Author Archives: DELively

The Ending Cut Off

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Spent part of the day working on a project and then working on another project.

I’m making little progress with either, but the latter (notebook reviews) got cut off today as life intervened. Nothing major, just lots of little annoyances that ate up some time.

I’m also entering one of those phases where I rethink the components of my everyday carry system (because normal people totally worry about that kind of thing) especially what notebooks I’m carrying but not actually using. (That’s part of the review I’m working on.)

There are lots of steps to the process, with several of them being “No really, I’ll use it, I promise”.

More on that in a future post, though.

Rainy Days on Mondays

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An acquaintance of mine is off scuba diving somewhere this summer, but his last wish for those of us left in Japan was that we get pounded by rain whilst he was off somewhere else. (We had a dry “rainy season” following a dry “Season in which it rains”.)

Thus far, his wish has come true, but in an odd way.

We’ve had a mercifully cool summer. It’s been humid to the level of “breathing liquid” but the temperature has been in the high 70s/low 80s Fahrenheit (26-28 Celsius) which is a lot better than usual Tokyo metro area temperature of “scorched earth”.

The trade off has been lots of rain and a few migraines.

Today, for example, we kept the air conditioner off most of the day. However, about the time it got so humid we decided to turn on the air conditioner, we had an impressive cloud burst.

I hope this lasts. However, I suspect we’ll have a hot September. I have to be good and sweaty by the time I get to work, I guess.

The Busy Sabbath

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I’ve recently resolved to take Sunday off. If I do nothing work or writing or anything related, that’s okay.

I’m not feeling guilty about doing nothing, although I am a bit surprised at how easy it is to do nothing whilst seeming as if you’ve done something. (Note: play games and/or plan other things.)

This bit of blather is something to do  but I can control the length so I won’t count it as work.

The only interesting thing today is our youngest created a new version of the song Happy Birthday. It translates from Japanese to “Happy birthday is done; happy birthday is done” implying that life is back to normal.

Well, if you count doing nothing and liking it as normal.

May You Live With Interesting Birthdays

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She Who Must Be Obeyed’s birthday started with police and ended with pizza.

Our Central Asian neighbors have been moving/breaking up for two days now. I’m not sure how many of them live there, but it seems to be an awful lot. A couple days ago at least one of them started to move out and that involved a small truck and shockingly slow loading. Then loud voices ensued last night and right after midnight, as SWMBO’s birthday was starting, there were police involved. Things got quiet after that.

The morning was normal. I made breakfast and our youngest washed dishes and then I worked on the project I talked about yesterday.

Our oldest went to a university open house, hopefully to find a cheap school she can attend that doesn’t require her to study now.

After that, I offered to buy supper, but our original plan was almost literally drowned by torrential rain that was hard enough it sounded like hail.

Eventually, pizza and other things were acquired and our oldest arrived safely despite massive train delays all over the system and a happy birthday was had.

 

Getting Back in the Groove

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I was less of a zombie today and even managed to force myself to force myself.

I took our youngest out for lunch and to buy birthday presents for She Who Must Be Obeyed. We were enjoying what appears to be the last of the unseasonably cool days we’ve been having. However, even though there was a light rain, the breeze was warm, not cool as it has been for a couple weeks.

I also sent a friend a copy of a partial typescript to get the benefit of his skills as an alpha reader. I did this not only because I respect his opinion (and believe he will actually give it) but also to force myself to finish typing up the rest of the text. (I wrote it all by hand at first; damn my handwriting.)

Of course, I fear that by the time I get it all typed in, my alpha reader will tell me not to bother sending him the rest.

 

Another Zombie Day

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I didn’t think we would be, but were zombies again.

I’ve written before about how the day after a trip to the in-laws turns everyone into zombies.

The girls are still in “grandparent amnesty” mode in which the intervention of grandparents staves off a plethora of punishments and it’s my job to remind them that, yes, the dishes really do have to be washed, and no, there is no one here who will save you.

This means not much was accomplished today. I did some writing and at least one daughter may have done homework but I was too much of a zombie to find out.

Tomorrow we’ll start settling back into normal life, but today was kind of a bye on normal life.

 

Settling Back in, Without Mercy

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We made it back from the in-laws despite more rain, several random complete traffic stops on the expressway, and a temperamental navigator (a computer this time).

Once we got back, we got comfortable quickly. Maybe too quickly.

We were late starting out and that put us into the “u-turn rush” which wasn’t that bad, except the traffic came to complete stops several times during the trip. We still don’t understand why as there were no accidents.

As we got near home, our navigation system decided that we’d ignored her one time too many and she stopped giving us notifications.

Once we got home, we all fell into our usual chairs and routines and relaxed to the point that all of a sudden it was time to go to bed and we hadn’t actually eaten supper.

Tomorrow we’re back to our full regular routines. Maybe we’ll manage to unpack eventually.

Fish and Visiting

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A short one today in honor of our short visit to the in-laws.

Although, we’ve had a short visit we are, all of us, ready to be home.

Our oldest has club starting back up, our youngest has Junior Leader activities, and She Who Must Be Obeyed has work.

In my case, I’m ready to continue doing nothing as I’m now in my actual official vacation, but doing nothing in my own way. Although being at the in-laws is mostly relaxing, it comes with lots of extra people and chairs that don’t fit.

By day five it’s time to move on.

Lost and Rebound

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I recently passed the two year anniversary of my diet/lifestyle change and I suppose it requires an assessment.

The second year was the rebound year. I pushed the weight loss quite far and some of it came back with a vengeance once I relaxed my rules. Carbs crept back in and my dedication to the daily exercise routine waned.

Oddly, I’ve reached a kind of steady zone where I neither climb nor drop. However, the zone is above where I’d like to be.

I still fit the clothes I bought after the weight loss, but they are noticeably tighter than they were before.

I’ve been reviewing the first food journal I kept to see what the biggest changes have been with the goal of restarting the “diet” I followed in that book. I’m waiting until after we get back from the in-laws to start though. Being here involves food and alcohol that doesn’t fit the plan.

I’ve been lazy about exercise though; that also doesn’t follow the plan.

Lazy Vacation Day

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I decided not to visit the dead because it was raining. I was that kind of lazy day.

Because it was raining I skipped the annual visit to the family grave. This is usually something I enjoy doing because it’s an interesting ritual and I often run into former students (visiting, not in the graves).

However, even though it was unseasonably cool, the rain made the trip seem less interesting so I opted to stay home and do absolutely nothing. Even She Who Must Be Obeyed and her mother cut the trip short.

Other than that, not much happened to day. Which means it was a good vacation day but not a good day to write about.