I’m at an industry event (engineering construction industry, not really my thing but it’s part of my Board work), in person, for the first time in 2+ years. And it feels very weird. People I’ve only seen onscreen in all that time are here, in the flesh. The event sponsor insisted on every person having a COVID vax card or proof of negative PCR in the last 48 hours – so being here feels reasonably responsible.
And I’m wearing a sports coat for the first time in two years, too. Don’t miss that.
Weird day today. Did a lot but it didn’t feel like it. I had a Board meeting, wrote a detailed term sheet for a NewCo that I’m involved in, corresponded with an old friend, packed up some excess camera gear to send back to Amazon, and read most of a book. All that, and at 4pm I’m wondering where the day went and why I didn’t do much. Go figure.
All I really want to do with the evening is have a glass of wine and watch some escapist TV – no Ukraine, no news about environmental, political or COVID crises. Maybe a few episodes of The Expanse are called for.
Tonight and tomorrow it’s supposed to rain, a blessed event in dry Socal. Maybe the rain will wash away all the ennui that’s clustered around me.
Both big events last night delivered. The UK game was enjoyable, other than a couple of ludicrous charging/blocking fouls called, both against us. But the Senior Night vibe was great, and both Grady and Mintz did themselves proud. A good win, and an undefeated season on the home court.
The SOTU was also good. Biden had a couple of speaking gaffes, but his message was strong, positive and clear. It’s amazing that people think he’s doing a bad job – it has to be the constant messaging over conservative channels. Most jobs ever created in a year, biggest one-year deficit reduction ever. A strengthened US reputation abroad. Billions of dollars lined up to spend on US infrastructure. We are in so much better shape than we were a year ago. And yet people won’t give his administration any credit.
It was especially nice to hear Biden call out the idiotic “Defund the Police” slogan of some misguided liberals. That slogan has done so much damage to liberal causes – it deserves to be ridiculed and denounced. His distancing won’t help much, but it’s a start.
The big question I was left with is “who was that white-haired woman in front of Biden on his way in and out of the chamber?” She was stuck to him like glue, but I have a hard time believing she is Secret Service. So who is she?
In other news, it looks like we’ll get some rain again Friday. Unexpected and very welcome.
Aaaannnd it’s March 2022 already. Big day today – Kentucky basketball game, State of the Union address, beginning and end of month bills to pay (those are all automated, but still…).
The State of the Union should be interesting. Poor Joe Biden has had his hands full since getting the job he always wanted. A mutating virus pandemic, repairing a wrecked economy, dealing with an insurrection, selecting a new Supreme, ignoring idiotic approval polls, getting out of the Middle East Forever War, working with around an unhelpful and childish Congress, and now trying to help Ukraine but avoid head-to-head conflict with Russia. Joe has no time to play Wordle. It’s a tough job, and I wouldn’t want it. So it’ll be interesting how much of that ground he covers tonight. If asked, I think he and his team are doing a great job of navigating through the obstacle course of 2022.
Between my own habits/blinders of book buying and Amazon’s irritatingly unimaginative recommendation algorithms, I’ve been in a reading rut lately. Hard to discover new books that I like. So I’ve been perusing the reading lists of others SFF junkies and have come up with a few new ideas of what to buy and read. So far my get-out-of-the-rut purchases include:
That’s a good start. By the way, I lumbered through the paperback version of John Grisham’s latest small town lawyer story, A Time for Mercy, last week. I was underwhelmed. In 630 slow pages it covered no new ground and it had an uninteresting ending. I had great hope for it, but it definitely didn’t recapture the lightning of his earlier books. Not recommended.
