EDLM Diary
A02
10/22/2021
Awoke 7:30, but it took a few minutes to haul myself out of bed. Slept a little longer after a late night (because of baseball on TV) and a short sleep the night before. I don’t set an alarm unless necessary and try to train myself to wake up at the same time each day (7-ish). Overshot the mark a little.
Stiff, per usual. Head downstair and put the kettle on to make tea. Make some toast and jam to go with the tea and eat a banana (fiber!). Diary Day, so I start writing notes. Put the television on and read through a couple of newspapers on my iPad. This has become my morning habit lately, unless I need to get somewhere quickly. The TV news gets onto politics, mainly the infrastructure bills. I find political coverage, especially on television, to be annoying, but less urgent and alarming then when Trump was president. I should probably feel more urgency but it’s hard (and probably unhealthy) to sustain that mindset. I’m trying to break the pattern of having television on in the morning, but not today, a fairly relaxed (in work terms) Friday. Only one meeting today, and it’s not until late in the afternoon.
As I eat, thoughts drift to yesterday’s eye-doctor visit. He has proposed another eye surgery to address my still-creeping glaucoma. Not what I wanted to hear and my mind drifts to that prospect. It’s not terribly alarming, as the idea is to stay well ahead of any vision problems. But it’s still a bit unsettling, not least as a reminder of the aging process.
After tea and toast I spend a few minutes exchanging texts with my two sisters. We’re discussing the childhood apartment we lived in overseas while very young. A. will be traveling and expects to have a chance to visit the neighborhood where we lived. That leads me down the rabbit hole that is Google Maps and Streetview. I track down the apartment and send a screenshot from Streetview to my sisters. Then I tour the neighborhood virtually. Naturally, it’s changed a lot in the 50 years since we left. I enjoy playing with online maps. It’s a hobby of sorts, or a source of amusement, something I’ll do late in the evening to amuse myself.
Start work around 9, in my upstairs work space over the garage (working at home today). Do a few emails. Made a few more diary notes. Did about an hour of background reading for one of my projects, which is an all-too-rare pleasure for me. I try to do this kind of reading, as well as writing, on Fridays to make sure I keep moving forward on long-term projects at least a little. I feel almost guilty about that, as if I’m neglecting more immediate work that needs to get done. Perhaps the fact that I find this work more enjoyable is part of the reason why I feel that way as well. If I don’t set aside time to get ahead on the longer-term stuff those things will never happen. I don’t do enough of that, in fact. Besides, who said work has to be unpleasant?
From about 10 until 12:30 I work on a report for one of my projects. Dull, necessary work that has to get done because there is a due date. It’s not too exciting because the project is mainly finished and I am going over things I’ve already done. I get two sections drafted (out of five).
Head out for a short run around 12:30. Not especially motivated, particularly because it was a chilly day, around 50 degrees. But I didn’t do much yesterday, so I figured I’d better get some exercise. I was stiff from sitting too long and my back hurt a little, which made it tempting to skip it or just go for a walk. But I forced myself to slog through the first bit and warmed up and I eventually felt okay. Did about 30 minutes around the neighborhood, maybe 3.5 miles. I listened to a podcast about soccer while running—a pretty good distraction. I always feel good when I finish, which is something I try to remember when starting out doesn’t seem all that attractive.
Just after the run, I get a call from a roofing company I had contacted about an estimate for our roof. The time for replacement approaches—a big bill. They say they can come in about 15 minutes to inspect it. Hop in the shower and warm up some leftovers—pasta, broccoli, chicken. The roofers arrive just as they food is ready so I went out to talk to them. They don’t take long because the main inspection takes place via a flyover photography service. The lead roofer explains how this system uses computer analysis to determine how many shingles were needed, the pitch of the roof, and other details. This is really interesting—another hidden way technology is changing the world.
Eat quickly once the roofers leave, then climb back up into the work space over the garage. I poured a glass of water—hydrate after sweating!—and get back to working on the report from the morning. Spend an hour on it and made a dent in the next section. Around 3 I shift to prepping for the 3:30 meeting, which is on personnel matters. I go over my notes and also grabbed some more water. Need to be on top of the meeting because it’s my turn to write up the findings of the meeting afterward. I join the Zoom call at 3:30 and we grind through the material. The committee is mostly in agreement, so the discussion goes smoothly and fairly quickly, with only one significant point of disagreement, which ultimately does not matter. The meeting ends early—a happy rarity. I spend a few minutes outlining the write-ups, and will return to them over the weekend, unfortunately.
I text J., proposing to meet for a beer. He agrees and we set 5:30 as a meeting time downtown. I should work a while longer to make for the long lunch—roofer visit, etc. but it’s Friday and I rationalize that choice by reminding myself that I will be spending a fair bit of time working on the meeting write-ups over the weekend. Then I spend 15 minutes trying to find the right OneDrive folder to save my work where others can access it. Very irritating. Turns out that that folder hasn’t been set up yet, so I’m wasting my time. I hate OneDrive. Depart at 5:20, which means I’ll be a few minutes late. A slight lateness is a bad habit of mine so I scold myself as I drive, but also remind myself that being a few minutes late in this situation is no big deal.
The next couple of hours are pleasant—a couple of beers and conversation about work, art, politics, and family. We see eye to eye on politics so that’s a congenial subject for us. Around 7, J and I decide to order pizza, which comes, and is consumed, quickly. M. texts and asks about me grabbing food, so I order another pizza to go and head out around 7:30. B. is out visiting friends in Fort Wayne.
Home around 7:50. Settle in and turn on the Red Sox playoff game. M. joins me eating her pizza in the family room. B. comes home soon after. We chat amiably about various things. Then we get onto a political topic where B. and M. disagree with me. It’s about a friend who has to deal with a complicated personnel matter that has “cancel culture” overtones. (It’s too complicated and too revealing to get into more details.) The conversation gets louder—not hostile but not light and easy either. I give a little ground—they’re probably mostly right. But I think they slip into intolerance a bit too readily. The conversation ends, as both head up to bed. I stick with the game. Eventually the collapse of the Red Sox against the corrupt, no-good Astros is complete. Their season slips away but, on the other hand, they’ve done better than expected.
Head to bed a little past 11. Sleep comes quickly.