I posted this early summer a year ago:

This premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival:

I'm not going to see it until it's out on streaming in October.

I spent the last couple days hiking in the Adirondacks. It was my first time back since December 2019. I summited two peaks, Esther Mountain on Monday and Whiteface Mountain on Tuesday. They're both "hike to the top (in snowshoes in winter)" type summits. Both hikes went well. I had some issues with my glasses freezing over on Whiteface, and I probably should have put my goggles on, the goggles I've carried on almost every winter hike but never once used. The wind was really strong up there, and the trail was hard to find amidst the bare rock.

I wish I'd taken some pictures of the building up there. It's only open in the summer, and it was completely caked with snow. They've had high winds and rain and snow. I didn't take any pictures because of the wind and losing visibility.

12. What does an equal relationship mean to you

I was talking with a friend last week, and what I said to her is "being able to say 'no' means I can trust the 'yes.'"

It's really about anything, as mundane as "can you check on my cats?" So in a relationship, equal means to me being able to trust the response of the other. If they always say yes to appease me, they're putting their happiness on my lap and I bet neither of us will be happy.

I'm going to be interviewed for a thing that's going to be on one of the major streaming services. They haven't asked me not to discuss details but assume they don't want me to discuss details.

I helped a somewhat famous person find out someone had been reading their emails for years. I found a loose thread and gave it a little tug before handing it to their manager who I knew and had a good fan-famous person manager relationship with. That thread unraveled a pretty big sweater, way more than I would have ever guessed, but I was the right person in the right place to help them out. They're making a documentary on it and are interviewing me for it.

I slept 8.5 hours last night and 9 hours the night before. I had a pretty crazy 10 days. Air conditioning died, was replaced, my cat got out and spent two nights outside before I caught her. Did my first air travel since the pandemic to steamy Washington DC, flew home on 4 hours of sleep to get ready for a triathlon the next day.

I caught my cat with a live trap because she wouldn't let me within ten feet of her. As soon as she was inside she let me pet her, of course. She was as much as four houses away when I was trying to catch her, and I'm very impressed she made it back home on her own. I did all the classic tricks of putting food, litter box, clothes, and her blanket outside to smell. I even took her brother out on a leash. I got her the first night the trap was out.

And now her brother learned he likes going outside and sits by the door waiting for me to take him out.

Getting my roof replaced tomorrow.

Did my fourth 70.3 distance triathlon today. Amazing weather lead to a small overall PR and a big run PR. I really tried to keep the run pace slow to not blow up and end up run/walking most of the course.

I accepted an offer on my condo. 99.9% excited to complete the sale, but a sliver is sad to let go of the home my old cats knew.

But then on to home projects.

I was full time remote from March 2020 through April 2022. I loved it. My employer started bringing people back in the office then with our policy expecting people in the office at least three days a week. At the time I grumbled a little, but once in the office I found value in being here rather than home. Not value to the company, value to what I want out of my career.

I think our policy is reasonable. We're a small enough company the individual relationships are significant. It also provides flexibility. Need to be home to let a plumber in? Just do it, no need to even inform your boss other than letting them know you'll be on Teams not in a meeting room.

The most important thing about our policy is it's been consistent. It's what they were saying for months before being implemented, and it's been unchanged ever since. I can plan my life around this.

My old job went to full remote. I've talked to people there who are all-in on remote, and one joked if they bring people back to the office he'll be looking for a job, and I believe him. I talked to another guy who said he's usually in the office and it's odd having a mix of people he sees every day and people, including his staff, who he never sees. I think they'll start bringing people back and create a lot of angst because of the change.

After change, I think people are upset that salaries are up 2% while corporate profits are up 8% with inflation of 5%.

https://xkcd.com/539/

I got an accepted offer on a house. Inspection tomorrow. Three bed, 1.5 bath, two car attached garage on 0.28 acres in a fairly generic (but not in a bad way) part of town. I close July 15. I want to make the backyard more natural and not just a bunch of grass.

The first triathlon of the year was Sunday. It felt great to be out, and it was the first race on my new race bike. I'm happy to report I was passed only by other tri bikes, but I'm steeling myself for the inevitable overtake by a road bike in three weeks on a hilly course.

Happy hardest puzzle-a-day day to all who celebrate. mike Still going on the app with three solutions every day since December 1.

Is it worth it to pay for Duolingo? I started using it to learn Spanish for no reason than to have something mildly productive to do with my phone.

