“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 840 (Sunday) – then and now

The morning air was perfect for coffee and reading a gigantic book and lounging around on the deck. The book, Deep River, is a novel by Karl Marlantes that clocks in at 717 pages. This morning, I read the singular sentiment that explains so much about the Finnish side of my family: "But Juoka was a Finn too, and a fight between a Finnish couple was like a fight between glaciers. Only the occasional sound of the cracking of ice revealed the power of the opposing forces."

After an hour or two outside, it was like a switch flipped on the big outdoor furnace and for the rest of the day it was sweltering. Once the furnace started, there was a good amount of lying around doing not much. Some laundry miraculously managed to get done, mostly because dressing for work was problematic last week, the memory lingers, and there is no desire for a repeat this week.

The hot laziness could have been alleviated simply by turning on the A/C, but I was too lazy to leave the couch and the air movement of the living room ceiling fan to go through the house and find the open windows to close them. This may be the pinnacle of my laziness. During one trip to refill the giant cup of ice water, I noticed the thermostat reading was 90 degrees.

There was no desire to make dinner but much desire to eat. Pizza delivery menus were consulted but in the end it was home-prepared pasta with sauce, meatballs, and cheese, served with a side of sweat. At least lunch is covered for a couple days.

In previous years on this date, exciting things transpired. I was at a bicycle race followed by a duck race (2016), a book club meeting in a coffee shop (2014), vacationing in Maine (2013), traveling from Tennessee to California to visit cousins (2012), skating in a roller derby bout in southern Illinois (2011), and at a Greek Festival in Fitchburg (2010). It seems I have really slammed on the brakes in recent years as far as fun and excitement is concerned. Life was very full then.

Today I sat around, read a book, and did the Doom Scroll in social media, email, and news headlines. The only conversation of the entire day was saying "Hey, how are you?" to the lady next door. Sad.