Another hot and mostly dry day, with high humidity. Yesterday was a scorcher by afternoon, and stayed hot well into the evening. It was still in the 90sF when we had a late dinner. Today should be the same. The local .gov had the highway advisory signs warning of heavy rain and possible flooding on Saturday. I expect well be seeing flood warnings with every drop of rain for the next year at least.
I mostly did auction stuff in the morning, still keeping in mind my new desire to limit pickup days. Then D1 drove me around town doing a pickup and grocery shopping in the afternoon. She’s improving but still brakes too late, and her situational awareness needs work. She doesn’t seem to be able to keep three directions or steps in mind at the same time though. Thinks like “stay on the Beltway to US 59 north, then exit at Kingwood Blvd.” IDK if that’s from the online stuff changing her brain structure, or just her nature, but it’s unsettling and I’ll be working on it. I wonder if any of her schooling has worked with algorithms and figuring out steps toward a goal?
Driving a car, or a boat, or just navigating through life takes the ability to predict the near future and react to it, taking steps to manage where you will be physically and metaphorically. Living in the moment is ok, and even necessary and desirable for some things, but humans don’t live in a constant now. Or at least we don’t normally. Or didn’t.
We did have a good conversation about the “hidden” layers around us, triggered by an outlaw biker passing us and almost getting into an altercation with another driver. (Full patch Bandido with his b!tch riding pillion in a patched vest. Not someone you want to engage with.) Fraternal organizations, secret societies, alumni groups, outlaw culture, even prepping and LMIs all got touched on, with emphasis on seeing the “flags” that people fly to identify their affiliate groups. I’m hoping it spurred some thought and will entice her to look around at the environment and actually SEE some of it. Since the kids were little we played games like “spot the cameras” and “is this a good neighborhood or not (and why?)” Hopefully I’ll get a chance to pass along more stuff about the way the world works that will help her navigate around some of the pitfalls.
Speaking of seeing what’s around us, there was a hawk in my tree this afternoon, perched on a limb and quite agitated. A squirrel was about three feet away looking at it, and then the squirrel shot by the hawk, running on the UNDERSIDE of the limb. The hawk hung around long enough for my wife to get a picture with her new iphone. We don’t see a lot of hawks in our neighborhood, despite a neighbor telling me one swooped a squirrel right out of his front yard. I do see them flying overhead occasionally.
Oh, a big fat possum ambled by me when I was out having my little fire. I made a ‘tssking’ noise and he turned around to look at me calmly before ambling on. Body as big as a basketball. I think a lot of local wildlife visits my little water feature throughout the day and night. The frogs are starting their mating calls and are quite loud about it…
The world is full of hidden mysteries all around us.
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Today I’ll do some paperwork, move some stuff around, and then do some pickups in the afternoon. Kid starts band camp on Wednesday, so that will be me getting up early again.
I was going to write about my talent for self sabotage today, but I’ll leave that to another time. Do what you can with what you’ve got, and always be working to improve your situation. Even if that means disconnecting for a bit to look around you in wonder.
nick
(and of course, you should be stacking.)
