Internal Renovations: Ever a work in progress

This life has no maps or user manuals. Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.

[positivevibesuniverse]

Been Caught Stealing

[internalrenovations]

Even then, they barely paid their fair share, but it was at least a reasonable attempt.

[internalrenovations]

Also, two things of note

- Somehow, I’m now 62 years old. Mostly that’s okay, but it’s weird to say out loud.

- Today I figured out that in roughly one more month, I’ll have lived in Maine as long as I lived in the UP. Also okay. Also weird to say out loud. Nonetheless, I still consider myself a Yooper, in case you wondered.

As you were.

[internalrenovations]

So it’s been a minute or two

Still here, just not much lately. I still like to check in.

It still hurts that the beagle is gone, some days worse (or much worse) than others, but the big young pup and I have established a pretty reasonable new reality. Life has to continue, right?

One of my favorite sensations is learning a new topic that I needed to know but knew little about and finding out how cool that is. This week, it happens to be mitochondria, and I tell you, these are insanely complex and cool things.

I now own a dvd copy of Kelly’s Heroes because I got tired of waiting for it to show back up on one of the ever-less-relevant-or-useful streaming services. I doubt it will be that last such instance of this.

If you want a really good read on science history, get a copy of “The Invention of Nature “ by Andrea Wulf. Alexander von Humboldt was a remarkable man, way ahead of his time.

Washington DC fuckery is still there. I wish I saw a path out of it that didn’t involve a lot of pain, but right now, I don’t.

Across all my reading and thinking, I am ever more disillusioned by the ridiculously large fraction of our economy that is focused on convincing people to buy shit they don’t need.

I think that’s it for now.

As you were

[internalrenovations]

Coming up on one year of fuckery. I’m glad to see the rest of the world isolating us— it may hurt us in the short term (meaning probably a few years or decades), but it’s one of the things that might save us in the long run. It truly boggles my mind that anyone other than the super-rich or the super-rotten (racist, misogynist, etc) still support or defend him and/or his administration.

It just past a month since I lost the beagle. I’m adapting, but there is so much I miss about that old man. He came into my life at a time when I knew I wanted a dog, but didn’t realize how much I needed a dog. The big young pup and I are moving forward, but sometimes the waves still hit.

I’ll be 62 in a few weeks. Serious discussions and plans are being held about moving towards my retirement and replacement at the lab. I’m glad. There are many days where I’m just tired.

To end on a positive, the young pup has had one hoped for effect: being back up to three plus vigorous miles most days has put some life back into my almost 62yo goalie legs, and it’s showing up on the ice. I’ll take it.

As you were.

[internalrenovations]

Ten and a half million words might scratch the surface.

Ten and a half thousand photos would be a start.

Ten and a half years were not enough.

Suffice it to say, he was the best and I will miss him.

I’m not okay, but I will be.

[internalrenovations]

About the new canine family member

He came in with the name Grizz, but we have rechristened him Pippin. Ben is mostly doing well with it. He is amazingly good natured, if a bit 10-month old over-exuberant at times.

The Tall Lady is fully onboard, so he is the first pet that is “ours.”

All pretty good. 🐶👍🏻🐶❤️

As you were.

[internalrenovations]

So this happened

55 pounds of 10-month old exuberance. We are all settling in. It’s a good ride, so far 🐶🐶👍🏻

[hopefulmisanthrope]

Now that Amazon's Ring is partnering with Flock (the plate-reader company that is embedded in our streets, mapping our whereabouts and sharing that data with ICE), it's maybe time once again to assess how much money you want to give Bezos' empire.

I know there are certain things that are just hard to buy anywhere else, but truthfully not that many of them. Usually you can find another way, and it only takes a minute. Their deals aren't even good anymore, and the difference between 1 day delivery and 5 rarely actually matters (I get it - sometimes it does - but be honest with yourself: rarely).

This company is deeply enshittened, abusive to workers and suppliers alike, and utterly unconcerned with customer experience or, it seems, our decline into fascism. You'll do better elsewhere.

[internalrenovations]

The amount of money that I want to give Bezos’s empire is precisely none. I canceled Prime and have bought exactly one thing that I couldn’t get elsewhere in the last four months.

[loverboyfae]

ask not for whom the bell peppers

[sternfleck]

Way too good to leave in the replies

[coconutshipwreck]

ask not for whom the bell hooks

[isay]

All not for whom the bell jars.

[hopefulmisanthrope]

Ask not for whom the bell curves.

[internalrenovations]

Ask not for whom the Bell Labs.

#iykyk

[simplymarge1974]

So im really old.

[thenewthingunderthesun]

I got a big fat ZERO.

[naughtypiggy]

All but one. I never owned a set of encyclopedias. Those things were fucking EXPENSIVE. But I used the ones in the library all the time.

[cathedral-of-the-forest]

Zip, zilch, nada.

