Random updates from November, part two

November 18, 2025

I bitched earlier this fall about our child refusing to do any study or prep for the PSAT exam this year… the one that counts for scholarships, of course. As it turns out, Jamie got a terrific overall score, with a nearly perfect score on the reading/writing portion. We have raised a writer! I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!

Truly though, I am ecstatic about that. Those types of skills — writing, reading, logic, thinking critically — are going to be all the more crucial as we move kicking and screaming into a future dominated by AIs doing computer programming, pattern seeking, data analysis, engineering. At least, I hope so.

Twice up the wall, manually, not on the auto tension rope.

The nice young lady in the background was belaying me, but it’s a very different feeling than knowing that the auto-belay (which was apparently out in California for maintenance) is going to hold you in place and keep you from breaking your neck. So this was yet ANOTHER scary thing I said yes to.

November 18, 2025

Megan Kelly’s comments last week re: “maybe he wasn’t REALLY a pedophile” were sickening. By the way, this is what 15 looks like. I WAS A CHILD.

November 19, 2025

I had another art show at work. You win some you lose some. Today was a “lose” day. But at least I got this goofy photo of myself out of it (photo credit to Ian Aberle).

November 22, 2025

I don’t have any writing that I’m actively working on right now, and I feel kind of hollow, lost.

Thinking about painting, but it doesn’t fill that emptiness the same way. I find this quite interesting because “artist” has always been the primary way I identify myself. Maybe that’s shifting.

However, the first step is always a clean palette, and I mustered up the mental energy to at least do that.

And I get to go see a pretty lady sing tonight so I have that to look forward to.

Here’s the pretty lady singing to me.

We drove 2 hours to the absolute middle of nowhere to hear the lovely and talented Kathryn Hackett and her band The Kat Hackett Trio (a.k.a. Ghost Cow Trio of Whiskeyville).

AND WE SAW COWS!! They were mooing in the field behind the stage. SO CUTE

November 23, 2025

Well THERE’S your problem!

Doc ordered a part and fixed the broken window mechanism in his Fiat (thus saving us many hundreds of dollars )

November 24, 2025

A better than usual start to my week. I get to work from home. I have coffee and a cat sleeping next to me. The windows are open and I can hear rain falling through the leaves and the occasional rumble of thunder, flash of lightning.

(Turn your sound on for gorgeous thunderstorm rumbles…)

Normally I love project management — I’m good at it, and it appeals to my Type A organizational skills i.e. need for control — but some days it can be a real beatdown. Today is one of those days. It started off so great, too, with the cold rain and thunderstorm…

So if you are also a project manager having a bad day then I’m sending you a big warm hug.