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Week Notes No. 45: Daily Bits

By Justin G. on 25MAR03MON

Back from backpacking, but my sleeping patterns took a few days to recover.

Almanac / outlook, Feb 10 to 16

There is no almanac this week because of a “me” outage last weekend. Out backpacking, that is. The weather was great, very like spring. In February. Benefits of California.

Day Bits

Backing out of backpacking sleep into regular home sleep really wrecked me this week. Luckily there weren’t any other aftereffects, like soreness. Musta done something right this time. The bits below are more scattered than usual.

1. FEB24MON
   • Final day of backpacking in DV and flight home. I will post a report soon.
2. FEB25TUE
   • I find myself in the very uncommon situation of struggling to sleep through the night. My guess is that it’s the backpacking trip I just returned from. You see, on those trips, I am usually going to bed quite early and getting up very early too. While out backpacking the evenings are often cold and dark. And it’s the light in the morning. But the natural sleep guide of dark coolness is gone back home. We’ve solved these problems; my bedroom is always dark, my living room is the temperature I choose it to be. I rely on habituation to schedule to guide my sleep. I’m sure I’ll find my way back to it.
3. FEB26WED
   • So green, so spring. Many of the trees are starting to pop too. The greening is getting so intense that you can sense it even when the sun is down.
4. FEB27THU
   • I think lifting on the same day that I ran made me run faster. Maybe a bit too much faster because I had to walk a moment to recover.
   • Brief bit of beautiful sunset, over in the corner of the sky. The colors were incandescent. Red, pink, yellow. Purple to lavender. I don’t care how cliche it is, it’s always beautiful.
5. FEB28FRI
   • Good catch-up with B. Many things in the air for them. I hope it all comes together ok. They are in my thoughts daily.
6. MAR01SAT
   • Weeding the community garden plot; it was way out of hand! An hour was both more time and less time than I realized. Most of the weeds are gone, but I barely noticed the hour was up. Busy hands make quick work? It’s not the usual phrasing but still sounds right to me. I keep doing that, not recognizing how much you can get done in a short amount of time. Did it in the afternoon again too, really got the “garage gym” all ship-shape while the washing machine ran through a single load. I thought it would be more work. But the emerging pattern is that it isn’t more work, or I work faster than I think I do? I’d like to get to the bottom of this mis-habit. Best way is probably to just keep doing it.
7. MAR02SUN
   • You ever notice that you have distinct and strong preferences about toilet seat covers? I hadn’t, until today. There I was, standing in the bathroom aisle of the big box hardware store, and bang! it hit me. Most of these covers are wrong, just wrong. Who on Earth would buy one with a scalloped bevel? Wait. Am I the one who’s nuts? Anyway, today I learned.
   • Running into the wind is way harder than running with it.
   • There are huge alien invasion clouds as we approach sunset. The mothership parked over the Santa Cruz mountains is sending an armada of sorties over the valley. Golden sterns push the dark gray prows through the sky, wispy tendrils dropping as they prepare to take over. I for one welcome these new alien overlords.

Outside Events

These are the main events of the week, and they are so significant that I had to include some personal immediate reactions.

• More USDA / USFS / Federal government firings.
• The FAA is getting Starlink. Disgusting.
• Zelensky stands strong. I feel sick over this. An unexpected gut punch. Another take.

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