I probably shouldn’t be saying anything. No one go tell him, please? This is just between you and me. We’re just a wee little newsletter here about domestic pedestrianism let’s not mess things up.
Speaking of which, I know I’ve said it already but the whole thing where I wrote a pointless, boring AF rant about sauces and fridges and you guys came back not only bonding over it but offering hella useful suggestions might be the single most positive interaction I have had on the internet since that beautiful woman stranger showed up at the SoHo Barbarian office to give me free codeine in 2006. Just the best. You guys rule.
I would like to go on record saying that I am not opposed to surge pricing in fast food restaurants with the huge caveat: it should only be cheaper prices in the slow hours, not more expensive in the busy hours, because that will fuck hourly employees who are stuck with a specific time for a lunch break. Shades of memories of my days as a temp at Bank of America waiting in line at one of the two Wendy’s in Downtown Crossing. My god I love Wendy’s. I mean, I haven’t eaten there since May 7, 2022, but I still freakin love it.
I remember that day because it was my 50th birthday, I was hung over, and I treated myself to two vaccines and Wendy’s and… well. That was a mistake.
Oh and to close that out, Jane was absolutely great this morning, no problems with going to school, wore her crazy socks for crazy socks day and we had a great time this morning. Life goes on.
Long after the thrill of living is gone.
Today’s Media of the Day is this new track from Kacey Musgraves. Was a bit worried about the new album after the first single, “Deeper Well,” which I did not love but this one seems solid and I am now excited about it.
Talk to you guys Monday where I will regale you with tales of greenhouses and Walmart runs.
What do you use for CO2 monitoring?
Totally agree with you on Biden’s support of Netanyahu. Have you listened to Ezra Klein on why Biden should drop out of the race & leave it to the Democratic convention?