The Mandelbear's Musings

Note that this was written on Monday, 2 February, but is being posted on Tuesday the 3rd because posting from just my laptop is tedious and I have no confidencs in Sable's ability to stay up long enough.

Despite it being disaster season, it's been a pretty good week, modulo exhausting travel and (voluntarily) limited sleep, all thanks to Contabile, the main UK filk convention. N and m went last year; this year we all went (m traveling separately because they're living in the UK now). It's been a very good weekend, and not a bad week before that.

As usual, I'm unlikely to write a separate trip report later (one can hope, but...). The trip was definitely an adventure, taking the ferry from Hoek de Holland to Harwich, then two trains and a cab to the con hotel. The premium lounge on the ferry serves surprisingly good food. So does the con hotel, the Wensum Valley Hotel, about a 20 minute cab ride outside Norwich.

My travel planning and prep has definitely declined. The biggest problem was taking a laptop with a grossly inadequate batter -- I should have taken (Framework 12)Lilac, instead of (Thinkpad x230)Sable, which is definitely showing its age, and has a usable batter life measured in minutes. The list of forgotten stuff is under the cut following the entry for Friday.

( Notes & links, as usual )

Well, it's a whole new year. Or it will have been, if we can make it to the other end of it. So here are some things I hope to get done.

1. I/we have to get the business up to the point where the authorities let us stay for another five years. Our understanding is that we don't have to be profitable yet, but we need to be able to prove that we're working on getting there.
2. I still need to make a will. The hard thing, as always, is identifying an executor. Al, maybe? No, he has health problems.
3. There are some accounts and other matters in the US that need to be closed out, and I need to set up an international banking account in order to make it easy to move money back and forth without having to use PayPal, debit cards, and wire transfers.
4. I need to get back to the US at some point -- preferably enough before my birthday to renew my driver's license.
5. I still need to release an album. It might just be cobbled together from old scratch tracks, but it really wants to get done.
6. I should finish getting all of my websites updated, and my software more thoroughly documented and possibly refactored. (Splitting up MakeStuff would be a good start, along with making it self-documenting independent of GH.)
7. I want to make some progress on my memoir. I owe it to my kids. I mentioned "introspective and autobiographical journaling" as part of a more general writing goal for last year. Maybe by making it more specific this year I can achieve more focus and make more progress.
8. There is going to be a total solar eclipse on 12 August, visible from northern Spain among other places. We have reservations. This probably be my last good chance to see one. I really don't have very many bucket list items -- it's not something I'm in the habit of thinking about. But this is one.
9. Physical self-care. I need to get myself to a dentist (and in general take better care of my teeth, which I haven't been doing for the last year), and connect with a source of CPAP supplies. Beyond that I'll settle for staying alive and in reasonable health for my age.
10. Acting my age is another matter. I don't expect to do that. But that would come under mental self-care, along with self-kindness and self-compassion.

I was thinking of making some predictions for the next year. Political, mostly. But sufficient unto the day... We'll find out soon enough.