2021 JOURNAL JAN 1st: For our now normal New Years Eve: Chandon Brut, the annual firing up of the aged boob tube to watch "Dinner for One" together and a small amount of black-eyed peas (this year with corn muffins from scratch!) for luck. This is what counts as an elaborate ceremony and sacred rite around here. Yep, we're dull... JAN 7th: And of course our presidential putz attempts a putsch. And being a putz, it was a half-assed, half-baked and halfwitted attempt at a putsch. Here's to incompetency! JAN 7th: I predict there will soon be an new adjective to attach to a political opponent: trumpian. The horrors it might conjure could be quite effective with the proper audience... JAN 10th: Snow! Our last measurable snowfall was in 2017... JAN 15th: Our president, Donnie, is not particularly smart or capable at anything. But boy, oh boy, does he know how to hold a grudge. And there are apparently no lengths he will not go to for revenge and payback. Double. Triple. And, just our luck, this trait was a perfect fit with a sizable portion of the electorate that are still trying to win and litigate a war they lost over 150 years ago... JAN 21st: Well, we certainly have had a decade's worth of Wednesdays this month. The 6th was dominated my our homegrown, magical thinking Jacksonians attempting a G.I. Joe-clad re-enactment of the storming of the Bastille. Fortunately, in the end they proved as incompetent as their Fearless Leader. And now the consequences are deservedly raining down on their pointy little heads. On the 13th Fearless Leader entered the rarefied air of being impeached twice in a single term. And this one may stick, awarding the ultimate booby prize of being banned from federal office for life. The 20th's Inaugural was anything but normal. But given that the Black Plague was in town and the recent attempted putsch, not totally unexpected. And we still have the 27th to go. Here's hoping it will prove to be the best Wednesday in years by producing absolutely nothing newsworthy from Washington for an entire day... FEB 9th: Watch your step and don't mind the mess. Reconfiguring my website for the umpteenth time. Everyone needs a hobby. And in other news, Trump's senate trial began today. Gee, I wonder how it will turn out... FEB 22nd: [imported from a family Facebook post on Feb 20, 2021] Power restored this AM after slightly more than 110 hours without. First order of business was to brew coffee. We have our priorities straight. Now the waiting for water to reappear after 50+ hours. That's been off due to a broken main at the apartments that couldn't be addressed without electricity by the contractors. And the city water is off anyway. Catch 22-ish. This has been an interesting but not particularly pleasant change of pace. Walking about with every warm thing we own on inside. Sleeping under mountains of afghans. Raiding the bodegas with electricity for a dazzling array of junk foods that required neither heating nor plates. Tossing several hundred dollars of fridge/freezer comestibles that had begun smell like a dead moose. And thank goodness for the ancient technology of hurricane lamps. We're shabby, stinky and grumpy but, while it may be a bit premature, we're thinking of having tee shirts emblazoned with: "We Survived the Austin Ice Age"... [and as of this post, we are still waiting for water] FEB 24th: [also imported from Facebook] Status Update: Power and water restored (mostly). Armies of plumbers and electricians swarming over the apartments (our new property managers are a vast improvement over the prior lot). Some of the structures here are 4 or more decades old and sustained heavy damage. Ours, the newest, held up well it would seem. Our major loss was the coffee maker died but a replacement should show up at our door tomorrow from Wally-Mart. And I am currently sitting outside in my shorts, flip-flops and a loud hawaiian shirt on February 24th. Because Texas... MAR 16th: "O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!" Received my first vaccine jab today. Administered as a drive-thru in the parking lot of the Dell Diamond, a AAA baseball field in Round Rock. Mild to nominal side effects so far and no obvious mutations. But if they do occur hopefully they don't include tentacles. Back in 3 weeks for the follow-up. Disappointed they didn't give me a sucker though... APR 6th: Second vaccine today. Much busier than the first. The nurse administering the shot said they expected between 4000 to 5000 that day. And every one of them driving a car. Got out a map and measured the length of the line just to enter the site at about 3/5's of a mile along the shoulder of Highway 79. No lingering side effects so far except excessive sleepiness. And it should be fully efficacious in two weeks... MAY 9th: Two years since I started this journaling thing. Here's how I announced my birthday on Hacker News to a nice response: "As luck would have it, today is my birthday. I am now officially 72 years old. My approach to the inevitable is, while getting older is certainly no picnic at the park, it definitely beats the hell out of the alternative. So far at least..." JUL 3rd: And so now we're grandparents. Little Emilia made her way into the world this morning. We will do our best to make it an enjoyable and rewarding experience... JUL 25th: Somewhere floating around in the electronic ether is a photo of me holding a swaddled, pink, wiggly thing very gingerly in my arms. I appear (and am) very old and she very young, which is as it should be. This being alive business is just full of surprises... SEP 17th: Technically, I have not been neglecting this journal since all the days for the past year and a half under the plague have gone pretty much like this: wake up, put on a pot of coffee, go for a stroll, sit down and start futzing around on the computer, perhaps do a little (as possible) housework, take a nap, make and/or consume a dinner, more futzing before bed and all accompanied by classical music. Rinse and repeat. The notable exceptions were a week long polar ice storm and becoming a first time grandparent... --- every@ma.sdf.org ---