I’m not making any promises. Please read ahead but don’t feel obliged. This post might be nothing more than a random stream of what’s going on.
Monday afternoon 2:30 PM on one of the shortest days of the year. So much has been written about Seasonal Affective Disorder and how people feel the blues this time of year. I feel like I’m having the opposite reaction. It’s cloudy every day. It’s never completely, fully light. It my first winter here and the clouds are comforting. Everything outside is quiet and muted. Great afternoon walks with the two dogs. It makes me feel less guilty for taking the occasional afternoon nap.
But no afternoon snooze today. I’m in my perch on the second floor at number 56. Lots of hustle and bustle two flights below and I’m happily ignoring it. Harry is home from school and Sophie arrives tomorrow with her friend Bruna. Activity ramping up for the holidays. First Candle this year coincides with Christmas Eve, so we get to celebrate both at the same time!
Dave Matthews Band Live at Luther College on the sound system. The track now playing is Seek Up.
“You seek up an emotion
And our cup is overflowing
You seek up an emotion,
Sometimes your well is dry
You seek up a big monster
For him to fight your wars for you
But when he finds his way to you, the devil’s not
Going–ha, ha”
Hear it here. The lyrics are sublime. Dave’s voice is really, really good. The guitar amplifies the mood and meaning. I am going to start my Desert Island Discs list soon. New Year’s resolution? Still talking about the method. Current plan is to make giant list of candidates, then start filtering and sorting. I could invest an infinite amount of time on this. No problem.
One more music note. The current ‘driving around lyrics’ come from Unique Radio (101.2 FM in London). I drive a Volvo V70 wagon. A total non-sequitur.
Another great ride in Richmond Park this week. 18.95 miles including a full loop around the park and tracing the river from Teddington Lock to Richmond Bridge. Also a small detour because a full-moon high tide flooded the bottom of Church Lane where it meets Twickenham Riverside. I now realize I have two requirements for continuing the winter riding in London: Warmer leggings and fenders. Mud splatters entirely covered both my bike and my butt after the ride.
And finally, significant computer hardware upgrades. Some of it was just reconfiguring. Turns out the best Mac in the house was being used for Spotify in the kitchen. I grabbed that. Also started using a new wireline network just for the top floor of the house, affectionately named “Communists in the Attic”. So, Harry and I are now blissfully ignoring all the Wi-Fi noise and getting wicked fast connectivity.
Tuesday I took delivery on a Dell P2715Q 4K monitor. For the first time in a decade, I feel like I have enough pixels to do everything I want on one screen. Also, It’s a great peripheral for the iPhone 7 Plus camera.