Summer continues. Getting into the soft nougatey center of it all. After we came back from Buffalo it was time for another round of yardwork. This included edging the driveway, the walkway around the side of the house and the patio, and also weeding under the hedges and trimming the low-hanging fronds from the neighbor’s willow tree that intrudes into our yard. It was very hot out out last week, so I mainly waited until the evening to do this stuff, and I did my bike rides in the morning. Btw I’m up to a hundred rides, seven hundred seventy-seven miles for the year so far.
I discovered a wasp nest in the overhang above my garage door. I sprayed it but that didn’t take care of them, so the next step is to take apart the soffit and find the nest inside.
I also discovered my ’67 Mustang seems to have some electrical problems. The blinkers, wipers and stereo no longer work. My first guess is that one or more fuses need replacing, and indeed there’s two fuses that if blown would explain the failure. I bought some replacement fuses, but when I looked at the fusebox, it seems that there are extra wires in there, probably from when they installed the stereo, so I’m kinda afraid to mess with it, and I’m thinking it’d be better to have a qualified expert handle it.
We did get to the beach a week ago. Jeannie and brought our bikes and I did eighteen miles on the Ocean Parkway Coastal Greenway, then went for a swim in the ocean, while Michelle hung out on the beach and read her book. The water was perfect, very calm for the Atlantic shore of Long Island. Since I’m taking the summer off, I have as an explicit goal to the beach on a weekday. I’ve been talking with my friend Nick about this, and we’re targeting sometime in the first couple weeks of August, but there’s alot going on these days and the summer is flying by fast.
My friend Ginny, a former colleague at Consumer Reports Innovation Lab, had a party last week to celebrate our product Permission Slip, of which I was tech lead for a number of years, being sold to an internet privacy company and so will live on even after the Innovation Lab is no more. You may recall that I got laid off back in May, along with a handful of other colleagues, so it was good to catch up with everyone. Most of those left behind have split and found new jobs. Our former VP Ben is taking a sabbatical for the summer like me. Our former head of operations has joined the new company as a consultant. A couple others have joined NYC’s Pit Crew and are working to put up a web portal to report violations of the city’s new law mandating one-click cancellation for consumers, a worthy pivot. All in all it was good to catch up with everyone and get a feeling of closure.
We had planned to go camping with Kathleen and the kids this last weekend. Unfortunately, in the days leading up the trip, the skies all over New York State were brown and hazy from distant forest fires, making it unpleasant to be outside. This, combined with the forecast of heavy rain all day Saturday, led us to postpone our trip until August. Instead, we had a backyard barbecue Friday night, and used our firepit for the first time this season, while listening to tunes and enjoying some beers and cocktails. Saturday we went and saw Chris Nolan’s The Odyssey in the theatre. I must say the movie was epic in every sense of the word. Big, loud, fantastic, full of monsters and fights and heavy thematic material. Beautifully shot, great acting and story construction. In a word, totally amazing.
In music news, Spacecats continues to search for more and better gigs, even as we take a few weeks off because everyone is taking vacation at different times. When we reconvene, the focus will hopefully be on finally getting the recording sessions for our next record scheduled. Meanwhile, on the Spellbound project I’ve finished recording the organ parts for The Sailor’s Saga, and have moved on to the twelve-string guitar parts.
Now the Origami USA conference is only a few days away. As a special guest, I’m going to be doing alot this year. I’ve been busy practice folding the models I’m going to teach, thinking about what to exhibit, and maybe even folding a couple brand-new things for that, and generally getting prepared. Should be a fun time.