Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Refi 2 Tuesday and Art

Sunday more boardgaming, Monday getting not much done because I'd left the schedule open for the refinancing notary, which got delayed to Tuesday.
Picture taking is a bit weak, as decorations are coming down, most plants are hunkered down for the winter, and such flowers as there are (a few dandelions and the occasional nasturtium) look out of season.

I got an adequate haiku Monday:



Winter In Seattle,
Short On Both Flowers And Snow,
Finds Beauty In Moss.


I set up my cafe table and chairs on the porch, which the notary  found perfectly adequate. I might leave it there, as it is charming enough and a promise of something nice for spring. I never sit at it indoors anyway. 
The refi paperwork went smoothly enough; it was chill but not too cold, and not wet. We had to be outside to reduce the risk of COVID, of course. I'm happy to have the paperwork done; I'll never know if I could have squeezed in even a lower rate somehow but since costs were covered it makes sense to make this move even if there is theoretically a better one somewhere.
I took another walk and stocked the last of my available carrots at a pantry, but was still not find a good photo til I got home. I resolved to take a picture of myself so I can get over my appearance of age, and unexpectedly found one of the most popular pictures (going by Facebook likes) I've ever done.
Me and My House Numbers



One of my first art projects was upgrading my house numbers, repurposing cracked plates. I'd actually done this some years ago but the image was today. I guess art and crafting is something a lot of people relate to!

Saturday, December 26, 2020

Christmas Break

 

Hannah and Julie made 2020 Holiday ornaments featuring a 2020 word cloud. So clever!

This "Merry Catmas" is from years ago, but still a favorite.


Kiara's at her mom's with the cat called Pawman
We had our usual walk Xmas morning. This week we had a very wet Monday, a very cold Tuesday, I think Thursday was so slippery that we didn't go up Frontenac to High Point, and Friday was just a nice day for a walk. The ladies are going on vacation so we'll resume walking in a week or two, but I have the habit so helpfully ingrained now that I'll just explore my neighborhood more.
Friday afternoon and evening was boardgaming, Saturday was cleaning a bit around the house and mailing the last of the Georgia GOTV letters. For the Senate election, through the Sierra Club, I sent  batches of 20 letters each (although the most recent batch was about a PSC election, which I guess is important - at this point, I trust the Club.) 140 letters sound like a lot, but it was over the course of six weeks, so really, not that much.



Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Drain-Cleaning Walk

Hannah and Julie
 This soggy morning Julie carried a small shovel for cleaning leaves off the drains. I helped a little; it turns out my fancy synthetic gloves act like a wetsuit - it got wet but warmed up so I could grab clods and toss them. We did not get in the usual amount of steps, but we did a lot of function exercise, and it was kind of fun! 

Tuesday there was a sprinkling of snow on the ground. some of the surfaces were slick but we made it up to the water tower just fine.

Wednesday my walk was on my own (as the girls have a special class). I did the little free pantry circuit, carrying my surplus foods in my backpack. I can tell I'm making progress because jogging 40 steps feels like much too little.

At home, I did some more exercising, upgraded 4freeCLE with the next month's programs, and did another Stage Time University class.



Sunday, December 20, 2020

A Weekend of Gaming

Friday: walk a lot, play with cats, game over Zoom
Saturday: walk a lot, play with cats, DND over Zoom (came close to TPK but we pulled it out!)

Sunday: walk a lot, play with cats, game over Zoom.

--
Tomorrow's the Solstice. I'll be more productive thereafter.

----------------

I got the email estimate on the fence and, as I anticipated, got total sticker shock. I'm not feeling good about spending down that much of my cash, but I feel badly about cheapening out also. I emailed my hesitation, then another proposing some alternatives (e.g. gifting them the land under the fence, or splitting the cost).

Basically I feel badly because I make so much less money ?

