thomascolthurst

Monday still feels like a pretty reasonable day for "work" and admin catchup, so on Monday I did all the responsible things. Email, snail mail, finance getting on top of, that one phone call I'd been procrastinating. The works. Tuesday I mostly appliqued a T-shirt for the bug, using a few new techniques including a different presser foot (one with an open toe... wow, it helps a lot to see the needle path better). Wednesday was super social, with a handstand lesson and visiting friend, culminating with baking a blueberry pie with the squirrel. I think I like it that not every weekday is the same anymore.

The bug and I went to the Boston Ballet "Winter Experience" show; here's a one-minute teaser that shows a lot of the best parts. Bought the T-shirt, because the T-shirt was actually cool. I saw a family taking photos of each other holding up the program and thought that was pretty brilliant, for the sake of such things popping up as memories later, so I took a selfie. Will future me appreciate it? Who knows!

Tenants at Blue-Green place were only getting cold air out of their heat pump system. But I'm learning that sometimes HVAC components aren't broken, sometimes they're simply off. So, hoping something had just turned itself off during the recent cold snap, I successfully restarted the heat pump and it miraculously started working again! Yesssss. I am learning things about houses and successfully applying those things to save us all from having to call the pros. Victory, right? I thought so.

And... VR, haha! We're late adopters but the bug and I are now teaming up to pimp out our (refurbished, new to us) Meta Quest 3 headset. I wanted a better head strap, he wanted a better face piece, I'm reading about lens protection and have bought some things. I'm obviously going to game, probably a lot, but I'm also interested in VR apps for phobia exposure. There are a few options. I'm open to other ideas too... can I virtual-visit the Louvre without crowds? Walk through an orgy? Float through trippy candy-colored clouds? The squirrel has the same headset and we're going to try to play ping-pong and minigolf together, too.

Underneath is seething panic about my Montana trip, which is... tomorrow. I wrote most of the above on Friday. Today... eh. I keep freezing up, I stupidly flooded the bathroom earlier because I forgot water was running. I've just about given up on explaining why it's so bad to go there. No, I'm not WORRIED about something bad HAPPENING that might or might not HAPPEN. Yes everyone will be fine, yes my crew is going there too and that's likely to be a good shield, but I still have to be there and that's actually the plan. The nightmare is the plan. Me, I get to make other people happy and reset the clock on Montana visits and that's it. Birdie wanted to meet my dad, which seemed fair since I helped her to meet my mom, and there won't be a better chance than this year, so here we are. I just have to shower and force myself to do the last of the packing.