I had to take not one but two naps today; that should tell you enough about how my day has been. I did manage to run almost three miles and read a hundred pages of The Dawn of Everything, a new History book. The girls are winding down and I’m trying to make sure I get to bed at a decent hour tonight.
TDoE is actually a really good tome of potential source material for POLISdao. I had been looking to the Iroquois Confederation for some inspiration to set the tone for the dao’s constitution, and TDoE’s early chapters are spent describing the (native) American reaction to European society. Apparently they did not like it, and some of the more egalitarian ideas that came out of the Enlightenment may have been cross-pollinated from these peoples. It’s an interesting book in so many ways, but it’s rather thick and I’m reading quickly. This is the type of book that I should re-read and footnote. My own copy, not the library’s.
It’s Sunday morning, I’m up a bit earlier than normal because I was so tired yesterday. I took Elder to the rock gym, then we came back and watched Iron Man 2 and Thor. I didn’t drink or smoke, but turned in around 10 last night. I was beat. I had some interesting dreams.
I’ve been avoiding doing things I know I need to do. I continue to avoid thinking or doing anything about taxes, I haven’t heard from the CPA in two weeks. Plus I haven’t done my house accounts or budgeting for March yet, and have managed to overspend out of the house account. I am going to do that this morning, no putting that off.
Younger and I have been fighting a lot recently. Usually I’ll ask her something simple, and she’ll tell me no like she has a choice, and then it’s straight to WWIII. I’m not sure what’s going on, but it interesting because Elder is mostly trained to do what she’s told and mostly helps out without too much fuss. She still gets distracted very easily, but at least she’s good natured about it. And I don’t think I’ve had to punish her for anything at all recently.
My brother is coming home from Germany next month on a vacation. I don’t think I’ve seen him in five years or more. I’m pretty sure it’s not been since he had his daughter, so it’ll be the first time seeing her outside of a FaceTime call. He’s coming down for almost a whole month, but it coincides with our Hawaii trip, so I’ll only get a weekend with them. We were talking about doing a trip to an amusement park or water park, TBD.
I don’t have a lot of updates to put out, work is pretty much top-secret, so I feel less inclined to say anything in this space. I have been doing a lot of writing though, so I suppose that’s why I haven’t been journaling quite as much. I guess I don’t have much energy left at the end of the day.
Missus is trying to figure out what to do about work and Union. They’re rescinding telework, although there’s no real reason for them to do that other than to be assholes and exercise control over the staff. There’s no reason for her to be in the office five days a week, eight hours a day. On top of that she just found out that her program director is going out for twelve weeks paternity leave, and she knows they’re going to try and make her do his job, even though he’s two pay grades above her. So she’s thinking about going full-time with the union. Doing so might make her lose her certification, as she needs a certain number of patient hours to maintain it. Walking away is still an option as well, and it seems her boss has figured that out as she’s trying to offer Missus some pittance — a modified works schedule — as some sort of incentive to stay. It’s asinine.
So I’m going to go get started with the accounts, the kids are going to church then I’ll have some game time with my brother for a bit. No idea what we’re doing with the rest of our day, maybe a bike ride or something to keep me and the kids active. Anything to get out of the house and avoid the harsh reality of the responsibilities I’m ignoring.
Tuesday morning is off to a good start, the girls got out of the house this morning without too much fuss. I’m rested and ready to get to work.
I’ve got at least one team meeting on the calendar late this afternoon, but I should have a few hours this AM to focus and get some work done. I think I’ll do some Solana programming. I spent yesterday going over a couple new features for the POLISdao with our lead web3 dev, but I’m going to save that for later in the week.
I haven’t really been thinking too much about my taxes, I’m just hoping that the CPA I hired can get me close enough that I don’t mind paying out to Uncle Sam. Well, I take that back. I have been thinking about it quite a bit, but I’ve been procrastinating on it, finding ways to avoid doing it. I don’t think I can get away with that past this week though. I just have a bit more to do, and it’s really not all that bad, time wise. I just don’t want to think about it.
Missus is slowly coming around on the offer I made to her, to let her quit her job and take some time off from work to evaluate everything and figure out what she really wants to do with no pressure. The VA is a mess, and her union is reflection of that. She’s doing a great job at both, but there’s not really a culture of excellence within it, and it’s mostly a bunch of passive-aggressive, petty bullshit. It’s bad for her mental health. Anyways I’ve been riling her about it, and we were talking about health insurance the other day and she said let’s wait till August, which is the month that she hits her fifteen years. She’s eligible for a partial retirement, so that’s the earliest we agreed that she could step away. To hear her say it is a good sign though. I just need to hold the fort down for the next couple years while Star Atlas launches. As long as we avoid lifestyle inflation we should be good.
