Weeknote 7 - 2 to 15 Nov 2024

What have I been doing?

Duck hunting was such a blast! It's been about a week now since I went, but man I had such a good time. We did an evening hunt that was really just more of a practice run for the morning (no ducks were killed, only shot at). But it was a good chance to get a feel for the rhythm of things, what to expect, and so on. In the morning, we arrived at the hunting location at about 5 AM, walked in with our layout blinds, got all set up and brushed in, and waited for shooting light. The stars were truly magnificent -- light pollution is pretty bad where I am so it was wonderful to see (and remember) what the stars really look like. I walked away with three birds from the hunt, and I was the first to kill one that day, so it was a special experience for sure. Now I'm trying to figure out how to get back out where I'm at. The closest location is Lake Bardwell, which is not difficult to get to.

Other than that, things have just seemed to be transitioning with the season, I think. My training cycle is nearly complete (the Dino Valley 25K is this Saturday), so I moved into my training taper period last week. I'm excited and nervous, but mostly excited I think!

The days blur together somewhat from the last two weeks -- there has just been a lot of that "everyday busy-ness" thing going on. Cassandra was here for about 5 days, which was great.

P's 11th birthday is TODAY! 11 years with that kiddo, and it has been a ride, let me tell you. I find myself thankful for her, though, more and more. We went rock climbing yesterday to celebrate and she did a lot of fear-conquering, which was really neat to see.

I'm currently reading Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead, which is sad and a bit tragic but with which I feel a strange familiarity. I did not grow up an orphan, but the setting of southern poverty gives it a sense of reality to me.

Personally, I'm trying and trying to stay away from general media, news, and feeds as much as possible. A habit this sticky is hard to break, though. Chrome is often deleted from my phone but I re-download it for practical reasons, and then that often leads to checking out Reddit or something else for a few minutes, so I haven't been fully disconnected. The goal is to continue to figure this out, however, because the moments when I'm not actively engaged with media and feeds are much calmer. My blog and the RSS reader are a much different story -- this continues to be a place where I want to be. It's the kind of web I want.

What do I need to take care of?

Unforunately, I think the Prius's power brakes are going out. A strange noise occurs when pushing down the brakes at a full stop, and the Prius forums indicate that this is a known issue on my Prius version. It usually results in a hefty repair bill, which will likely cost more than the car is worth. The long story short is, we need to take it into the dealer.

What caught my interest?

I don't want to say "nothing" here but... nothing I can think of, at least.

Tagged: weeknotes,