— चार हजार सात सौ पैंतालीस —

Well, I am indeed glad I took the time to post yesterday about what I did on Friday evening, on Saturday and on Sunday—even though yesterday was a "holiday" and not a work day—as I really have been rather busy with work all morning. And it's not even really been a lot of "catch-up," but rather a shit ton of new things that came up as of this morning. Sometimes work is a real pain in the ass. But hey! At least I have a job that can be a pain in the ass, and for that I remain grateful. Shobhit's barely-more-than-minimum-wage jobs are one thing, but if I were to lose this job, it would be potentially catastrophic for us. We'd be looking at real risks of falling short on mortgage payments and eventually needing to sell the condo and all that kind of shit.

But, I work for the grocery industry, and after eighteen years with PCC, I never realized how crucial that might one day become. Things considered "essential business" are a pretty small group, but my company is in one of them.

Anyway! Now to update you on my day yesterday, which, in the end, contained a lot more activity than the previous days so it didn't make me feel quite as aimless and without purpose. For one, I spent the late morning writing that blog post. I also washed the sheets and our comforter, and was putting the sheets back on the bed when I finally got Gabriel on the phone to get updates on his life.

We were on the phone for fully 75 minutes. I'd say about 45 of those minutes were spent on updates about his life and family and friends; maybe 20 minutes we spent talking about "prestige television" and how I should watch Ozark; and maybe 10 minutes of which I updated him on my own life and family, which didn't need to take very long anyway. I was just glad to hear that, on average, he seems to be doing okay; other stuff in his life has been doing poorly but in most of those cases things are either better or getting better. He and Lea also just bought a house and so they've got weeks of dealing with moving to look forward to. I would sure love to come see their new house but it will likely be months at best before that is possible.

— चार हजार सात सौ पैंतालीस —

— चार हजार सात सौ पैंतालीस —

So then it was well into the afternoon by the time I actually watched some television, and I watched a couple episodes of The Leftovers. That scene where a woman gets stoned to death . . . I had forgotten about reading about that, and it being one of the reasons I initially avoided the show. It really was rough. All the critics say seasons 2 and 3 are phenomenal though (their respective MetaCritic ratings are "must-see" high, one of them into the nineties) so I kind of look forward to just getting through this first season and on to those. I'm halfway through this first season now.

I did spent a little time working on stuff online in the afternoon. I attempted to download a Costco app meant to help with creating calendars, but I'm having technical difficulties their website already said were likely for Mac users who have upgraded to macOS Catalina—which, frankly, has caused all manner of problems for me since I made the upgrade (including a massive iTunes data fiasco).

I still decided I wanted to get outside for a bit, and this time I did it by myself, walking to Volunteer Park and back, just as I had with Alexia on Sunday. I took the reverse of the route she and I had taken, though, and walked first north on 14th Avue, took one loop around the park, and then walked back on 15th. I almost walked without my mask on since I wasn't with anyone and I could easily stay far away from anyone else around—but in the end I decided to wear it the whole way, just to lead by example. The more people do that, hopefully, the more others will also see masks. There has been resistance aplenty for all manner of reasons, but I think at least one of them as that it just doesn't feel normal. I need to be a part of normalizing it.

Shobhit got home soon after I returned and was working on making quesadillas for dinner. I sautéed mushrooms and with all due humility I think I did a great job at that part, sautéing them along with some chopped green onions. They were delicious. Shobhit probably didn't taste them as well because he dumped way more stuff in between his tortillas, including probably 2/3 of the can of black beans. Anyway we sat to eat and watched an episode of Upload on Amazon Prime Video, before I went to the series premiere of Ozark—and indeed, I was hooked at the jump. Shobhit was very tired and kept falling asleep though so he really needs to play that first episode again.

Two episodes of Designing Women later I went to bed.

— चार हजार सात सौ पैंतालीस —

[posted 12:27 pm]