May 31: The Zoloft works!
Jorj has a cool project for LIWho/Timeflight; my part is a web version to let more attendees join the fun. To deploy to his server, it will use Kubernetes, necessitating that I learn Kubernetes, and git it running on my personal machine, along with Docer, rails, and a newer version of ruby. With Jorj's help, I have a new rails project started, without crying, and that's how we know the Zoloft is working. (It turns out when it says "can't compile file X," the easiest fix is moving file X out of the way.)
Saturday we had our first vaccinated gathering: the first poker in nearly two years. Most of the poker gang are vaccinated and came to us. Jakob and Nate biked to Dunkin. Nate's two inches taller than Jakob, and Jakob just hit six-two; they both delight in towering over their parents, who are all shrinking.
The herbs are in the ground and the planters are all planted. I have only four tomatoes to find room for, and ornamentals to get into the ground. The rain started Friday afternoon, and continued through Sunday. No lightning — not like last week — but too damp to work in the yard. Sun today that I enjoyed on the patio, but no motivation to improve anything.
The big work project (Not That Big) is effectively done. I'm prodding the team into thinking about our standards and how we can improve. At the beginning of July, we should have a new project manager. It will be nice to have a PM who can spend the majority of their job time on managing our projects, and not managing politics.
Speaking of July, we are looking forward to Leverage: Redemption. There are two trailers up on YouTube and they look fantastic.
May 16: It was the year we kept wearing masks so we could identify the unvaccinated
I had a great day after M-Day: got a bunch of stuff off the short term and long term lists, spent a couple hours potting annuals, and had another follow-up visit at Temple for the J & J trial.
Lynn and I celebrated Spring with lunch, then a visit to Meadowbrook Farms. I'd never toured the house gardens, and although they are small, they are phenomenal. It's designed as a series of small outdoor "rooms"
May 9: Fuck Mothers' Day
For so many, many reasons, I can't do Mothers' Day. Some years are harder than others. This year is, thankfully, not too hard. For this awful, contrived holiday, Jorj replaced the failing battery in my phone. As always, the afternoon was at Abington Meeting for the Black Lives Matter vigil. Someone saw us and started honking while the light was red, and kept honking well past the intersection. The driver must have really needed to see us on the corner.
May 8
Jorj is now fully vaccinated. Jakob's second shot is Friday. We are planning a Poker Night (for the vaccinated). Today we went to Target (masked), and made it out in record time and an amazing lack of patio furniture. Yesterday we hiked Ralph (not Russell) Stover Park, starting with a trickier trail, then moving to an easier on when Jorj noticed from the sound of my walk that the bad ankle was bothering me.
Today was our first vaccinated trip into the wider world. Target! And Primex! Two of my favorite places. At neither did I browser slowly and casually, just enjoying being in one of my favorite places. Primex was comfortingly crowded. While Target wasn't deserted, it wasn't near as crowded as one would expect on the Saturday of Mothers' Day weekend. The seasonal section looked less picked over and more unstocked, with everyone ordering on line. What was really interesting is the display of large bottles of hand sanitizer in the picnic accessories section.
SnakeSkin
BlueLawn
StoverYellowWeed
StoverPinkFlower
StoverStreamFall
StoverWhiteBlossoms
TargetSanitizer