Jerry CGI

Klim is milk spelled backwards. The last of the milk in the fridge went toward cheese risotto. I finished right before it warmed up for the day. The stew utensils and crock are washed and put up. I have the risotto pot and cooking spoon soaking in the sink, waiting for a minute of my time. I won’t need to cook for a while.

I need to get Myka’s salad picked and serve it to her. Bath and laundry later today, otherwise, I’m on my own time.

Ida made landfall this afternoon. Grand Isle had a pretty intense tidal surge. No effect of it felt here.

Not much else going on this Sunday. Aside from cooking, pretty much a lazy day.

After a 32 hour delay… The stew is currently closing in on 9 hours of slow cooking. More beef than potatoes. No veggies (sweet peas, baby limas, green beans, more carrots, corn), tomato sauce, or flour yet, but they’ll be in there before long. I estimate this one could take as long as 14-16 hours to cook on low heat. Maybe longer.

I may end up sacrificing Blue Bell for freezer space. There will be three half gallon tubs and a partial after a bowlful. Add cheese risotto to the fridge, and there is a storage crisis. I can’t eat that fast.

I hear rumbling to the south west. The rain is moving from the east. Not enough fell to wet anything. But it was a relatively cool day for August. A good day to cook.

I am seeing a bill for AT&T, no refund credited. There will be a phone call Monday if it doesn’t change by then.

Veggies just went in the crock after a period of high heat and the veggies thawing. The heat is back to low. It will cook until the meat and potatoes are tender. Tomato sauce and flour go in about an hour before it finishes.

Another Saturday night at home.
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Texas style ribs were on sale for $3/lb, so I got 5.7 lbs. They’re essentially beef shoulder roast cut in one inch square boneless strips, and they make excellent stew meat cubes with minimal prep. I figured it was the way to tame the bag of gold potatoes that hasn’t been opened yet. I had to go back for beef broth, which I thought I had, but didn’t.

I meant to start the prep earlier tonight, but I fell asleep and didn’t turn on the fans to cool down the house. But I still have time to get the crock loaded and ready for slow cooking before it warms up.

It also means that the remainder of the milk will go toward cheese risotto. And there will be a batch of eggs ackley in there too. But not tonight. No hurry, as the fridge is still well stocked, and nothing in the fridge is near expiration.

It’s still August, and the days are still warm. At least it’s not hot. No triple digits this summer thus far.

Finances are uncertain starting in October. A number of COVID relief efforts are expiring after September. It doesn’t worry me, as I am doing well enough, even without the ones I receive. I’m paying attention, and there is hope, but nothing definitive yet. I wish AT&T would hurry up and show me a bill so I can verify the installation refund.

Ready for things to cool down so I can fix the truck, make it road worthy. I’m getting tired of sitting at home.

Lots of nothing going on. Big news, stop the presses, a store run this morning, flautas, fajitas, and Reese’s pieces.

Woke at 8 am and realized that I hadn’t put out the trash. Never mind that I had 4 hours or more to spare, it would delay the store run.

So a non-stop morning for an hour. I even caught a computer event on time.

Prior to that, three days of laziness. A few dishes, a couple of ice bin fillings, Myka pampering… There was a pharmacy run on Monday, with a Myka stock. Besides kibbles and wet food (a couple of new flavors to test), she got a couple of gravy pouches, a little pricey, but she loves it, and it doesn’t take much of it to ring her ding-a-ling.

Got a list of installations done, mostly updates. As of now, I’m current. Poking around in new versions, but not much. I’m still too frazzled from the assembly to be productive.

I have a diminishing infection on my left elbow pad. First time I’ve ever experienced one. Not bad, a little sore, but I got it drained, and it’s healing as the infection recedes.

That’s pretty much it for the last three days. The August mundanes. Staying cool in the cave. Sleeping too much at night.

I have had laundry waiting for days. My intent is to add reserves that haven’t been washed in many months (or years) to freshen them. But the dirty clothes seem to be the only thing sitting in the washer. Now other chores are done. Ice bin stays stocked, food cooked, dishes washed, floors clean, hand washed poncho on the hanger rack, etc, etc. And laundry is an easy one, a few turns and pushes and folding is it. I just haven’t gotten to the point of digging up the reserves to add to the load. I’m just about ready to do a small load.

