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There’s a joke that a friend is fond of that ends in a payment terminal displaying, “Kill him at once” instead of “Approved / please remove your card”.

As I find myself remembering this joke, I kind of hope we never reach the point where computers declare that someone should be killed. Which oddly makes my mind flash to Project Insight rather than Sky Net.

Growing up, I decided if I ever had to fill out a time capsule describing my generation that a VHS copy of Terminator 2: Judgement Day would have to be in it. For me, it’s kind of defines the time I grew up in, lol. But I have to admit, as terrifying a concept as a defense network declaring humanity a threat and launching judgement day upon humanity is, I think S.H.I.E.L.D.’s idea in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, is far more alarming. Project Insight effectively called for roving surveillance of the people they were charged with protecting, and both the computing and military infrastructure necessary to automatically catalogue potential targets and the tools to assassinate that target. Although, I would kind of like to think on Fury’s watch rather than HYDRA’s that agents deployed would have been more common than deploying the nearest helicarrier for a kinetic strike 😅.

Going through a cache of documents that have been waiting for triage since my mother passed away, or more literally, “Oh, wow, so that’s where these ended up”, I was a bit surprised but it also explained why some things I expected to find cleaning out my documents drawer, weren’t there.

Principally the interesting stuff falls under birth and death certificate kind of things, but for family who have been dead so long, keeping them is more a formality or just in case there’s useful info for looking up ancestors kinda documents. It’s decades late for there being any use for things like my father’s death certificate or discharge papers that I need worry about. Mostly stuff my mother may have had some use for twenty or thirty years ago. A good bit of which become rather transient, compared to those, and ended up in the ‘out’ pile rather than the keep pile.

One thing that I didn’t expect however, to find, was my grandfather’s discharge papers from 1945! After 78 years, the paper was so incredibly thin and flimsy, I almost thought it might be an old napkin or something else that ended up in that box. Nope, just incredibly old paper, lol.

Here’s hoping I’m in better shape than that paper, if I make it to 78. That’s in fourth some years 😅

Based on how I’ve felt today and yesterday, I’m thinking the assessment is I’m getting old and long since too round around the middle.

Based on the happy trails instructions, I’ve tried to take it easy. Strenuous activities generally curtailed and kept to minimum. Combined with the increased level of hydration, walking to and from the refrigerator and the head are probably the majority of what physical activity has looked like. Stuff like putting the garbage out or longer treks across parking lots, being the minority.

Combined with greater time to recover system integrity, I’m thinking that the difference between today and yesterday can be summarized as caffeine. Yesterday was a little bit of headache and an expected level of drowsiness, given I hadn’t taken the effort to make coffee since Saturday morning. Getting back to work and being glad I’m plopped in front of a Mac book instead of hauling cargo around for a living, I opted to keep the coffee consumption light for me, at closer to 2-3 cups than 4-6. So not overdoing it but not devoid of caffeine either.

It still remains to be scene whether my natural disinclination to get out of bed, has more to do with adding a woobie to my blanket, or not having anyone to get up and take care of before going to work. Just the same however, I spent part of yesterday searching for a doctor and this morning setting up an appointment for next week.

Here’s hoping I’m alive and relatively well by the time I visit the doctor. And hoping this sentiment isn’t jinxed, lol.

As for myself, I’ve mostly tried to remain active. I spent most of yesterday trying to be physically active. Took care of things I had been putting off that require effort rather than focus. I think it was that or go crackers. Today, I opted to go with something closer to my typical potato-style day after spending the morning outside. While it was nice to have no interruptions, I’d much rather have my family near. In Misty’s case, she tended to prefer the couch potato approach same as I do anyhow.

I’ve started cleaning and taking things down. Most of the dog proofing efforts were to keep Willow from getting stuck in places, or like the gate by the door were already becoming redundant as they all aged and learned better. Pretty much of the do what and when in my time at home is gone. My timing and pacing for things outside work has generally been set by my family, and before that it was family and television schedules. Willow drove a lot of that in her later years, and Corky and Misty often came along or added their own factors.

For the most part, I think my apartment has gone from being home to being a base of operations. My mom used to say that home is where you hang your hat. For me, I guess, home is where your family is. I think in time, I may start making larger changes around here. Not so much to change it from as they knew it, so much as to keep it from feeling like a tomb; my tomb rather than theirs. For now the focus is on deep cleaning and figuring out what normal may look like.

That reminds me, I really do need to get that photo frame setup. And I still need to build albums for both Willow and Misty, the way I did for Corky and Coco with the best pictures over the years. My plan for the photo frame was to set it up with a subset of my file server, to collect the better pictures. Then if it works well, replicate it across several others since suitable memory cards are cheap as hell now.

Passing thought: a man isn’t supposed to outlive his entire family unit. we’re supposed to die covering the retreat when it’s that dire.

Turning my head and almost ducking before I realized it was outside the car window, I couldn’t help but think the wasp was so avidly trying to fly through my window that it may as well have been saying, “Sir, do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savior, Stingula?” Or whatever wasps would name their deity of choice.

For quite a while my technology has been migrating to USB-C, partly by the decision to favor this when replacing tech and partly by attrition. Didn’t really plan on my Kindle 10 dying but hey, replacing it meant one less odd ball.

Presently my Bluetooth headphones (MicroUSB-B) and my phone (Lightning) are the only things that remain in common use that lack USB-C/PD. Except for my security keys which are still type-A connectors there are dreadfully few important things still using the older port type. In recent years the last hold outs have either gained (Centauri->Rimuru) or gone pure (Stark->Shion) USB-C, and one of the reasons I keep USB-A connectivity around is my security keys.

Well, technically there is also a plant shaped lamp on my desk that charges its internal battery via MicroUSB. But honestly I bought that because I like the look of it, not because I use it as a desk lamp 🤪

At long last, I’ve decided on replacing my USB-A based security keys with new USB-C models. Again, one for keeping on my keychain and one for keeping in a safe location. For a while, I will likely retain the ‘A’ model on key ring along side its replacement. I expect that it will join its companion in a safe location soon enough.

Actually, as a side thought, perhaps I should retire them to a safe deposit box or a drill press once ‘fully’ retired from service.

An upside to moving platforms, is now I have a system with independent ideas of tags and categories.

I’m thinking that this could be a useful means of separating more specific searchables from broader topics. Something that as time and variety have gone on, I’ve tended to avoid with everything crammed under Blogger’s idea of labels.

Alternatively it could just be a pain in the arse.