Thursday, December 17, 2020

Holiday Events


Tuesday was the Toastmasters Club 832 (West Seattle) meeting and Holiday Party. I got the benefit of rearranging my office into a studio, with a plain back wall I can decorate (I plan to paint it a calmer color than that yellow soon). I won the best costume, at the price of wearing a hat that got super warm after a while.
Wednesday I skipped my long walk and finished up another pack of GOTV letters to Georgia.
Thursday I went up Frontenac with no breathing distress at all! It was noticeable work but not hard! After, I picked up some groceries from Mary the neighbor and distributed them among the various little free panties (skipping 16th because I'd stocked it Wednesday). I ended up doing 12,891 steps - a personal best!
This evening I skipped Zumba and a possible Toastmasters meeting for the Time Bank Holiday event, where we played trivia.
Now I am exercising my right to go to be early. When the days are longer, may be we need more sleep.

Monday, December 14, 2020

Today's Art

 While I have plenty of work-like things to do, I have time for art as well. For example, when I respond to a facebook notification that a friend has a birthday, I try to compose a card using mspaint, rather than copy something or just write text.

I Know Anita From Law School


My home Toastmasters Club (832, West Seattle) is having our holiday party Tuesday and one of my roles is publicity. I made an image for our Facebook page, based on the White Elephant game we'll be playing. No actual goods will be exchanged, only tall stories!
Toastmasters White Elephant
A Facebook group I hang around with (Garak is love. Garak is life. Garak is queer.) had hosted a charitable fundraiser "Run The Promenade). You'll understand all that if you're a DS9 fan.
Today while cleaning I found the package with the t-shirt I'd earned by doing the event.Naturally I had to add the shirt to the titular character, just for fun!
This is Elim Garak in an exceptionally happy mood.
Not my work, obviously.

Me modeling the shirt

My MSPaint skills are small,
but enough for a joke

A little creativity every day!

Mask Collection

 Masks are our newest form of litter. I pick them up in my glove, roll the glove over it for stowage, and once home launder with soap. This collection, having been cleaned, I'll be donating since obviously I don't need them, but it's interesting to see what people drop in the path of my walk.







Sunday, December 13, 2020

Weekend Cleanup

 I reorganized my yellow room so that my two little desks are as one big L-shaped desk and the wall behind me is blank. I plan to repaint it to look more like a zoom studio.

I got my walking in although I had to take it easy on my left foot was I may have overworked it during Saturday Zumba.

I'm steadily although not necessarily speedily moving stuff on through Buy Nothing. Having the shed restored to sanity, now I'm working on the Yellow Room Closet, which requires doing something about all those board games I never play (due to pandemic and the plethora of new games available on the internet.)

Friday I had the zoom room open for gaming; Mary from blockwatch and Vicki from Timebank came on and we all three talked but gamed not at all.

Sunday I was reminded to work on the Elfster/giftgiving for SPEAKOUT, and worked it out.

Sunday Ed was having codewords but just before I got a message from Sandy asking about a game link, which turned out to be last week. I opened a room and emailed the hobbit list, from which Mary Russell joined in; Sandy  invited  her SCA friend Galen and Mary Russell dropped in. We started Lost Cities when it was just the two of us but at Galen's suggestion switched to Alhambra, which is a good game but very different. I think I see some general principles about games of Alhambra's type, about building productive capacity before worrying about scoring or something. 

Ginny flows to fill her space

Imp monitors the neighbors' back yards

Shadow prefers the chair I've most recently sat in

A few last tamerinds

Zoom-ba and christmas cat tree





Western Glowing Cedar near highpoint

Thursday, December 10, 2020

A week in pictures

 

Shadow On An Office Chair

Imp In Her Favorite Window

Ginny In A Box

Zumba by Zoom

Holiday Tamarind

Holiday Tree

I Thought This Was Funny, Oh Well.

Monday, December 07, 2020

Christmas Cat Chard and GOTV

 

At Hannah+Julie's: Christmas Cat Chard!



55 Sierra Club GOVT letters,

160 Vote Forward letters

Sunday, December 06, 2020

Moot Court Weekend

 This weekend was dominated by my commitment to serve as a Moot Court judge, despite having no trial experience. I gave helpful advice by taking about virtual presentation skills (mostly learned in Stage Time University) and then tossing to colleagues who had trial experience, and appear to have just wanted someone to start talking.