Part of the issue is the effort digging up reserves that were down a ways on the priority list. They could wait until autumn when it cools down a bit and I’m not in the office most of the time. It’s currently the warmest time of year, and the AC is welcoming. It’s also how I bagged the reserves with other stuff when cleaning the office. I need to box a bunch of it for storage, no small effort. All in all, it’s something that is logically suited for a different time of year. Ambition for the illogical is currently hampered. _{Pun is unfortunately intended.}

I am managing to keep the time passing without too much distress. Finishing up a TV series. The audio processing collection is pretty much complete (sans sorting). Going through software and seeing how much of a learning curve I’m facing with upgrades, though it’s not as steep as what I’ve already encountered. Game playing eating time too. The new digital setup in the office can be productive when inspired and entertaining when I’m not. My needs are covered, and I can hole up and keep myself company. I’ve got email and chat and even an iPhone to keep the impacts on the walls down to a minimum. (Boing boing.)

While I may wish for late spring in the middle of a cold spell in winter, I never wish for the third week in August. At least it’s green this year.

And I couldn’t stand it any longer. I set the washer for medium load and ran it without adding any of the reserve. It’s just a load of dirty clothes. How novel…

This act of this brass barreled stylus defying gravity is simply a case of speaker magnets and a very thin stainless steel sleeve on an otherwise solid brass instrument. I am exceedingly glad that I never laid my credit cards on the laptop surface. The speakers are a class or two better than other laptop speakers, but I never suspected this degree of magnetic flux.

Just hand washed the alpaca poncho in the tub, and now it’s dripping over the tub. It will get moved to the folding drying rack when it has finished dripping off the water weight. I still need to do laundry, which involves digging up idle stuff to wash with the dirty clothes. Otherwise, chores are done. Plenty of ice in the bin, dishes and containers washed, kitchen floor clean, truck battery charged, even trimmed my toenails. Well, Myka needs pampering, but otherwise…

I intend on making sausage gravy tonight. Risotto later into the week ahead. Plenty of goodies to hold me over in the meantime. Had pizza last night.

I grabbed a few more gigs of VST plugs in the last 24 hours. Not worried about exceeding my 1T of bandwidth for the month. Two thirds of the way there with 4 days remaining. I’d be hard pressed to download the other third. I’m waiting to see how they treat the service charge refund on the next bill.

I am looking into financial changes in the months ahead, as COVID enactments expire and adjustments are discussed and made. I’m doing well enough for now, and things look hopeful. Hopeful is not certain. But it is hopeful, so no reason to be glum now.

The coming week looks to be on the warm side, a few upper 90s in a string. I’ll be in my cave, hopefully hybernating in the afternoons. I have plenty to keep me busy if I don’t.

Rain from glancing storms dropped temperatures more than it made things wet. While welcome, safety concerns regarding the lightning hindered my schedule. Not that anything protested being delayed, everything involved something getting wet. The call to sleep was stronger than the will to do chores.

Piroulines arrived early, a fresh stock before the previous batch is exhausted.

Thawed sausage for gravy, now that I have milk on hand. I’ll probably make risotto as well. Potato salad is the only item on the middle shelf of the fridge that’s opened. Beanie weenies was lunch, finishing off the hotdogs.

Sent Apple $50 today. Can’t justify it, other than that I can afford it. The discount on the internet covered the software.

Summer trundles on.

The audio processing is in place, cataloged, and backed up. All that is left is organizing for use. That will happen on the older laptop in due course. I’ve dedicated enough time to the project for the nonce. I still have hardware/DAW to iron out before I start using plugs and libraries. For now, I’m taking a break.

It rained today (Sunday), moderately, while areas nearby got much more. The rain storm dissipated, much like the armies of Lord of the Rings casting themselves against the walls of Helm’s Deep.

Down to spaghetti and potato salad, with the hotdogs opened for a couple of chili cheese dogs. I decided that it would have torpedoes the spaghetti program, so I just ate the chili with cheddar. I’ve decided to do beanie weenies with the rest of the dogs. Another “it’s been awhile”. Plenty more in reserve to be opened.

Staying in front of chores for the most part. Occasionally the dishes soak a little longer than necessary. There aren’t many chores to be done, so it’s an easy achievement. Laundry is a little slack, but still not a full load.

