Mundane Life in the Midwest

Different things I'm up to ...

[usagitomusashi]

Recent manga purchases. I haven't read either one just yet as I have a lot of other unread material. I'm looking forward to them, though, because I have read other books from these authors / illustrators.

[usagitomusashi]

[usagitomusashi]

Had some success at Godzilla pinball tonight. I'm not very good but I play a lot and sometimes I get lucky.

This is my personal high score.

[usagitomusashi]

fini!

[decemberwinter]

what do you mean elon musk did a nazi salute on live tv at the united states presidential inauguration twice and is now erasing the evidence off the internet by replacing the footage with the crowd cheering instead?

would be a shame if people reblogged this, wouldn’t it?

[usagitomusashi]

Lake County Dems (IL) organized a protest today outside the Tesla dealership in Libertyville.

[usagitomusashi]

My lap right now.

[usagitomusashi]

Seeing birds at the feeder or eating seeds from atop the snow make me feel good about running out there in sub-zero temps to fill it!

Bonus photo of a bird hunkered down in the condo (hard to see in the lower left).

It's 4° at the time of this photo.

[usagitomusashi]

Images from a President's Day protest in Arlington Hts, IL.

[usagitomusashi]

He kept bugging me as I was sitting at a table trying to do something. So, I got up, picked him up, and relocated to the couch.

[usagitomusashi]

Went x-country skiing today for the first time since before the pandemic. We just haven't had good quality snow in time for the weekend over these past few years.

It was hard. I wasn't very good before and today felt like my first time ever. At least back then, I was still a runner and I haven’t been doing that for years either.

So, yes, I had to rest a bunch and I only did about 1.5 mi (fell once, too).

Anyway, I'm glad I went. I would have felt bad if I had blown it off.

[usagitomusashi]

I visited Planet X for the first time last night in Godzilla pinball!

Unfortunately, I wasn't logged in under my ID in the Stern app so it didn't count as an achievement. When that happens, I don't use my real initials. If I do something but I'm logged in under the app, it's almost as though it didn't happen.

But, it did!

[usagitomusashi]

[usagitomusashi]

Go figure.

[usagitomusashi]

My pinball machine arrived a year ago!

I haven't been the same since.

[usagitomusashi]

My wife asked me to build this, what she is calling a "caddy" - a place for bills, books, etc. that she wants to keep handy.

She drew a basic drawing:

And it was my task to make it.

[usagitomusashi]

I only became aware of Junji Ito's work recently and, oddly enough, it started with his take on Frankenstein, which is largely different from most of his stories.