Memorial Note

There is a kind of tired that comes from putting in several hours of good, solid work, getting things done... and there is a kind of tired that comes from getting up early to sit around for several hours and wait. I've got the second.

I'm doing what we call 'supporting' a system transition. Supporting means that you actually do have something to do, but for the most part all that you're doing is sitting and waiting. And that famous quote notwithstanding, its not my cup of tea. I'd much rather be busy, doing something when I'm working. Being bound to the computer, but not actually producing anything, is irksome to me. I even brought two books in here with me that I wanted to read, and I was frazzled enough that I couldn't get into either of them. Okay, one, the Six Degrees book, which is an examination of the nature of networks, is not light reading (well, perhaps for someone brighter than me, it would be), but the other is a Star Trek novel, and except for one, no Star Trek novel has ever taxed my mind. (That one wasn't so much a Star Trek novel as a novel that happened to be set in the Star Trek solution space.) But they're both sitting here, virtually unread. My brain is fried. And I didn't even do anything -- thats the worst part.

I could think about pleasant things. For one, we're drifting back to the thought of building a new house rather than retrofitting this one. We have gotten in contact with both an architect and a firm that sells elevators, and neither has seen fit to return our calls. We'll pursue it a little more, but at the moment, we're back to thinking about a new house. Its a pleasant fantasy -- large bedroom with tall windows, broad windowsills, gleaming woodwork, thick carpets, all of that. We're musing over somewhat non-traditional floor plans, too -- a clerestory, perhaps, for light and ventilation; or a folded shape that would let us have a breakfast nook that's open to the air (or openable: half the year, its too chilly for that!) between the kitchen and our bedroom. I keep saying 'and an indoor lap pool', but barring a sudden infusion of funds from Publishers Clearing House, that's unlikely to happen.

What can I say about the recent unpleasantness in the Senate? Perhaps they should change the nickname of the organization to The Worlds Greatest Sulking Body. Who was it, Sam Rayburn?, that said What Goes Around, Comes Around? You bite the opposition party when you don't have to worry about them, and then you're surprised when they do it to you, and more? I see where the Republicans feel that they lost more than they gained in the centrist coalition's deal. I think they both won -- they got moving again. But will they take a lesson from that? Hint: No.

But its a pleasant day, and I think I'm done for now -- though I get to get up early tomorrow to do another change, what fun -- so I am going to goof off, think about doing some baking, perhaps take a bike ride. God knows I need the exercise (and it has to be obvious when even I think so).

Or maybe I'll go read about networks.