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Made a quick store run. Mostly extraneous stuff, milk was about it for needed items, plus more flautas so I wouldn’t run out. Cookies, chocolate bottomed macaroons, chips, plus moth traps and New-Skin.

I ordered more vanilla Piroulines from Amazon too.

Today is a phone day. Storage rent and everything else that has been waiting.

Today is a lazy Monday.

Let me rephrase that: Drag n drop everything. I finished the big guns that I wanted done with Disk Utility, a fairly tedious process for hundreds of folders. But for the large folder hierarchies, it’s hard to beat for verified accuracy, especially when you’re tossing the original. But for single pkg folders, it’s a waste of time. It’s too easy to replace from the internet. I switched to DropDMG and let them batch process. I got the last 120 folders done inside of 20 minutes.

Everything audio is off the internal drive. I have two transfers left, 275G and 112G. Then I get to sort everything by format, function, etc, so I can find what I need without having to do too much research. Then it will be done. But no more packaging, just moving.

Whew! It’s getting there.

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95°F outside, topping the warm region, edging into the a little bit hot zone. Not too bad in the kitchen, bearable at 87°F. Not particularly ideal for broiling, but bearable. Not that I’m hungry after an early spaghetti lunch.

August is half over.

I can’t remember the last time before this morning that I bought anything from Shipley Do-nuts. Memory says probably 80s or 90s in Conroe, but it might have been 00s in Bryan. A decade and some, at least. Could be more than three. An unnecessary indulgence, but what the heck.

Chicken salad is gone, and I’ve resumed the sketti train. Need to focus on the chili, though it’s the least expensive and easiest to sacrifice, if needed. I’ll see if any of the spuds are still edible. I think I’ll pass on the dogs for now.

Slow progress on the audio files, but progress nonetheless. I may be washing some of the reserves this weekend. Towels will be a big part of it. What else depends on how far I get.

Not a whole lot else going on. It’s summer.

I have noticed that the sun is setting further south as the days grow shorter, especially in the morning. The house aligns 14° west of true north, aligning with the street. This means that the sun strikes the north side of the house on summer evenings. And with the neighbor’s war on shade, the sun has been coming in the window full tilt in the evening, making it difficult to read the computer screen. I was using a sheet of packing paper to shade the window for around an hour or two, being easier than working the roman curtain, with less wear and tear. With the angle of sunlight moving south in the evening, the paper is no longer necessary. Part of this is trees on the other street providing a big part of the reduction.

The shorter days don’t mean cooler days. It’s still in the 90s in the afternoon. We have another month before we expect to see a break in the temperature, if not longer. But that is nothing new, same ol’ same ol’.

Made a store run on Monday morning. Rib eyes were on sale, half price. Three 24 oz beauties caught my eye, and I brought them home. They’re in the freezer. Strawberries were also on sale, $1/lb. I pureed and froze two packs. Also got chicken salad, potato salad, produce, tamales, boudin, smoked turkey, provolone and gouda, flautas, and replacement spaghetti and sauce. The fridge is snug and the freezer is topologist approved. I need a bigger appetite.

I am making progress on audio processing stuff. Not heroic or historic or even concerted, but a bit here and there. I’m not going to wear myself out again like the first round. A little, when I feel like it, for as long as I feel like it. No pressing onward. It will get there. I have a good picture of the final product’s hierarchy. I know where I’m going with it, which helps.

Doing well, or what passes for doing well these days. No escaping the aches, pains, and limits in stamina. But I am caught up on chores and ahead of the curve. Vital signs are good. Plenty of sleep. But it’s summer. AC bound, minimal cooking, lots of sedentary existence, keeping focused on something to maintain a balanced mentality without strain. August will pass.

My pads are going through a peel. I need to soak them in coconut oil. Getting in a little playing, but not anything with power. They’re crumbling. A delayed reaction to the blow out. Good thing this happened in summer.

After two days of very light eating, I’m starting to find an appetite again. Breakfast was not sufficient. The spaghetti sauce is done, but it’s too early for pasta.