I closed on my house last Friday and have been moving in ever since. I'm mostly moved, though I'm probably underestimating just how much stuff is still in my old place. I should go get another load.

The master bedroom was painted purple, walls and ceiling. I've had no fewer than three people offer unsolicited help if I need help repainting it. My answer was that I'll deal with it later, and getting moved in is my priority. Whoever painted it did a shit job with paint on the trim, even the light fixture.

But: I've slept great the past two nights. My old bedroom was generic beige with a white ceiling, and I didn't often sleep great. New room, my daily schedule is a mess, and I'm sleeping great. Is it the dark walls and dark ceiling? Should I not paint the ceiling the traditional white?

A website on the internet says blue is the best sleep color. Another suggests painting a ceiling not white but a few shades lighter from the wall color. So now I'm considering painting the walls a fairly dark blue and the ceiling a lighter blue. Any thoughts from hubski?

One of the things still in my old place is my CDs. Records are all moved, and every load I thought "I own too many records." But they're moved. The CDs I haven't touched in literal years. I'm not sure they're worth anything. Maybe $1 each? I'll dump them in the basement for now. Anyone else have opinions on what to do with old CDs? I did trash my VHS tapes and donate my DVDs at some point.

Dating: I've been talking with this girl I met at the YMCA. We do the same class every week. We text about once a day, sometimes less. She seems really busy, and when we talk I feel like she's really engaged in getting to know me better. She brought up dating without talking about us dating. Just, she seems open to it on however long of a timeline it might take.

I might find someone on an app that would reply within an hour and be up for dinner this weekend, but I'm far and away more excited about the girl from the Y. While I'd love to talk and meet up more often, I have my life and the sense I get is she has hers. I want to integrate a partner into my life and have a huge amount of respect for someone else looking to do the same.

So yeah, good luck with whatever you decide to do. I'm 42 and haven't found the right person. If it's her, if it takes another two months to do something together again and two more to have a proper first date, that time is an insignificant blip.

I'm toying with the idea of trying woodworking. It started when looking at my crappy hollow core doors from the '80s. Could I build my own doors? I kind of think I could.

I also want to replace trim, so that means miter saw anyway. Just need to add a planer and jointer for big tools. It's all expensive but after replacing my roof nothing feels that expensive anymore.

This planet is lousy with life. So many invasive plants in my garden I'm trying to hold at bay. The native ones I planted got mowed down by bunnies and kept growing back until I fenced them, and now those are over a foot high. One is milkweed that's important for butterflies.

I see bluejays and cardinals in my garden. I've seen lightning bugs and what I think are soldier beetles.

There's a maple sapling at my fence I'm going to try to dig up this fall and put in my yard.

So a new roof is expensive. Also absolutely essential and I have the opportunity and budget to do it right. Still.

I'd hoped to limp along with this roof until the house was paid off, but I guess doing it now and having my mortgage a year longer is financially similar to paying off the house a year earlier and then replacing the roof.

I got one bid this morning and am expecting another this afternoon.

I've seen them in Toronto a few times and woken up the next morning to my face sore from smiling so much. All time top concert memory is seeing Kevin Drew and Feist sing Almost Crimes in 2010. I was right in front and was totally unprepared for Kevin Drew and Feist using the same mic for her parts. Song starts with Justin Peroff's drums and Andrew Whiteman's guitar parts, Kevin sings his first couple lines, steps aside, Feist steps forward and melts my face off.

Emily Haines even sang Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl that night but Almost Crimes is etched into my brain forever.

Probably the band I've seen third most often after Tegan and Sara and Metric.

Smoke here is pretty bad, coming down from Canada. I want their indie bands and poutine sent here and not their smoke.

I have an agreed to start date for mid-November on my new job. I haven't gotten the written offer yet which is fine because it gives me a reason to put off notifying my current employer.

My boss's boss asked to meet with us each individually a while back; I set up monthly recurring 30 minute meetings. I used to work directly for him with a fantastic working relationship, but that's eroded since he got promoted. On my end, it's eroded because the person he hired, my current boss, is terrible at his job, and I judge them both for not doing better. I think he's negative toward me because I'm critical of my boss, his employee.