[alma3737]

i got a 2, no dial up and no checks…

[sillinessissweet]

15...and I'm not 50 yet..

[internalrenovations]

Another zero here.

[internalrenovations]

I have more to say, but that last post deserved its own space. It is what it is. 🤷🏼

The beagle will be 14 in three weeks. After several scares, he has bounced back to a large extent. Our walks are shorter and slower now, but we still get a mile and a half or even two most days. I follow him up the stairs now with a supporting hand behind one thigh every time. He gets stressed and edgy winding down for bed- we definitely have new rituals, but I can live with that.

Any senator who voted to confirm Kennedy has no place in government and should resign in fucking shame and disgrace. Full stop.

The federal government shitshow continues. Apparently, that word has become pretty universal, as the predictive text machine suggested it. Even our devices think things are fucked up.

The tall lady and I are now at 9+ years and working on living together. It will happen, and it’s the right choice, but it will happen carefully because that’s how I’m wired,

I am now more than halfway from 61 to 62 and it’s still weird to answer if I’m asked my age.

Hockey with the fast boys went well tonight. That included saves on skaters 10, 20, and even 30+ years younger than me. I take satisfaction in that. 👍🏻🥅

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

As you were.

[internalrenovations]

I got married thirty years ago yesterday. Seventeen years ago the anniversary passed while we were on the way to a divorce. I only really thought about it a couple of times yesterday- just in passing, but it was there.

I’ve said it before- some of the hardest things in life to reconcile are the discrepancies between what you thought would be and what is.

Where I am now isn’t bad and in many ways is good. It just isn’t where I thought I’d be. Sometimes there are reminders, that’s all.

I heard a Jimmy Buffett song this week that I somehow missed when it came out (probably for several reasons). The refrain is appropriate and even reassuring.

Don’t try to explain. Just nod your head. Breathe in, breathe out, move on.

I can live with that.

As you were.

[everythingfox]

Studies are correct

[internalrenovations]

As a working professional scientist, I wholeheartedly endorse this post.

[internalrenovations]

That’s the trouble with not posting very often.

So let me sum up. 🤣

I am still here.

The beagle is still here. His age continues to show up in several ways. Some of them are amusing, some of them are saddening, but it’s all OK. One of the latest is that he is finding it hard to settle down at night. He’ll pace around, he’ll pant, but he’ll be fine if I go sit in bed because then he knows it’s time to end the day and he climbs up and he walks around a few times, lies down, then gets up walks around again but maybe after 15 minutes or so he’s good and then he goes to sleep. I’m adjusting. He’s still the best.

I went to see mom. She’s at a somewhat similar stage of life. She doesn’t have the same problems settling down at night — well maybe she does — but it’s interesting to have both my mom and my dog in advanced stages of aging and figuring things out at the same time. She’s still managing to live in her house by herself reasonably well though I am glad that I was out there again. It had been too long. I’ll probably be back again in two or three months.

I’m not sure what happened in Tumblr to put a whole bunch of pictures from the 1999 version of The Mummy (the good one that has Brendan Fraser) into my “For You” feed, but I’m here for it. That movie is probably only second for me to The Last Starfighter in terms of comfort food in the form of movies — in case you were wondering how I’m wired.

Based on Trump’s latest executive order idiocy, I’m likely defined as a potential terrorist in at least two or three different ways — it’s mostly dependent upon who is in charge of defining what extreme views are.

I have had a copy of Ken Dryden‘s book The Game on my shelf for probably 10 years maybe 12 and I’m honestly embarrassed that it took me this long to read it. With my feelings towards hockey it should’ve been a natural for me, but it took the fact that he died in the last month or so for me to finally say, “Okay, let’s read it.” It’s really an amazing book. The thing that is probably confusing for most people is that while he’s ostensibly writing about hockey, he’s really writing about life. and he’s really fucking good at it.

In a related matter, I had an unusually good night at Thursday hockey with the fast boys. Maybe the book was inspirational. I don’t know, but I’ll take it.

As you were.

[wilwheaton]

someone finally admitted it

[consistent-sincerity]

White supremacists: "All you inferior types are lazy and dumb, that's why we run the country and will always run the country."

Barack Obama, respected Constitutional scholar: "Now I'm your president."

White supremacists: "But... that's impossible! We've been cheating so hard!"

Barack Obama: "Well I just became your president again."

White supremacists: "Turn up the cheating to 11 and get our best guy in here!!"

Donald Trump, pedophile rapist and Russian asset: "covfefe"

[entheognosis]

[internalrenovations]

Fun fact - Keanu is just under six months younger than me. I can definitely identify with his sentiments here.

[primordialsoundmeditation]

Raj Memula

[internalrenovations]

I would call these self-evident, but I guess they still need to be said. To be fair though, I might change the last one to “If you don’t know, ask — or be quiet.”