Underlining the Ephemeral

Last week, my husband realized that I’d started blogging again. I thought I’d warned him last fall, but it’s just as likely that I warned his imago, or at least that’s what he’d claim if I suggested that he might have just forgotten, say … like for some completely random example, one of his work shirts stuffed into the couch cushions. It’s also just as likely that his imago would say that. It’s a thirty-year-old response model, and honestly, it’s freaking fantastic … even if my saying that in front of people might…

What?

Er, sorry. Never mind. Hi!

It’s been a bit longer than I’ve planned. I’ve had “write blog post” as one of the weekly goals I’ve shared with the Accountability Group every Monday¹ for the past sixish months.

Since I’m deliberately avoiding talking about what I’m working on, and trying to keep out of Internet arguments that would trigger an urge to be right, which looks like me spending four days doing research (I’m Shai, not ShAI) , building my argument, and then finding that the argument train has moved on without me … there’s not been a lot going on to blog about.

Highlights follow.

We did go to the beach during the Fourth of July week for the single day when there wasn’t rip current warnings. There was a heat advisory, but we managed to get our beach time in before it got too oppressive. The dog made a lot of new friends and luxuriated in having wet sand to lie in while watching little kids scamper around. It’s increasingly apparent that there were beloved children in his murky past. He still whines when he sees the school bus turn around in our cul-de-sac in the mornings and afternoons, even though it’s been over a year since we’ve had to go wait for it.

Yesterday would have been my aunt’s 79th birthday, which I did remember in advance. The current weather here, now that the heat dome’s broken, suits her personality: stubbornly sunny or cloudy until it just isn’t, and overall wonderful in a way that’s too easy to get used to even though I know it’s not going to stick around forever.

Thanks to adding a generous application of IvyX precontact solution to my hazmat gardening prep (and remembering to wear my steel-toed boots), I Was Able To Do The Hand Weeding Myself Over The Weekend without picking up any new battle wounds or weird spreading lesions. I even noticed the two ticks that got on me before they could bite me! Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the tiny one that (most likely) decided to become my friend during yesterday’s hike with the dog; I didn’t see it on the back of my left shoulder until this morning.

The universe heard me waxing rhapsodic about that abandoned stable with the intact great old barn down the road: last week, while bringing my son home from a meeting with a potential job training site, I noticed that someone has started cleaning up the property and is in the process of updating the barn with new windows and siding. I don’t know yet if the intent is to turn it into a residence or a business. If it becomes an ice cream and monster milkshake place with vintage arcade games and pinball, that’s it, dang it, I’ll go get a freaking MBA or whatever certification visionaries need to have to get paid for wild ideas. Or I won’t. Unless I have to.

My son has, finally, his third evaluation scheduled for later in August. I’ve also refreshed all of my professional certifications that were going to expire this summer, and have started studying for a Security+. Based on the number of times recruiters have asked me if I already had it, it’s become the new baseline for cleared tech work, even for non-cybersecurity areas.

1. I joined The Novelry back in December, which I realized I have never mentioned, though I’m pretty sure I did. Huh. Maybe it was to y’all’s imago, as part of one of those posts I’ve written and deleted instead of posting. Yes, there have been a lot of those, though, not nearly as many as the Facebook posts I’ve written and deleted instead of posting. ↩︎