At any rate, we talked last week, and I expressed some frustration (again, that isn't new). That was the topic of our entire 30 minute meeting. Another longtime engineer left about a month ago, someone we both worked with for a long time in another department. He noted she left because she'd tried to push some changes in her department, her management didn't budge, so she left. He said something to me "if you're thinking about leaving, say something first." I'd already given verbal acceptance of my new position a week earlier.

I said it last week, and I'll say it again: they're screwed without me.

Synchronizing the grids is easy: at an open circuit breaker between the grids, put a transmission voltage to 115 V transformer on each side. Put two lightbulbs in series between the two sides. When the bulbs go dim, close the breaker.

This is how it was done in the old days. The more modern way (maybe 1960s?) is to have a synch scope. Looks kind of like a clock and displays the angle between. Clock points up: close breaker.

Today it's done with microprocessor relays that wait until the angle is small and then issue the close signal.

The real issue is getting the system secure as fast as possible. This means multiple transmission ties ready to close right away.

I gave work four weeks notice last Monday. So far it's all going well. My manager said he wasn't surprised which is a little annoying because hey if you know your employee isn't happy shouldn't you do more? But he's listening to my concerns I think out of genuine interest to do better. My team lead, my direct supervisor, continues to be a weak leader. He's done only cursory reassignment of projects. Giving them four weeks may be a double edged sword. Plenty of time to transition, but it's also plenty of time to procrastinate.

My manager said he told my team lead "he gave you four weeks, he isn't just abandoning you," which was my intent. I'm glad that's been recognized.

A number of people have reached out to chat which has been nice.

By the time I leave, it will have been 17.5 years at this one employer. I'd happily have done another 17.5 before making a retirement plan, but I think they're in decline and fear if I don't take some action I'll end up dragged down with. I told one of the people that called to talk "what if I find myself in my 50s behind industry peers with few transferable skills?"

I wonder if I'm being too candid and possibly burning bridges, but I think if they don't address the issues I see it won't matter if there are some hurt feelings. I wouldn't go back, anyway. My hope is my departure can stimulate some discussion and action. The people I've talked to have been "yeah I get it."

I had a second interview Monday with the full team I'd be working with if I'm offered the job. I think it went well. They said all the right things, and I think I gave the right impression.

I looked at my current employer's Glass Door today, and the ratings are taking a dive. Partly because of me because I gave a genuine, neutral review, but there are others saying things like mine. My hopefully future employer is a slightly higher current score but not taking a dive.

Last week I said I was looking forward to the first triathlon of the season, and that it was going to kick my ass. It actually didn't! I had a great day. My main goals were swim under 2:00/100 yd, bike over 20 MPH, and run under 8:00/mile. And I hit them all! Next up is an Olympic distance June 26. That's a much hillier bike course, so that'll be "fun."

Sunday morning's weather was great. Warm but not humid. The humidity picked up since then, and it's nearly unbearable.

After the event Sunday I sat at home blissed out on serotonin all afternoon. It felt great to be back at in person events surrounded by a bunch of like-minded people.

It's insanely hot, and the lakes are probably the warmest I've seen in my three years of swimming. Not the warmest for early June, the warmest period.

I'm really happy with how bushy my habanero plant is. It's much happier in the bigger pot. I killed one not repotting it soon enough. A third was recently repotted, and I'm hopeful it will look stronger. One last one needs to get a new pot soon. The outdoor ones are going to need to come in this week as we have some overnight lows in the 30s coming.

I have some seeds from a super hot pepper, and I'm going to try to get them going over the winter once I free up some smaller pot space.

I'm no gardener, but this one pepper plant is going on two years old, and it's from a seed from a grocery store pepper. I'm pleased with myself.

I put an offer on a house last week. I didn't get it and was one of ten offers.

I'm looking at three more Sunday.

Scone update: I made cherry chocolate scones this week. They’re great but maybe a little too sweet.

I bought ingredients to try making chai scones which while googling spices I learned really means masala chai. I also learned there is no exact ingredient list, so I picked one to try. I ended up buying nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, and cloves. I already have cinnamon. I’m going to try adding icing to them, too, sort of to mimic a chai latte rather than just straight chai.

I need to start writing my recipes down. So far I have a bookmark from the one I started with, but I’ve strayed far from that original one.

I went on a date Saturday for the first time in a year. I think it went well, and we’ve texted a few times since then.

Build power plants and power lines. It's century old technology limited by politics and public acceptance.

I had to stop reading this halfway through because while it doesn't exactly describe my family I see how close my parents are to it.