More VST downloading, but not concerted, in phases of on and off, heavy on the off. Still, I’ve gathered 180 items, and more coming. My last will be sorting them. Standalone, plugs, extensions, and libraries, each group subdivided by format and then category (compression, EQ, reverb… guitar, bass, drums, strings…). Once I get that done, selection will be far easier. But I have time for the sizable project, no big hurry. The DAWs are already installed. The real work begins when I start using the MIDI manager.

Not much going on, watching movies, sleeping, chores are done. I am gathering steam, bit by bit, nap by nap. Currently, it’s early Sunday morning, well into after hours. No email, no phone calls, chat rooms are empty, the big dead spot on the weekly calendar, left to entertain myself or sleep.

Zzzzzzzzz

Found a new source for VST, etc. These are more number crunchers, controllers, generators, modifiers, than they are samples. Hence, the packages are in megs instead of gigs. They will package quicker, but it’s still a lot of packages. Get it ‘fore it’s gone. Have to be careful of system requirements, some of these are fairly old and 32 bit.

Finally got the chili cheese spud w/ avocado made. Ate the avocado and half the spud. All that I could hold, even if it was 23 hours between meals. Rest of it is in the fridge. Sketti sauce is next.

I slept through most of the jam. I was told that I was missed.

Myka saw a small gecko in the bathroom, and it was sudden zooming chaos. The gecko was a fraction faster.

The last of the cloud cooled days are gone, back in the mid 90s starting today. It was a nice break, a shame I was too tired to make good use of it.

Doing well for how little I’ve recovered. Still tired, achey, and sedentary, but in fairly good spirits. Getting lots of sleep.

My first full day off, and I’m still tired, but not as tired as I was 24 hours ago. It’s not a full blown physical fatigue, as I can get up and do chores without dire effort, but more a mental tiredness. I am attempting a left to right brain transition. I try to think 1 4 5 4 in 4/4 and get sudo chmod +x.

I need to make a store run, but I keep sleeping through the prime opportunities. Bread is turning on me, and hotdogs are the only thing on the middle shelf. Well, add ground chuck for spaghetti sauce. I’m breaking down and cooking. It will be a good replacement for the brisket chili.

I am not planning on attending the jam tonight. I just don’t have it. The resonance is not clicking. The do re mi is awol. The guitar pads are okay, but I’m just not connecting to my energy source. I’d love to jump in, but alas… And it might be diplomatic to sit this one out as well. Let others take the main stage before school starts.

The weather has been cloudy, which is holding down the temp to the 80s. Not complaining about that. Not any real rain in the last couple of days, hit and miss, heavy on the miss.

The laptop is seeing pretty light duty. A couple of updates downloaded. A few videos watched, some email, very routine stuff. I had a day of mental lethargy, refusing to think. I’ve thought enough for one week.

A champagne bottle against the bow of the laptop, the golden boot took place at 6 am CDT 8/3/21. The laptop is at stage prime. Three months of digital elbow grease and bandwidth, it’s here. Locked, stocked, and cataloged. 3,829,402 files. 357,862,940,672 bytes. 32G RAM. 8 cores. 8G VRAM. Beast.

Can I sleep now?

Store run this morning, just three items, all from the freezer section. Pot pies, coconut creme pie, and flautas. Not a big urge to cook in the heat of summer. I got in the run before the rains rolled in from the west, cruising down US 290 from Austin. A little rumbling mixed in, but nothing intense or close. Big temperature drop to the mid 70s. It is dark outside.

I think I exhausted the audio processing downloads. A good thing, as it would get expensive if I kept up the pace. I’ve used almost half of my monthly allotment in less than 10 days. A serious intro to 75 mbps. That is probably a lifetime record that won’t be repeated.

Still on the tired side, though not a much as before. Recovery has been pretty dull. Slept last night after a plate of spuds w/ pork tenderloin and cheddar. Getting plenty of shuteye, even lying in the LZB without sleeping. Not a lot of ambition flowing at the moment. But I am staying on top of chores as needed. Having little ambition for projects. My biorhythms show physical and intellectual as low, with emotional at critical. That fits.

Part of my tiredness is hypertension medication side effect. It colors everything, but I can rise above it with the proper ambition. But I burned most of that on software assembly. I appreciate where it got me, but I have no desire to use it at the moment. But I will.

Nothing shouting deadline except my lifespan, which still lies before me. Time will tell what my efforts this summer have availed, all in its proper subjective schedule.