First Thoughts

… the rain from Hurricane Henri settled in to steady and moderate to heavy over night… as i write, the splashing of water on concrete and the T.V. static noise of a steady rainfall… today it will rain most of the day… tomorrow through Thursday will be sunny and hot… i will reconstruct the back stairs in that time…

… today i will try to finish installing the dining room paneling, or move if forward enough that it will be but a few hours work to finish next weekend…

… H will be returning next weekend… her mother is getting to be self sufficient and starting to be annoyed with dependance on her daughter and expressing it in ways lacking in gratitude according to H… it’s funny how people express irritation in sideways fashion… failing to recognize what they are irritated by and to address it directly…

… the HCR meter is neutral today… a discussion of Afghanistan, the history of engagement, the withdrawal, the aftermath…

… was exhausted yesterday… a general malaise that i couldn’t shake… the relentless humidity?, six hours of sleep a night?, both?… got the laundry done, but little else… spent most of the day on the couch binge watching Bosch… second season better than the first, but still not the most engaging crime binge i have been on… i can’t quite latch onto any of the characters…

First Thoughts

… HCR meter: she took the night off…

… Hurricane Henri… wobbled a little east overnight… i think impacts on the Hudson Valley will be minimal, however, it looks like Block Island will take a direct hit… they should be without power for days, hopefully not much worse than that… hopefully H and her mother will be ok…

… i expected at least a little wind and rain when i woke up… i closed all the windows before going to bed… crickets and cicada this AM, cloudy, moon peaking through… could still happen…

… thinking about my dad… thinking about visiting him and mom… wondering if he will live until then… wondering about being with him in his last weeks… sad/bitter… i don’t think i am the child he wants to see at the end, but that’s how the dice rolled… at least i can be helpful and comforting to Mom… i imagine if he felt better he would be annoyed about having to leave with me around…

… watched more of Bosch last night… finished the first season… the plot lines are decent though genre formulaic… the sexual situations aren’t explicit enough for my taste… i like to watch… the whole damaged, rogue but genius male detective routine has been done so many ways, good and bad… Luther and Marcella strike me as having done it better… Bosch is in the tradition of crime novels from the last century… i don’t really get into any of the characters…

… a look at HudsonValleyWeather.com… HV will escape worst effects, though heavy rain possible-likely… Henri did not rapidly intensify over night, so a not so dangerous category 1… Dark Sky shows five inches of rain over next couple of days… we rarely get the amounts it predicts… should make for a pretty intense rapids at the Roundhouse…

First Thoughts

… HCR meter at negative… focused on the history of education of black and brown people especially, all people with limited resources generally… it points to how the Republican party has continuously undermined public education to the detriment of minorities and underprivileged, indirectly and directly benefiting the whites and the affluent in general… i believe in public education… i am a product of it… i believe the nation does well more broadly when everyone has access to quality education… i also believe public education unifies the nation in that it instills a more tightly shared set of values and understandings about our history, the structure of our government, the means to conduct civil society… i absolutely reject white supremacy and any kind of elitism based on race or clan or party… “of the people, by the people, for the people,”…

… hurricane Henri is approaching… it doesn’t look like it will be a big deal in the Hudson Valley, but H is on Block Island which looks like it may get a direct hit… it will be at best a category 1 hurricane, capable of doing a lot of damage, but not catastrophic damage… there are likely to be power outages, trees down, some damage to structures… H is likely to loose power and may be out of touch if it lasts long enough for her phone to run out of power… she says they have prepared… not clear if P stayed with them on the island… wondering how M and L will fare in Essex Connecticut?…

… our landscaper came and did more weeding and garden cleanup, it is starting to look civilized out back… i am expecting to complete the carpentry of the paneling in the dining room this weekend, possibly even painting next week… also need to rebuild the back stairs next week… hoping there will be an opportunity later in the week… i figure i need a couple of days… after checking the extended forecast, it looks like Tue, Wed, Thu will be my days… at present, no rain, low humidity, high 80’s low 90’s… a little warmer than i would like but otherwise… after that, rain and humidity return…

… today i will need to secure loose items and generally prepare for the storm… shouldn’t take too long…