#86 - A Photo-Fest of Since-July

Just random photos from July to the present

Hello, my friends,

My brain breaks a little bit from considering this past week because it’s been a lot. I turned 40 as of the newsletter’s last issue. Got into the Oktoberfest mood with sausages at Wurstküche in downtown Los Angeles, celebrated birthdays with family, traveled up and down the county for work on Monday and had an outreach event at the LA County Department of Public Works Headquarters — a giant glass cube — where we signed 17 DPW staff members up for library cards on Wednesday. Later that day, I went to another open mic (photo below and at the dell pickles Instagram account) and tried some new jokes. On Friday, I’m doing another open mic in the middle of the day and having guests over in the evening, and on Saturday I’m heading all the way up to the northernmost point in LA County for an outreach event and going to the UCLA football game in the evening. I’m feeling tired from typing all of that.

One thing I didn’t do this week was go back for a second class of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu which I had re-started last week after an almost-six year hiatus following knee surgery. Unfortunately, I suspect I tweaked my knee when I did 100 burpees in just under 19 minutes a 1.5 months ago (see #80). I have no stability issues just tiny pains when I move it in certain ways so it may be a sprain or I may have slightly damaged my meniscus again. I haven’t been doing much calisthenics or jogging over the past few weeks so I’ll get back into that and maybe with movement things will readjust. Probably I’ll do BJJ next week, but will take it easy. Another knee surgery would be very unwelcome.

Photos Since July

As you might imagine from the chock-a-block of activities above, my brain has been a little busy this week so I thought I would do something a little different with HMF this week and just show you some recent photos as a visual slice-of-life:

Michael and I went on another father-son camping trip (this time to Pyramid Lake on July 20-21. The weather was warm and Michael had a blast splashing around in the lake two days in a row.

I completed my first 5K race on July 28th and wrote a little about it in #76. It’s getting to be about time for me to sign up for another race.

On August 9th, Michael drew some funky characters!

At the end of August, my brother (and friend of HMF), Igor and I took our kids to a nearby pirate-themed park where Sophie perched on some cannons. Who knew pirates could be cute!?

On September 13th, yours truly went to buy a piece of furniture for Sophie’s room at Ikea and had lunch there! It was delicious and gave me the energy to build the shelf.

One of the things they neglect to tell you in parenting school (ha!) is that kids bring home so much art! Like multiple pieces a day. It is an archival challenge, to be sure. Here’s Sophie with an olive tree she colored. Lovingly preserved in photographic form.

Library outreach includes cultural experiences like this hula dance. The movement of the dancers and their blue gowns resembled ocean waves! Another notable element of this photo is the large van in the back, which I drove to the event and had to parallel park like 2 inches from the car behind it.

Another day at the office, this time at the representing the library at the Rimgrove Park Community Pull-Up.

A mushroom spotted in our building’s courtyard earlier this week. Do any of you mycologists know what kind it is?

…And another day at the office, this time as comedian dell pickles performing a joke about War and Peace at a local open mic.

So yeah, it’s a busy life. Someday I hope retire and do more stuff but in the meantime, I’ll try to eat well, sleep enough, and exercise so I make it to retirement in one piece.

Time Machine

Here’s what I wrote in HMF a year ago (in issue #33):

• A Wish is a Wish(es): Teaching Michael to leave some dandelions for others.

• Unfortunate Continuity: Quote Tupac in a very short reflection on the Oct. 7th attack on Israel.

• Just Pictures: Just art, some with comments.