I finished Sunday completing my Vote Forward GOTV packet for mailing Monday; the Sierra Club packet is for Tuesday.

Saturday evening I DND'd and was very pleased to learn the utility of a Silent Illusion Ogre for shaping a battlespace.

Friday, December 04, 2020

Walk And Game Day

The City Is Without Rain,
But The Mountain Is Rainier
Today's walk was relaxing - good exercise but very pleasant as the night turned to day. I spent much of the day working on GOTV letters, and then at 3pm started the Zoom meeting for gaming. Stewart and Ed logged in immediately, then over time Mary Russell and Ed's friend Lisa jumped on. We played Carcassone, and then Mary pursuaded us to try Yatzhee. I was frankly dubious but good manners dictated giving it a try, and it turned out to be surprisingly fun for an abstract dice game. One person from WSTB joined in after Lisa left. It was a pleasant enough way to pass time, and in between Yatzhee turns I did more GOTV letters. Saturday and Sunday is devoted to Moot Court and finishing the GOTV letters.

Thursday, December 03, 2020

Walking and GOTVing

Smiling Micro Greenhouse
 Wednesday, I put in my steps alternating walking and ... perhaps not running, but something like trotting. It was enough to kick my system up to another level. I wore my backpack and dropped off a little extra food in the little free pantry on16th, which seemed to be getting a good amount of business and not as much contributions - only to find this time that someone had well stocked it (for its size) with personal care items. That was cool.

I didn't take much in the way of pictures, except I liked the smile on a miniature greenhouse.


I practiced listening and learning at Stage Time University in the evening (see notes).




Thursday on the usual morning walk with the walking buddies we saw Santa waiting by the curb.

The rest of the day I caught up with paperwork: inviting Hobbits to game night tomorrow.

I completed about 40 GOTV letters for Vote Forward, which is about the number I need to do, considering that Saturday and Sunday will be occupied by the Moot Court I'd volunteered for.






Tuesday, December 01, 2020

Three Achievements

 


Today I achieved my 3-month goal of walk/trotting up the hill to the Highpoint Watertower, the highest point in Seattle (sea level+520 feet), without feeling out of breath at the top, thanks to the encouragement of my walking buddies and the promise of a coffee break at the top. This convinces me that improvement is possible; I just have to put in the time and enjoy the process. What's next?

