Y’all are definitely making me not miss office life.

I am puttering around the apartment, not very focused but still productive. Made room in my closet for R’s clothes, did some laundry stuff, purged some knickknacks and organized others. Taking a lunch break, then I have to make my bed and pack the car. Living between two places an hour apart is kind of a bitch, even while it is a privilege.

Shir, that is so awful. There’s just so many horrific details during horrific happenings. Things you wouldn’t ever think of, like parrots imitating sirens and door knocks.

I agree that there's so much awfulness and terrible, heartbreaking deatails all around. The parrots thing I actually find amusing.

If you'd like to see something more hopeful - though it does include some details - one of the stories is of four Bedouins who came to rescue their cousin. But first they rescued 30-40 other people. [link] it's sad, and incredible, and there are literally thousands of other stories like this. I try to focus on them.

Another wonderful story is a story of a nursery in one of the Kibutzes. The survivors thought the plants were all gone. Few people came back to get some stuff back to the families in the places they were evacuated to, to a living nursery with a sign, "we're sorry we had to break in. We wanted to water the plants", left by some other soldiers.

I still can't believe so many people can't return to their homes or rebuilt them (those who want to). They survived unfathomable things. I want them to be able to come back home (if it's not burned down/destroyed). They won't be able to do so for a very long time.

The consequences of this mess for so many is unfathomable. If they somehow manage to find some resolution soon there is still going to be a huge amount of rebuilding to be done. Plus all of the emotional toll. I'm so inspired by those who are doing what they can to give aid and comfort. Seeing the good people helps with maintaining hope for humanity.

Work-related article (for me, anyway) in this week's New Yorker, about the upcoming retirement of the last official lighthouse keeper in America: [link]

(I suspect it's paywalled, sadly)

Those of you who have kept in close touch with me over the past year or so know that my wife Lisa's mother Joy has been dealing with a recurrence of the lung cancer that she's gone a couple of rounds with over the last decade.

Joy came home from the hospital this morning with a hospice team. They don't know how long she has, but I suspect it isn't going to be long.

Lisa and her mother have had a very up-and-down relationship over the years, and Lisa has been her primary caregiver roughly since last November. I would humbly ask you folks for easy-passing~ma for Joy and comfort~ma for Lisa.

Thanks for listening, and giving me a place where I can talk about this stuff, even if I don't have the heart for it most days.

Timelies all!

{{{{Karl and family}}}}

Karl, I'm sorry. 2023 is really taking people out. ETA: I'm thinking maybe you have enough heart for the Pacific Timezone; maybe you have *too much* heart for this.

Very sorry for what you’re going through Karl.

I actually quite like Teams. And I never use my phone for calls now even more than I never used it before!

Salesforce is made from pure evil.

Ok but there’s no arguing with that.

Definitely don’t use my phone much for calls! But we really only use teams for chat and meetings. I know there’s more things but have never managed to get people using the rest of it really.

Consuela the article was not paywalled and was very interesting!

Weirdness to me: body dysmorphia going both ways. I have lost a lot of weight in the past 7 months, but in my brain, I didn’t look as big as I was when I started, and I don’t look all that different now? But next weekend I am going to a big dance event and will see a bunch of folks I haven’t seen since before I started on the weight loss drugs and I suspect it will be weird. I’m a size 12 in my heart, apparently?