Donner und Blitzen (That's "Thunder and Lightning" to us Yanks.)

 

The "Highlight" of the day was the thunderstorm.  Although I had lots of things I could have done today, I decided to do only a small number of them.  And I'm glad that I did what I did....

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I started off the day with the "Blahs".  Nothing seemed to interest me that much, and all I wanted to do was watch videos on YouTube.  The most interesting of these was a cruise blogger talking about her Northern European cruise to the land where the sun never sets in the summer.  Both RQS and I wish we were cruising there this summer.  Yet, we are grateful to have been able to sail to the most interesting of the Norwegian ports before they were shut down to conventionally powered ships. 

Why did I watch YouTube videos instead of my "normal" news channels?  Well, I get sick when I see the Orange Snowflake make an ass of himself and show how America has fallen. As I've said in other posts, I try to limit my exposure to the evil this man sows, so that I retain my sanity.  These days, he keeps trying to distract people from  his association with the Pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and even his base is calling him out on it.  Are there any files or not?  Either way, he will be caught in a lie.  And when it involves underage females, even his base has a line that it will not cross.

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Originally, I was supposed to go to TCL's place and have lunch.  With today's rain, it was smart of me not to drive to her place.  It was raining "Cats and Dogs", and I hate driving in this kind of weather.  The last thing I would need is a flat and have to call for help in this weather.  Instead, I stayed home and waited for an Amazon delivery to come.  Now, I have a new wig stand, more breast form cleaner, and a new shaver for my female "to go" kit.  (Next, I need to find a cheap carry-on to finish my female "to go" setup.)

While at home, I started taking care of paperwork needed to formally rent out the family homestead again.  Although it's not complete, I'm hoping that we'll have the house rented by September, and that I can again focus on issues in which I have no emotional interest.

In short, it was a "Blah" day kept "Blah" by rain, thunder and lightning. 

How things have changed

 

Last year, I wouldn't think twice about going on a cruise dressed like this.  Today, given what we're seeing on TV (mostly YouTube video blogs), I'm not so sure about how I'd be treated by federal authorities.  The DOJ is going after medical records of Transgender Youth, and we've seen erasures from the Federal record of all things that celebrate or recognize the contributions of people in American society other than Straight, Cisgender, White Christian males.  The rest of us don't count for anything these days.

Why is this important?

We are seeing the malicious destruction of the American way of life by a malignant few.  Even the people who once supported the Orange Snowflake are turning away from him, as he is keeping what would normally only be campaign promises - things that are said to make people happy before an election, and not to be delivered on when in power. 

Instead of stable trading relationships with our allies, we are using tariffs to kill these relationships.  Instead of looking the other way when illegal immigrants do the work that Americans don't want to do, we are seeing tens of thousands of jobs go unfilled affecting both rural and urban economies.  Instead of having a federal government who'd step in and help when natural disasters occur, we now have a central government that tells us that disaster recovery is only a state responsibility.  Instead of having a government which protects individual rights, we now have a central government overseeing the stripping away of these rights.  In short, instead of having relative peace, order, and a well-functioning government, we have a belligerent, capricious, poorly-functioning kleptocracy.

For the first time in my life, I wish I were born in a stable European country.  Yes, each major country in Europe has big problems.  But they remember what happens when a bombastic, hate-mongering, kleptocratic leader took control of Central Europe. And they fear what is happening with America, as they have long depended on a stable , democratic American superpower for their own prosperity and freedom.

Next week, I will file the paperwork to get my second passport.  I'm hoping that I won't need it for an escape from America.  But if that time comes, I want to be ready. 

The Doctor, the car and the board

 

The last things I wanted to do today were to visit my doctor, to get my car serviced, and to be at my co-op's board meeting.  Yet, I scheduled all 3 things for today, as I'd avoid having to switch back and forth between male and female presentations.  

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The day started with a visit to my doctor.  Every month or two, he monitors my vitals and adjust my prescriptions as needed. My alarms were set for 60-90 minutes before the appointment, so that I could dash into the shower, shower and dress, then make it to the doctor's office by 10 am.  I did just that, and made it to the office by 10 am.  Just one hitch - my appointment was for 10:30 am.  At least, I was out of the office by 11 am, and had time to relax at home before my next appointment for the day - car service.

I was semi-conscious between 11:30 am and 1 pm, and didn't get out of the house until 1:15 pm.  Luckily, I wasn't kept waiting at the dealership for service.  However, I had to wait until 3 pm to get my car and make a stop at Walmart before going home for the day.  There was still some time to kill before the co-op board meeting, and I killed it well.

Around 5:30 pm, I fired up the co-op's zoom account, and started our zoom meeting.  The board's president brought us up to date on events, and then we interviewed an applicant to purchase an apartment.  After this, the general business part of the meeting started, and I made it a point to make sure that the rest of the board look at a document of mine and review it ASAP, as we need to send it to our managing agent. 

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Good news came to me today - I received an email from Fed-Ex telling me that the printer I sent in for servicing will arrive on my doorstep on two days.  YAY!  Although I expect to be having a late lunch with a friend, I will finally be able to be back to normal in things requiring the use of a computer.

Tomorrow, I'll be heading into NYC to have lunch with RQS at the French Restaurant in Grand Central Terminal, the Grand Brasserie. RQS and I first heard of this place while viewing a video on the YouTube UA Eats channel.  This reviewer does not enter restaurants looking for ultimate experiences. Instead, he is an "every man" reviewer, experiencing each restaurant from the point of view of someone who rarely dines at fancy restaurants, who wants to get a really enjoyable meal for money spent.  Like him or hate him, his appeal is his personality, and not a well educated taste palette. He's one of the rare content creators who I might pay to see his videos.  Let's hope that his review of this restaurant is on target....

