Today I realised my motivational use case for getting down on the floor and back up again (without anything stable to hang on to) is: getting bottles of wine off the bottom shelf in the liquor store… when the last bottle cannot be reached because it is waaaay at the back. 😊
My weight management program has only one requirement: portion control. I have learned from years of experience that for some food/drink, the portion size that works for me is zero.
Sunrise: orange reflection off puffy clouds, above some trees in silhouette.
Sunrise.
I am pleased, and a bit surprised, to report that the 6-kg kettlebell worked well for today’s deadlifts. It’s a bit much for one hand only, but I mostly do two-hand lifts. For suitcase-style (pne hand) deadlifts, I’ll stick with the 4-kg one for awhile or try the 5-kg dumbbell.
I should, of course, have a dental checkup some time this year, but that can wait.
I am finished with body maintenance chores until June, when I have my annual mandatory driver assessment checkup and routine blood tests. Last year GP said, “I haven’t seen you for a year! Would you come in at all if you weren’t required to?” I said, probably not, but I do like free blood tests.
I appear to have successfully “broken in” my new boots without too many complaints from my feet. Mostly it’s a matter of adjusting the laces to keep my feet from slipping too far forward while leaving some wiggle room for my toes.
Took Sonja to Subaru service for her annual checkup & bath. Raining. Did not enjoy the drive, but at least I didn’t have the sun directly in my eyes.
Going home on the courtesy bus, I got a long tour of various suburbs. Fairly entertaining, but the seats are uncomfortable.
I was reading about Qantas making changes to their flights in response to fuel & other war-related issues, and wondered when they’d change some of my upcoming trips. About 15 minutes later, I got a notification about my return flight from Perth in June. What timing!
I would like to do some train travel instead of flying, but the long periods of sitting involved are off putting. On the Queensland Rail website today, I discovered a $50 fare for trips between Townsville and Cairns (each way). About a 6-1/2 hour trip. That’s pushing my limits, but tempting.
As expected, easily sorted this morning at the bank branch.
For anyone who may know Lyn McConchie in NZ, she emailed this morning with a post-storm report: all’s well. Shed and house intact. Animals fine. Some tree banches down, now on wood pile. More rain incoming. She’s well away from the coast where most of the damage has occurred.
I discovered that one of my bank accounts (not at my main bank) still has a long-abandoned PO Box listed as my postal address. I get all my statements electronically, so I never noticed. Can’t be dealt with online; must visit a branch, so I guess that’s Monday’s chore. No phone option offered.
I have old iPads running iPadOS 15 and 16, as well as iPads and an iPhone running 26 (the latest). ALL of them were offered security updates this week, as was my newish MacBook Air and the old MacBook Pro.
I have long considered computer user guides to be a particularly geeky subset of speculative fiction.
Gadgets updated: 2 MacBooks, 4 iPads, 1 iPhone, 1 Linux Mint laptop. One of these things is not like the others.
This fortnight’s motto, to keep me on track:
“Nothing tastes as good as pain-free knees feel.”
I finally got organised enough to join the CSFG (Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild), after receiving newsletters for quite awhile. I expect this will be the best $5 I’ll spend all year.
Fifty years of recording air quality at Cape Grim, Tasmania. Good article, with graphs.
www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04...
Missed this earlier: Ig Nobels award ceremony moving to Europe because of concerns about US travel visas.
www.swissinfo.ch/eng/research...
Busy yesterday. Chiro appointment, optometrist appointment, 2 bookcases to North Qld Conservation Council, then Jaycar where Eric bought a portable power station.
Traffic seemed less than usual, but we’re not often out at those times and places, so not sure.
I an so sorry to learn of Alan’s sudden death. I enjoyed my encounters with him - and his delicious bread.
So sorry to learn of this. I didn’t know him well, but I had enjoyed our encounters.
Paul Erhlich (author of The Population Bomb (1968) & others) died on 13 March, age 93. I met him several times in California in the early 1970s, when I was involved with the Zero Population Growth movement. His book, among others, was very influential in my interest in science, ecology & feminism.
We moved me & most of my furniture, books, etc to our current house 17 years ago yesterday.
Settlement on the sale of our previous home was 5 years ago yesterday.
We liked the old place, and Eric spent many weeks there after I moved, until the steep road & steps got to be too much for him too.
Fluvax achieved yesterday, a bit sooner than anticipated. Early this afternoon the village medical centre said they were taking over-65 walk-ins for free vax today, so we popped over and got our jabs. No noticeable affect this morning; I rarely get any.
I am really peeved about needing to change my habits to minimise buying from companies that are unacceptable in any of several ways, but I’m working on doing that: finding acceptable substitutes or doing without. It’s a very small thing I can do to protest the big things outside my control.
Today the car self braked about a metre from the shelves. I must have been going a bit faster than usual. Or she’s messing with me.
Buteau of Meteorology cyclone forecast track map showing TC Narelle crossing the Queensland coast coast north of Cooktown as a Category 4 and continuing west into the Gulf of Carpentaria.
The very powerful cyclone heading for Cape York is far away from us (over 600km), though we might get a bit of extra rain.
It is forecast to remain a cyclone when it reaches the Gulf of Carpentaria, so a lot of places are going to be affected.
From the time I left home at 17, I typically saw my parents once or twice a year at most, and we almost never spoke on the phone, so it seems more like an extended absence rather than a permanent one. And, of course, as an atheist, I have no expectations of ever seeing them again.