Week 484
- Skipped September's update because it could loosely just be summarised with "everything was on fire".
- It's one thing to be in shelter-in-place but still able to take pleasant walks, but it's a whole new hellscape when the air is full of particulate and the sun is literally being blocked by the clouds of ash that were once people's homes.
- It was a tough month.
- In more cheerful news, we did take a trip out of the house during a brief window of clear air for Alex's birthday. We stayed in an airbnb for 3 nights that just looked kinda cool from the listing, but turned out to be quite famous.
- While staying in the spaceship house, I took my HAM radio technician's license exam and passed that. Since then, I've acquired a decent radio and joined a couple of nets. Much of the experience so far is 100% the stereotype you're imagining. It's great!
- I finished the Udemy Japanese N5 course, hoping to take the exam this December, but unfortunately they've cancelled all outside-Japan exams until December 2021. Completely deflating. I don't know how to keep up progress on this without a fixed goal.
- Nearly finished a couple of oil paintings. I'm so slow.
- Buggered up my hip due to a combination of seasonal-change arthritis flare-up plus bursitis from a sudden spurt of activity after doing none. Having no routine that takes me outside is really affecting. Canes are cool though, right?
- Dana and I have picked back up a self-directed ikebana practice, since we still can't meet as a group and it's not looking like we will again until late next year. We arrange outside, which is going to be an issue once SF's rainy season starts.
- It occurs to me that if you think the USA has behaved like a screaming toddler during covid in the summer, just you wait until it's too cold to go outside.
- I got a flu jab.
- An email I just got from my dad, apropos of absolutely nothing:
Turns out our "book" was very accurate.
Bunnies got to space before humans!
"The next dogs to go into space were Belka ("Squirrel") and Strelka ("Little Arrow"), which took place on Aug. 19th, 1960, as part of the Sputnik-5 mission. The two dogs were accompanied by a grey rabbit, 42 mice, 2 rats, flies, and several plants and fungi, and all spent a day in orbit before returning safely to Earth."
The More You Know.