---

My next priority today was the 11AM CLE that I hosted, 
"The Nexus Between Environmental Law and Space Law" ”, hosted by the World Peace Through Law Section of the Washington State Bar Association, and featuring Attorney Tamara Blagojević calling us from her office in Belgrade, Serbia. I had been greatly cheered to have gotten the speaker's powerpoint a week before the event (most speakers have been slower despite the timeline sent them in the First Contact letter). The night before, we chatted by email to nail down the time (Belgrade is on CET which is UTC+1, Seattle is on PST which is UTC+8. I had figured that there must be a UTC 0 so we were 10 hours apart, but all the calculators said only 9 hours, as was confirmed by the times on our email. Oh well! The worst that could happen is that she'd call in early.
Speakers never call in at call-in time (30 minutes before the show) so I was not worried. After at T-20 I emailed a reminder. The speaker got onto the On24 site and asked why the voice was not working. This is not especially unusual; we are so used to Zoom and other sites integrating voice and internet that it sounds strange to run the audio channel by phone. I provided the USA number and oooops the caller's plan didn't extend to the USA.  There was no backup number to Serbia (something I should have checked!) but Hungary's not that far away, and she was able to call in that way. However she was concerned about charged since it was a borrowed phone; using my strongest Cheerful Voice I assured her we'd cover the costs but she was worried (...and so was I; it wasn't now clear whether she'd called Hungary or the USA, and what the charges would be....). I suggested Google Voice, but that didn't work; sounds like it wasn't available in her area??? Finally she said she had an app and would try it, and hung up.
Did I mention it was T Minus 1?
A sigh can be just a deep breath. At T=0 I did something I'd never done before: I waited to start the show. After all, starting at 11:00 and 59 seconds is still starting at 11:00 - sort of. But once it got to T+1, I knew I had to start. "Welcome, everyone", I announced in my best radio voice ... "...to today's webinar...." and so on through the program introduction, 60 seconds of explaining how viewers could manipulate the screen controls, and 60 seconds of speaker introduction. I spoke S-L-O-W-L-Y you can be sure! And halfway through, the Speaker popped on the line. "Can you hear me?"
"Yes Attorney, we're glad the technical issues have been solved, supporting your call from halfway around the planet from many of our listeners. What a wonderful world we are in..."  and the show went on, pretty much without a hitch from there.
It was really helpful to have practice and coaching on remaining calm. This made all the difference between what could have been an unpleasant experience and one that was merely a challenge.
---
This evening I had agreed to Toastmaster our Club 832 (West Seattle) Toastmasters meeting, but I had not had much success recruiting speakers and other roleholders. My excuse is being distracted by the holidays and so forth, but maybe I'm just low on gas as the days grow dark. Luckily Karen powered ahead and helped recruit, and we did have one speaker, so onward we go. I liked the theme "Gratitude" as it seemed both seasonal (close to Thanksgiving) and helpful, in this difficult year of 2020, but for my opening address I couldn't feel inspired - my ideas just seemed treacly.
I consulted Google, and got a bunch of quotes on gratitude and - ahha! - hit upon the idea of using the quotes themselves to construct a speech. With minor changes (removing unnecessary gender references, and using the more personal "we" instead of "you", I got:
---
Our theme today is Gratitude.
As others have written:
Gratitude is the ability to experience life as a gift,
It is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.
We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.
When we arise in the morning, give thanks for the food and for the joy of living.
When eating fruit, remember the one who planted the tree.
If we see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in ourselves.
[SING ALONG]Got no checkbooks, got no banks, still I’d like to express my thanks. I got the sun in the morning and the moon at night.[/SING]
'Enough' is a feast.
We are wise not to grieve for the things we do not have, but to rejoice for the things that we do have; how much of what we have now was once something we only hoped for!
It’s a funny thing about life, once we begin to take note of the things we are grateful for, we begin to lose sight of the things that we lack.
The heart that gives thanks is a happy one, for we cannot feel thankful and unhappy at the same time.
Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.
Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes, 
And because all things have contributed to our advancement, we should include all things in our gratitude.
True forgiveness is when we can say to someone, 'Thank you for the experience.'"
If, like Groot, we can say only one thing, and the only thing we can say is "thank you", that is enough.
What separates recognizing our privilege from feeling an entitlement is gratitude.
When it comes to life, the critical thing is whether we take things for granted or take them with gratitude.
Reflect upon our present blessings, of which we all have plenty; not on our past misfortunes, of which we all have some.
The soul that gives thanks can find comfort in everything; the soul that complains can find comfort in nothing.
We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.
When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.
Thanking others can make their day, even change their life;
All that is necessary is our willingness to put it into words.
--
Thank you Cicero, Buddha, Tecumseh, Irving Berlin, Epictetus, JFK, Epicurus, Germany Kent, Douglas Wood, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oprah, Meister Eckhart, Henry Ward Beecher, Brené Brown, G.K. Chesterton, Hannah Whitall Smith, Thornton Wilder, A. A. Milne, Margaret Cousins and the great Willie Nelson for these wise words
And thank you all, dear readers, for your continuing gift of companionship, encouragement and support
In this best of times and worst of times
2020.
Thank you.
--rewinn

Saturday, November 28, 2020

My Business Cards

Remember Business Cards?

As I clear out stuff I don't need, I'm working through my collection of business cards. If I don't remember the person, I just recycle it - I may have gotten it from a booth at a convention or something. If I remember the person, I scan the card into a PDF and save in my "business card" folder. Who knows if it will ever matter. But if it has MY name on it, I put the PDF into the business card folder, and then an image into my personal folder. Each of my business cards is a bit of my history.