I’m setting aside 37% of my paycheck into crypto right now, which still leaves me with more take home that I had at my last job. I haven’t even looked at the budget for last month, but I know for a fact that I haven’t done anything crazy the last four months. Just a little bit of fun. The one thing I don’t know if I’ll be able to hold off on for much longer is a car. I’ve been driving Missus’s 2012 CRV since I got rid of my Fusion during the COVID lockdown, but I’m really itching for a new mode of transportation. I’ve been dreaming about souped up BMW M8s; older, antique sport cars (manual only, of course), to motorcycles and even electric scooters. Just something to give us options when one of us has the car.
I don’t think I’m going to do anything crazy, of course. Buying a new car with cash is out of reach right now, and I’m not taking a loan out. Insurance is another factor, not to mention the time or money I’d be obligated to spend on maintenance or detailing if I bought a $22k Subaru BRZ. I could save for that car in as little as three months, but it might just be better for me to get a bike or a beater, and go spend a day with Skip Barber to get it out of my system.
Plus even thinking about this before my taxes are done is kind of irresponsible.
So yesterday my boy Todd and I went to a climbing gym across the water and boy am I hooked. The place we went to had hundred-foot top rope climbs and a bouldering area, and after a good three hours of climbing we were beat. I can’t wait to go back.
I really couldn’t do much, I think I managed to run through all of the V0 and 5.6-5.7 setups that they had, but I couldn’t do much more than that. Still, I think I did better than Todd, who has been working out a lot and has much better muscle foundation than I do. My scrawny ass had better hand and forearm strength, apparently.
I made a point to be super friendly with the staff. I showed up there were just two young women manning the counter. I’m a complete noob, I told them, and I want to do some climbing. And they did a really good job walking us through the rules and how to use the equipment. It was really nice.
The hardest part of the climb was letting go at the top. The first time you let go to let the auto-belay device bring you down is super scary, but I got over it pretty quick and was later hanging off the ground, thirty feet in the air to rest while Todd held me.
I wasn’t quite as worn out as I thought I would be. I had some slight stiffness when I woke up this morning, but other than some slight soreness in my arms and back, I’m feeling pretty good. I even went for a short run today.
My feet are a bit of a mess. I’ve been plagued with a hammer-toe on my right foot for years, and it usually causes issues with the knuckle when I wear rental shoes, whether for skiing or ice skating or what have you. And the first pair of shoes they gave me were a bit too pinchy and gave me a pretty bad bunion after an hour or so. They gave me a slightly bigger brand, but the damage was done. Climbing shoes are designed to be used barefoot, but I had to put a sock on to cover the sore.
So today I decided to take some corrective action, and looked up ways to correct the situation. I found a couple videos that showed how to I could tape the toe down, and managed to get some relief by doing it.
This one, by an actual doctor
Today was also day one of spring break for the girls, and we had a successful morning. We set up most of our stuff the night before, and I even dropped Missus off at work, then the girls at the community center. They went swimming today, and we even found a game room that had skee ball, air hockey and ping pong. When we got home the girls literally spent the entire time outside, playing with their friends before we finally called them in for dinner and evening chores at seven. Now they’re out.
April Fools passed by without too much craziness. Was busy with work and wrapped up the day with a post town hall Twitter Spaces. I think I managed not to say anything I wasn’t supposed to. After I wound up feeding the neighborhood, and spent about $150 on Chinese food. I let the kids watch High School Musical and put them to bed, then stayed up till three gaming with Ed. We were taking turns between Cyberpunk and rounds of Tarkov.
This morning I rolled out of bed with Missus around ten. She had a hair appointment across the water, so we decided to make a day out of it. I was to drop her off and take the kids to the zoo, only I realized after I dropped her off that I had forgotten my wallet. So instead, we hung out at a park adjacent to the zoo for about three hours. I had packed my new tactical bag with snacks and water, and chaperoned the kids around the parks various playground equipment. There were lots of trees that we tried to climb as well.
We picked up Missus at two, then went for a late lunch at a local mainstay, an overrated drive-in BBQ joint. Service was slow and the fare was barely passable french fries, BBQ sandwiches, cheeseburgers, hot dogs and BLTs. After that we went back across the water and went to the community center to sign the girls up for spring break camp.
I think I had to fill out about a hundred pieces of paper. They had no electronic enrollment, so I had to fill out six forms, one for each of us for our family membership, and two more for the camp enrollment. They have basketball, a pool, crafts and a playground, and there are two other centers, one with a climbing wall.
Speaking of climbing, I’m hoping to take my first foray into rock climbing tomorrow with Todd. There’s a place right over where we were today, so I’m to meet him early tomorrow to check it out.
I took a nap this afternoon, showered and then did some work for SAIA’s multisig. Taking it easy this evening, of course, and putting the girls to bed as soon as I hang this up.