Day in the Life of an Idiot

 
Image: This is what 58 looks like (on Shawn, anyway.)

Yesterday, no April Fools, was Shawn's birthday. Shawn decide that one of the things she really wanted was a bunch of meals out. So, we started the day at Day By Day Cafe on West 7th in Saint Paul. From there, we made a brief stop to pick up charcuterie (which will be tonight's meal--our family believes in Birthday Week Observed), and then off to S. R. Harris fabric wearhouse for some light shopping. Home for a while and then off to dinner at Bole, which is an Ethiopian restaurant in St. Paul. 

When Shawn was on the phone with one of her brothers, I heard her laugh and say, "Yes, we *do* really know how to whoop it up." 

Maybe this is something about being 58 (which I will also turn in mid-November) or maybe we've always been like this. SPOILER: it's the latter. 

Listen, you don't even understand how boring I am! I got so excited this morning to officially record my first snowfall, it wasn't even funny. But, you know, re-read that sentence. I was excited to record a snowfall on the CoCoRaHS page. I am, in fact, living the high life. 

Today is also Wednesday and I haven't gotten much read. I listened to several of the stories on the audiobook of Queers Destroy Science Fiction, but then kind of petered out on them for some reason. I haven't started the next book, though I did download another option (Please Report Your Bug Here, by Josh Riedel.) Ironically, I also went to the library on the day before Shawn's birthday (when we went out to eat also as part of the week long celebration, this time to--don't mock!--Red Lobster.) So, I have a literal pile of manga I should be reading, too. I just started one that Reactor (formally Tor.com) recommended called Touring After the Apocalypse. (<--pretty excellent so far, honestly.)

Anyway, I need to start getting wits gathered so that I can go pick up Shawn at work. Hope you all are doing well! 

Like everyone I know, I've been trying to figure out how to cope in these trying times. 

I find that, for myself, I do better when I feel like I'm contributing something. Doing anything--no matter how small (and these days I am counting really small things)--in Real Life makes me feel like I'm holding back a tiny bit of darkeness.

The other day, Shawn spotted a volunteer gig with CoCoRaHS (Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, & Snow Network.) These are the people who bring you a whole lot of weather-related data that helps a whole bevy of institutions and businesses from The National Weather Service (yay!) to Insurance Adjusters (ugh). This isn't like being a storm spotter (though that might be my next thing), it's way more granular and boring science. Like they have a motto that says, "Be a hero, report zero." What they want are daily records of your little microcosom. I will be literally tracking my own backyard FOR SCIENCE.

I signed up immediately and have since been patiently waiting for my fancy-ass rain guage to arrive. This is not your grandma's rain guage. Without the CoCoRaHS discount, this thing costs nearly a hundred bucks! On the other hand it measures to a hundreth of a degree. 

So, finally, in yesterday's mail, the guage arrived!!

I've been so excited to get this that at one point yesterday I actually double-checked a package that was approximately the expected size that was placed at my across the street neighbor's doorstep, just to be sure my guage was not misdelivered. I'm sure Tesla Caleb (my new across the street neighbor, replacing the Hot Swede. who has, in fact, returned to Sweden) was freaked to see me do so in his little Google-spy doorcam. I have no regrets. If he's worried about me, he can text!

Now comes the big exciting problem: where to place it.

In developed areas, like where I live, they want the guage top to be approximately 5 feet off the ground. I am hoping that it will work out to attach it to the back of our little free library. Otherwise, we're going to have to have dig and set a post somewhere in our yard. They want you to be sure not to get splash off a roof, etc., but perhaps there will be a way to make sure the guage lip is higher than the LFL roof.

This will be one of our weekend projects. 

And,  you know what? It's something nice to think about instead of *gestures at everything*