Good morning. Hello. How are you? #604
Powerwall installation, diet, trip planning, maybe the Brits can seize the Fabergé eggs after all.
Good morning! Hello, how are you, my fellow humans? I’m okay, just did my daily morning look at the news and it looks like shit is getting increasingly messed up in Ukraine, that is horrible. Man this is not a great way to wake up every morning, but solidarity and all that. Keeping my emotional health in peril is good for the war cause, right? I believe it.
It is Friday, I do not have it off, and I really need to transcribe the audio off of this video I have sitting on my desktop, I have been procrastinating on it all week. I know there are services that can do this, but the transcription is the first part in writing a paper about the topic covered in the video, and the paper needs to maintain that artisnal, honest feel that can only come from me doing all of the tedious labor myself, rather than outsourcing it. A fine corporate document is like a fine beer in the 80’s, you need that artisinal mountain spring water. No shortcuts. People can tell if you use Voice Bunny in your writing, they just know it gives the whole thing a bit of a stale taste. Just like publishing companies or PR campaigns.
We had no power for four hours or so yesterday as they installed more Powerwalls onto our house because I am paranoid and I decided we didn’t have enough of them because, you know, the world is going to fall apart and when it does I want plenty of solar power, even though, you know, rule of law and shit and someone will probably just come and take my house away from me. In the more immediate term, though, as the world falls apart the number of storms hitting the Piedmont will continue to grow, and, you know, it’s only a matter of time until one overwhelms the repair trucks and we go ten days without power. It seems inevitable, really. It was kind of nice to go without Power for a day, though, but also mainly because it was basically exactly room temperature outside, so we didn’t need to worry about heating or cooling.
Also it’s very weird that Powerwalls come in boxes, like they’re a DVD player or something. The things are so big and heavy they take two men and a hydrolic jack to move. Why don’t they just come wrapped on a pallette? Very strange.
Houses are such emotional traps. I secretly fantasize about moving, but then I’m like “what, so you can go through the super fun experience of installing new solar panels, batteries, tankless hot water heaters, replace all of the aging appliances, and god knows what else?” I’m always harboring secret dreams of owning the lots next to this one so I can slowly own the entire pond out back, and man, Emma yesterday, she just hit me with a precise surgical strike throwing a hornet’s nest into those dreams. We’re bitching about how much work it is to own a house, and how had it is to find people to work on it, and she’s like “Now imagine owning two.” Dammit.
Except recently my dream has been to buy the house on the adjacent 18-acre lot and turn it into a hobby of slowly tearing it down, board by board, by hand. That seems like it would be super fun and commensurate with my handyman skills — highly skilled in theory, horribly sloppy in practice. Then I would just replace the house with a garden, a prefab greenhouse, a prefab cabin, and a large solar array.
Country dreamin.
I hit a new low on my Wegovy-backed diet yesterday, I am down twenty-seven pounds, still going strong. I was going to wait till I got to thirty pounds down, which should, hopefully, be another three weeks or so, but it occurrs to me that SXSW is this week, and I am not going, and I am sad about that because I still love SXSW but I will think about going again next year. But historically, for, like, ten-plus years, SXSW marked the end of my January diet, because, you know, Tacos and Lone Star. I sure miss Austin.
I sure miss lots of places, however, and it’s going to be a while before I work my way down the list to Austin. Emma and I have started planning a spring trip to Boston and Salem, which will be really fun. Talked to my old friend Annie who lives in Salem and we’re gonna stay up there for a while, then come down to Boston for another while. That’ll be nice. We’re going to drive and rent Airbnbs. Which means I have to get my drip irrigation installed before then.
Which means I have to make some decisions about the exact method by which I will be drilling holes under concrete paths: Pressure washer or auger bits? Anyone ever done this? Suggestions?
That’s not till late May, though. I have time. I also planned a much shorter (maybe even one-night) visit in early April to see Mercury Rev, since they dropped off the latter half of the Brian Jonestown Massacre tour, and are no longer coming to Cat’s Cradle with them, even though they were originally announced and I bought a ticket for it and I am sad because I love Mercury Rev. So, going to Boston for it. If you live up there, you should buy a ticket. It’ll be fun.
Then I gotta figure out how to get Jane to Alaska sometime this summer. Gulp.
In an update to the Fabergé-Eggs-at-the-V-and-A situation, Felix tells me that it’s not treaties, exactly, that are preventing the seizure of the eggs, that the whole legal framework exists to proect the lender against unexpected accusations of theft and the resultant seizure, stuff like that. Promises from the borrower to not steal them. But his read of the situation is that nothing prevents the English Government from freezing the assets during the course of the war, at the very least. This seems very sensible, though not nearly as optionable as a screenplay as my idea of paying an double-oh to steal them and pretend the government had nothing to do with it. If they’re gonna do it, they should do it soon, the Hermitage has already started asking for stuff back that is on loan to other museums, though not the V&A yet. The V&A exhibit ends in May, so there is a little time.
Thank you all for your updates about Wordle. Emma and I both still play every day, and we try to discuss it every day, but I’ve noticed that we forget more and more often. I had played Worldle once, and forgotten about it. Now I have played twice. Gotten a 1 both times. This is what doing world Flashcards every morning will get you. Okay I just did today’s and got two. WHOOPS.
All right gonna head out I gotta go drop off the recycling before the electrical people come back “with a strap” they said. Mysterious. Jane is at Grammy’s this morning. She has been a bit better, by the way, I have exited my latest bout of parental existential angst and am a happy parent again. And we get to do gardening together tomorrow that is one of the best parts of the week. And I’m excited to take her on trips. We’ve been talking about it, she is not super excited yet, but she’s thinking about it.
A moody and quiet mix today, even though I’m in a pretty good mood, but this is just the mix that was almost done. It’s new music Friday, so a bunch of newish stuff on here, but also some oldies. My secret love for the first Lloyd Cole solo album is shining through. And the Bobbie Gentry and Dead Can Dance live archive releasing continues, and I’m happy about both.
Have a lovely weekend, I will return and regale you with takes of gardening adventures.