I had a wonderful visit with my uncle (hospice) and family yesterday and got to see a close friend in Oakland whose husband was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer last year. He’s doing pretty well all things considered. They got a new puppy and I almost stole her! Took a redeye where I slept beautifully for the first time in my life - thanks to the huge pillow and blanket I bought at the airport AND the weed gummy and melatonin. I was in Economy Plus and realized that when I’m in the front of the plane (biz or first) on my own dime, I’m so intent on taking advantage of every possible nicety that comes with the hefty price tag that I am reluctant to sleep! So I may always just bring a pillow and blanket and do economy plus for redeyes now. Seems backwards but I’ve never slept so well on a plane in my life

I miss all of you very much. I think we should get together again soon and not wait until another of us is gone.

I am home, and is there any better feeling than taking your shoes off after a long trip and sitting on your own couch like a pretzel? I propose there is not!

I am home, and is there any better feeling than taking your shoes off after a long trip and sitting on your own couch like a pretzel? I propose there is not!

Yes, yes there is - it’s doing all of that but with Snarflebutts on your lap!

Y'all are a fucking BALM TO THE SOUL and I miss you already.

All of this. With every single Buffista hug, I exhaled so deeply and just wanted to melt into my people. I've missed y'all incredibly.

Poking my head for just a minute in order to write that in my profile there's a link to a Google Drive folder, open for everybody to edit, in which all y'all can upload pictures from the weekend, so I can enjoy all your pictures from afar. Um, I mean, so that we can all share each other's pictures (well, I don't have any pictures from the weekend to share. The best I can offer is family pictures from PiBoy's bar-mitzva a couple of months ago, if anybody is interested. Sorry).

I am home. We got here about 1:30 this morning. There was a longish wait for a taxi at the airport for some reason. Maybe Sunday night, maybe too many other people had delayed flights. But the beach route home was pretty empty so it only took 15 minutes once we got into the ride. There was much discussion in line about the random people who walked up and claimed to be legit drivers. Yeah, not really up to this at this hour, buddy.

Brendon went and picked up Skinner and he is super enthused to be home. My housesitter did a bunch of sample sketches that look awesome, and is doing a bunch more to discuss later this week. ALSO, today my son messaged me that this is the first Monday ever that he hasn't had to seek my assistance to fix issues and he is gaining confidence.

That said, I think I need Buffista F2F hugs on a much more regular basis. It is indeed a balm for the soul. I'd be happy to facilitate these at either Casa Holt North or South.

Nilly, Shir was kind and shared some of your family pictures, which brought joy to all. I will upload the pictures I took shortly.

Thanks, Nilly!

At SFO. I do not want this vacation to end. It was awesome, because y'all are y'all and yes, a balm to the soul.

Let the international traveling commence.

Let the international traveling commence.

Let it be as smooth as possible. So enjoyed your visit, and our time together!

Safe travels, Shir!

After this weekend, I am reminded yet again of how much it sucks for me, personally, that all but one of my non-met-as-parents local close friends with whom I hung out with on the regular have moved out of easy hanging distance, and the one who hasn't moved is the one with cancer, which reduces our impulse hang ability by a bit, as you might expect. (And yet, she's still as close as I have to a "doing anything tonight/tomorrow/whenever? want to hang?" option these days!) Everyone else now requires major pre-planning to see. Sometimes travel and overnight stays.

Don't get me wrong! I am happy for them all! I like their new digs! I am just whiny and sad for me as I attempt to rebuild an impulse local hang network and keep failing at it! (I have never been especially good at finding people to hang out with on a one-on-one basis, as I find socializing in groups less awkward than socializing one-on-one, but trying it at almost fifty is even more difficult than it was when I was younger, and people just don't throw parties the way they used to before the pandemic.)

Maybe I need to get back in the habit of seeing movies by myself, honestly. It's not socializing, but it kind of fills some of that out of the house non-family activity need.

My soul is balmed. My calves are rocks. Still anxiously waiting on pickup details for phone. Do not recommend being an idiot and losing one’s phone the last hour of vacation. Thankfully all my photos were uploaded to the cloud so I can still access the important stuff…Though realizing I took pitifully few photos this weekend. Was so busy just being there and trying to be present that I realized today I only have pics from Friday! I have zero photos from Saturday which is a shame, because everyone was gloriously gorgeous and should have been throughly documented for preservation purposes.

My ancient 2nd gen iPad is painfully slow and strangely will not communicate with J’s android phone via Wi-Fi. It is sending and receiving texts just fine with mom and friend who also have apple phones, but not with the keeper of the Waymo app who should have this morning received information related to phone recovery. Not being able to text with one’s sweetie during the workday is like being back in the 90’s and relying on emails. He was adorable yesterday trying to problem solve my predicament and calmly walking me through a return to phone-less travel. Bought me a book of logic puzzles in the airport so I’d have entertainment on the plane. Tried to buy me a gorgeous book also but I didn’t think I could focus on actual reading….I might have been wrong. Oh well, opportunity lost. He also declared he would invest in an iPhone for increased technical compatibility and the ability to share phone location (which I generally do with friends and family, but of course couldn’t with him because cross platforms.)

Just splurged and ordered a new(er) refurbished 6th gen iPad from the evil overlords to be delivered before 8am tomorrow. Maybe a newer iPad will play nicer across the apple divide?