Cornucopia

 

A fairly hefty array of mundane things to report:

• My absence last week was primarily due to setting up the new computer (which I am typing on as I write), cleaning my home den/office, and cleaning other things (so far, the backyard, the laundry room cupboards and laundry room generally, the first floor bathroom, and some other odds and ends.... still much more to do.... and I have to keep pushing since I do not often have the "mindset" needed to purge.
• Regarding the computer..... it did cause me considerable consternation..... as I had expected.... setting up gizmos like this is not something I enjoy.  But, I took it rather slowly..... I would work on the contraption until I felt frustrated..... and then go do something else until I was feeling again able to "calmly" continue the effort.  This did go on for a while.  But, now the new computer is up and running and I believe I have all the programs I need and want downloaded into the guts of the beast.  
• Honestly, though, I can report that set-up of an infernal machine like this has apparently improved by 2026.... for even though it WAS frustrating.... it was NOT as frustrating a time as it was when I last set up the (now defunct) prior machine in my den/office..... roughly 15-16 years ago.  I appreciate that many ancillary gizmos (aka printer, for instance) now were Wifi connectable instead of adding to the myriad of snaking cords all about.   My cords also are NEATER than they have ever been before.   
• This is my first real day using the machine, and I am still NOT sure if I really like having two screens.  I will give it a go for a while, of course, to see if my mind can acclimate to this situation.... but it DOES feel odd (and not "normal") to have to look to the right and left so much, and NEVER dead center, like I am used to.  My wife keeps "assuring" me I will grow to love having two monitors..... but we shall see.
• On the fourth.... it has been a long standing tradition to go see "the fireworks".... and in my locale there are three different, relatively equidistant cities that have these festivities.  While the 30-60 minutes of the fireworks display is interesting and pretty..... and I have tried to varying degrees of success to photograph fireworks... there are two things I actually rather dislike...... a) the NOISE.... I tend to be noise sensitive, and they are anything but.... and b) to get a "good spot" to see the fireworks, my wife has always had us show up more than a couple of hours before sunset to the designated spot.  The getting there early is the hardest part for me, because a) even with ample sunscreen, I dislike sitting around in the open sun.... it is just uncomfortable for me, and b) sitting out in the sun waiting for sunset and then enough darkness for the show to begin..... is (to me) akin to watching a pot of water, waiting for it to boil...... drudgery.  But this year, my wife, due to the very hectic past week she especially had (more, next bullet point), decided SHE was not up for going to the fireworks.  
• Not only did my MIL have the fall I mentioned before, and has needed a lot of extra care and support, the surgery (spinal fusion) my SIL had has created a very difficult recovery period for her, my BIL (my wife's brother) went into the emergency room with bladder/prostrate issues.  Taken as a whole.... we (but especially my wife) have been traveling to-and-fro all over the place between the three places where the three of them reside to try to help.   
• So our "4th of July Holiday" was more simple than usual.  We did three things..... a) on the actual 4th, we went to my SIL's and played euchre with them much of the afternoon.  We brought pizza and chips and snacks for while we played together, b) after Saturday Mass... we went and visited my MIL and brought her a bunch of snacks and helped tidy up her apartment, and then c) yesterday (Sunday) we went to a 4th of July themed, outdoor wind band concert in the early evening.  The concert was delightful.  We brought lawn chairs, and ate cubed watermelon and also cucumber slices while we heard the delightful music.  
• I have been working on revising syllabi for Fall courses, and now I can take my paper edits and fix up my documents on this new computer.  
• My den/office is exceptionally tidy now.... and I did spend time polishing all the displayed, beautiful pipes in my office/den's pipe racks.  They look so shiny and inviting now!  It may sound very odd... but I had been really missing the ritual of cleaning and fussing with my pipes.... almost to a similar level of how I still miss indulging in them.  
• I mentioned Wordle a while back.  Again, it is a new-to-me game.  But, I noticed today some of my "statistics"..... I have now played 42 times.  I have succeeded in getting the word correct 93% of the time (the first few days, I did not know what the hell I was doing).  And, as of today, I have a 35 day streak of correctly solving the puzzle.  

Even though I tend to think of "cornucopia" as mostly a "Fall" thing, since my post was about a whole bunch of stuff, the name fits, and so I luckily found a more "Summer" type of cornucopia.  

PipeTobacco