 

Less is More

Lately, I've been driven to gradually eliminate clutter from my apartment to make room for the electricians to work on my electrical outlets and switches.   As a result, there is a great improvement on how the apartment looks, and a higher likelihood that I will again have a cleaning lady make regular visits to the apartment.

Looking at the above two pictures, you can easily see an improvement in the appearance of the area around my loveseat. Still, the work is far from done.  I now need to clean up more clutter in my bedroom, and then make room in my downstairs storage compartment to hold stuff that I use on a regular basis.  I'd consider storing containers with out-of-season clothing in this compartment, along with large packages of consumables (i.e. Paper Towels, Toilet Paper, etc.) that need not be kept in the apartment proper.

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I liken this process to answering the question:

How do you eat an elephant?

The answer given is:

One bite at a time.

That's the philosophy that RQS and I have been taking with cleaning out our respective apartments.  Both of us are dealing with the emotional value of objects.  With RQS, it is furniture and glassware inherited from family members.  With me, it is furniture and glassware inherited from my late wife, as well as some items gifted to me years ago.

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This evening, I watched a YouTube video on how to tell if you have too much stuff.  I'd say that most people of my generation have had to deal with this problem.  This has been a problem of mine for years now, and I feel that I must attack it while I'm still healthy enough to do so.  In the past 12 months, I must have donated 8-10 large bags filled with unwanted items and clothes and delivered them to a nearby donation center.  I have also given away 6+ boxes of unwanted books to a local library's thrift shop.  And I'm not done yet.

Part of decluttering is to provide temporary organization to the things one wants to keep, so that space can be made to hold things that are to be given away or trashed.  Once enough space is available, one removes the scaffolding of the temporary organization, and repeats the process until enough clutter has been eliminated to make a home feel comfortable again.  In my case, I have also taken on a philosophy that old things that are needed, but no longer are comfortable or reliable (i.e. worn out sofas and mattresses, and TVs that no longer work properly) should be replaced as needed to create a more comfortable living space. This means that I will be improving what's left in my home.

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Hopefully, in a few months or so, I will have a place that I will feel comfortable having guests in again. Until then, it will be a process of pruning what I own to a level where I consider the apartment a home, and not just a cramped nest....

Although my cruise is a week away, I've already started packing

 

Getting ready for a cruise is always a pain.  However, I have taken New England/Eastern Canada cruises before at this time of year, and know that I'll need mostly long sleeve shirts, a couple of short sleeve shirts, a week's worth of trousers, and all the other things a guy might need.  (Yes, I'll be in male presentation for this trip.)

This is one of those trips where I have easier than my cruise partner, RQS.  She's digging out the clothes she wore last spring, while I can pick and choose any of the male garments I have in the closet and know they will be OK.  However, it'll be much easier for me to pack for my Hawaii cruise, as I have enough summer clothes (lightweight dresses, etc.) that I can choose from to wear in the Hawaiian climate.  Additionally, I have started to view YouTube videos on what to pack for a Hawaiian trip, and have learned a couple of things in advance of need.  (Thank you, RQS for the summer hat!  It will be a big help when I'm out in the sun....)

Luckily, I was able to install the ArriveCan app on my cell phone without any problems.  I'll have to update it with my Covid Test status within 3 days of my cruise's departure.  (I can only imagine what I'd have to deal with if I still cruised with FCP.  After she forgot her cruise documents on one of our cruises, I had to be extra careful to make sure that she remembered to print off her eDocs before cruising.)  RQS and I seem to be a better fit as traveling partners, as neither of us are making the travel mistakes that novice travelers would make, nor did we get each other upset when we encountered problems on out trip to Washington, DC.

As you can guess, I over pack, as I don't have to worry about weight limits when cruising out of New York.  However, I'll need to buy an electronic luggage scale before I take my Hawaii trip.  (And that's only one of the things I'll need to buy before that cruise.)  I only wonder if RQS will enjoy cruising after this first cruise together....

Boy, did I need a day off to do nothing.

 

 

It was a great relief not having to go to work and spend 8 hours at a mostly mindless task.  The reason why my job exists is that machines do not yet have enough pattern recognition ability to locate specific information in an almost randomly formatted document, nor do they have the ability to figure out what data has been captured incorrectly in an automated OCR scan of the page.

For example, take the business information below:

Dewey, Cheatem and Howe, Esqs, LLP
101 Vesey Street, Suite 10L
New York, NY 10007

Often, a person's signature may obscure some of the text.  So we have to figure out what text is underneath the signature.  Sometimes, letters are mixed up with numbers and vice versa.  Suite 10L might be scanned as LOL, 101 or 1OL.  We have to fix that error as well.  And then, some of the information we need to enter into a database is not found on the main page, but on a second page.  A lot of micro decisions are made throughout the day, and I am exhausted by day's end.

When one does work like this on a daily basis for months at a time, one's mind gets a little fried.  I do not have the energy to read books anymore.  Instead, I surf the web for short articles worthy of a skim.  Lately, I'm watching YouTube videos for information related to cruising, car purchasing, and other information I find of interest. (I'm lucky to be able to filter out the people who don't know what they talk about, leaving only decent sources of information in the areas I've just mentioned.)

Soon, I plan to leave this job.  It's a little scary to shift into a new phase of life.  But it will be rewarding.

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On a side note, my company asked me to supply a picture for a new ID card.  This picture was emailed overnight.  I'm very glad that they didn't ask me for a copy of my driver's license!