That’s sounding real good right now. Of course it’s just after eight already and I just made dinner. But in theory, I’m with you.

In bed at 9. Still seething.

Blacksmithing and glass blowing both sound awesome. I suddenly realize that the boring trip with my grandparents to the craft booths at Silver Dollar City when I was a tween would be fantastic now.

I would go to a glass-blowing bar.

In New Orleans, in the Warehouse district, there's a big glass arts building with multiple furnaces going and you can stand in the mezzanine and watch them work. It's fascinating.

FaceTimed with Matilda today. (Technically she was speaking from tomorrow.). She managed to handle her own difficult scheduling situation (they had shifted her classes so she was completely isolated from everybody in her program, and all of her friends at the language school), so that's a big adulting win for her, and a helicopter parent email I don't have to write.

Tomorrow she is going with friends to Nara which has the famous deer park.

She mentioned that she and her friends were talking about doing a weekend trip to Tokyo (of their own accord - not a school side trip) and I was totally down with it. She's 18. She's got the money. They know how to use the trains. They just have to find a hotel. And she won't be traveling alone.

I've been busy with various social schedules and have a few pending RSVPs to consider. So I've been fine without Matilda here. (And in truth, I barely saw her when she was here since she was downstairs with her friends in the Garden Apartment most of the time.).

I've been on a really good streak of striking up conversations with people at the bar lately. Being the gregarious bastard that I am, that's like bonus points socializing.

Last week I had a friend visiting from Rochester, NY so I cleaned the house rather thoroughly (which it needed). Also got to do Happy Hour with JenK which is always a treat.

Right now, aside from some onerous tasks, I just need to plan my trip to LA for my friend Josh's Celebration of Life.

Hi all. It's Shabbat so thankfully no Shiva today. Shiva is a good thing and Judaism knows how to handle grief, but getting 3-4 times the talks that you get in a normal week is a lot. I reverted back to smile and nod after three days. Tomorrow will be end of Shiva, and on Monday we'll be getting back to life.

Thank you all for your wishes, and I'm really sorry for not being too much around here. Political messiness and war aside, the past few months have been a nightmare and an ordeal as my dad not only deteriorated physically and mentally, he also refused to accept medical help most of the time. It was heart wrenching not be able to help him.

USians have been on my mind a lot since January. Take care and organize as much as you can. I know how it feels like, but I also want to remind you that there's so much that can be done locally even when much bigger systems are against you. I'm not sure how much time I'll have to post here with all of the death bureaucracy and errands, but you're on my mind. Also, maybe it's also a good time to change the board definitions from being googable to not - right now all of the posts are googable.

Thank you all again. You're in my thoughts and in my heart.

Hugs Shir!! Good to hear from you and condolences.

Gentle hugs, Shir.

I’m back to MI. An 11 hour drive is a lot, but that’s 11 hours I didn’t spend watching the news, and these days that’s a nice break. In the future I might break it up, though.

Sophia, your mentor sounds like a remarkable person. I’m so glad you had her in your life.

Welcome to my psyche, I had dreams about killing people.

For some reason this shit today in DC has sent me over the edge. I’m so fucking angry.

Nothing that has happened has surprised me, which is sad enough. I am angry, and ashamed, and terrified, and a whole host of other overwhelming emotions. I'm watching a lot of music videos and streaming series. Minimal dose of news a day because I can't be totally uniformed.

It is good to hear that Matilda is coping so well and adulting so admirably.

Both blacksmithing and glass blowing sound awesome. A retired police officer friend of mine makes knives and he really enjoys his blacksmithing results. (and sells the knives) He also does bonsai. He was a sniper, and the most patient even-tempered person ever, so these hobbies which require steady patient personalities work for him very well.

Sending love to Shir, and all. My cousin left at 5:30 this morning. He is wonderful company, but it will be nice to catch up on some of my house chores.

Oh, on the work front! Despite my retirement, at this time of year we have to do a whole bunch of government reporting for our medical practices, which requires my help. Some of the doctors are flipping out because although they score 100% on a bunch of measures the estimates still show a deduction in their future Medicare receipts. We won't know what their actual rates are going to be until late summer. I have patiently explained to them that even if their scores are perfect this administration may just randomly decide to cut what they get by 30% and we have no control to do anything about it. First, none of my doctors are suffering, second, they are mostly Republicans. Their whimpering is falling on deaf ears.