Diary 11-14-24
Awake 7:20, finished a book on tape chapter in my earphones as a way to wake up. I listened to a couple of extra minutes because the chapter ended on a cliffhanger.
Head downstairs 7:35, make tea, prep coffee for B, empty the dishwasher.?It rained heavily so I’m not expecting a worker who is doing wood repairs on outside of the house. Frustrating, because it’s taking so long, after initial screwups. B irritated too.
Settle on couch w tea, a clementine, my ipad for news. Start this diary first. I debate putting on Morning Joe but don’t have much appetite for political talk post-election. Still nauseated by our decision to re-empower Trump.
Even reading the news is ugh. Gaetz nominated for AG, Tulsi Gabbard for DNI. She is an open Russian spy! I need to figure out how will I manage political news in Trump 2.0. Don’t want to bury my head in sand but can’t obsess about it all the time. There needs to be a happy medium (and I will need to do things, not just watch).
B comes down a little after 8 and puts on the “rag,” as she calls MSNBC. I half listen as I read.
Finish my tea, make toast, plus eat another clementine. A little before 9 I go out and walk around the block for some fresh air. Workman shows up. Hmm. B texts to point out that it’s too wet to paint. True. Then he takes off again. Back from my walk, I do a few household chores and head to my office space to write.
I deal w a few emails first, a form of proscrastination, then to it.
I make a little progress. The worker is back. He is outside talking w B, so I go out, get an update. He says it will take 4 more days. Ugh. I want this done.
At 11, I’m back to writing, plug away till noon. Decent progress, about 3-400 words, relatively satisfied. I want it to go faster.
I throw on shorts and drive to gym for short workout. It’s unusually warm. I grab a basketball and shoot a few baskets for fun first, and as a way to loosen up a little. It makes my knee and back hurt, dammit. My workout is shot, lifting and stretching only. I ran yesterday and my legs/knees are sore, as my attempt at basketball showed.
Back home a little past 1 pm. I shower, shave (needed to, with a week of beard). I make a hummus and veggie wrap, crackers, Diet Pepsi. Surf online. I am debating shifting away from Twitter (my main social media) to Bluesky. A football writer I like has joined Bluesky, which tells me it won’t be too niche. Maybe I can escape the Twitter sewer and not provide material support to someone as grotesque as Elon.
B going to grocery store so I text a few requests.
Back in office, 2 pm -ish (reconstructing here because forgot to diarize), write more, another 400 or so words. I’ve hit my daily goal by 4. Back to diary finally. Then I write up a short document for another project.
[From here I forgot to put down notes, so the rest is a reconstruction the next morning.]
Around 5, I go for another shot walk. I come back, pour myself a non-alcoholic beer, munch on some nuts, and play word games on the NY Times site.
Around 6:00, I prepare and (over)cook some salmon on the grill and we eat it with veggies, potatoes. Pretty healthy.
We are eating early because we want to watch a livestream of a play S directs at 7. We manage to get the feed and enjoy it. The play is funny, though the audio is a little hard to hear at times. We’re happy for S.
This takes us to 8:30 and I turn on the Washington-Philadelphia NFL game. I root for Washington. It’s a rollercoaster. They do pretty well at first then decline until they lose, not quite in a route, but not all that competitive either. Absorbing enough. Mess around online during ad breaks. Oh well, used to them losing.
Late in the game I switch over to watching, on delay, the US national soccer team. They win, but the game is boring, sloppy, on a wet field. I fast forward through parts of the game.
Bed a little past midnight, and fall asleep quickly.