Happy Days – Week FortySix
The last week of September had retreats, travel hiccups, creative kid projects, birthdays, beautiful nature outings, and family reunions!
Last full week of September sort of began a wind-down at work, but life wasn’t slowing down, just shifting its focus.
September 22 – Day 317
Monday we were still in this privacy retreat for work at a former factory an hour outside of Berlin which has been turned into a hotel which hosts events on its campus. While we worked a lot on various problems with how technology is used and abused, there was also an afternoon for “team building” and we learned some archery and also rowed in a “Dragon Boat” on the lake nearby. The guy who I shared my seat with turned out to be a great connection for work which has proved useful for a project we are working on. I was happy to be able to invite my friend Vero to the retreat as it dovetails perfectly with her work in decentralization. It’s not an easy problem to solve.
September 23 – Day 318
Tuesday we wrapped up the retreat and made our way back to the airport to get back home. So many problems on so many flights this year and this day was no exception. The company that makes the software that scans the barcode at the boarding gates had been attacked - probably a ransomeware hack. This resulted in extremely long lines backing up through security and the flight attendants had to check people off printed lists at the gate. Felt like I was back in Argentina getting onto a long-distance bus. The company told Europe that it would probably be down for a week. But, luckily in line at the gate, people were patient and understood that people were doing their best in a crappy situation in order to get everyone back as quickly and as painlessly as possible.
September 24 – Day 319
We woke up on Wednesday to a beautiful sunrise. The shorter days are really making themselves known but still, beauty persists.
September 25 – Day 320
Thursday I helped Santi debug a bit of the project for the birthday party on Saturday. When I asked him to be in charge of the kids’ presents from the birthday party, I never imagined him creating these projects for the boys. I’m glad they got something creative and fun.
September 26 – Day 321
Friday we had our last work meetup event with Brewster & Mary in town and then went out to dinner with some new friends. We lucked out and found a restaurant with space for six as a previous reservation for eight had fallen through. After a lovely dinner, we eventually made our way home.
Where we spent two hours working together on the projects for the birthday party. Basically the idea was that the solar panel connects to a fan and makes it turn. There was an issue with the amount of power generated and needed and so we had to use battery packs for the fans and use the solar panels to light up a single LED instead. It all worked out in the end, but felt a bit like putting together a bike on Christmas Eve.
September 27 – Day 322
Saturday was the fun day - David’s birthday party with friends. We met up at our house and biked to “Play-In”. The boys had 30 mins trampoline jumping, then lunch, (order of operations is very important!), then 30 mins to get out of an Escape Room and then 30 mins at the arcade playing video games. They seemed to have fun which was the main point and it was all over around 16:00.
Normally I would have crashed out, but my friend asked me to go on a bike ride and I really wanted some outside calm time, so we rode our bikes around MaximaPark together and stopped by the “honeycomb” and took a selfie in front of the fire-red ivy. Every year the color change takes my breath away. It was so lovely to get outside, get exercise and take deep breaths of nature. Recharging like that is so important and sometimes when you think you want a nap, what is actually better is to get outside and move.
September 28 – Day 323
Sunday we went into Utrecht. The downtown library is gorgeous; the refurbished Post Office building transformed for public use, it’s one of our favorite places in the city. We came into the city to pick up my parents from their EuroStar trip from London to Rotterdam and we met them at the train station and made our way to the car and back home for a lovely family reunion. Santi then took off to the airport to pick up his sister who was also flying in to help us celebrate David’s 10th birthday all together.
Trying to remember everything that has gone on in the United States from that week would be impossible without the daily letters from Dr Heather Cox Richardson. Her invaluable work documenting the state of affairs in the USA and the world creates a historical record of the facts. Facts seem to be in short supply these days. That week seems like forever ago, but Dr Richardson recorded on Sept 21 that:
“the U.S. Department of Agriculture is ending its annual report on household food security.“
…
“Nutrition scholar Lindsey Smith Taillie of the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health told the reporters: ‘I think the only reason why you wouldn’t measure it is if you were planning to cut food assistance, because it basically allows you to pretend like we don’t have this food insecurity problem.’”
The plan to cut of SNAP has been in the works for months. If you can, please be a helper and donate to a local food bank, like what is happening in Evanston, IL. I love that the overwhelming reaction is to help people. The Govt is hoping for riots to quell, and helpers are here instead.
Evanston food drive overwhelms 'in the best possible way' as SNAP recipients face uncertainty
A day after federal food assistance was largely cut off due to the government shutdown, a north suburban food drive exceeds expectations.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2025/11/02/chicago-snap-evanston-food-drive
Also back in September, the Jeffrey Epstein files and their lack of transparency and release was forefront in everyone’s minds. Then Trump and RFK held a crazy-making press conference telling people not to take Tylenol / Acetaminophen (paracetamol here in Europe) as he falsely claimed it was tied to autism. Then he gave an unhinged address at the United Nations and later that week, the administration directed troops to be sent to “war-ravaged” Portland. Luckily Portlanders continue to be weird and responded to the show of force with incredible humor and restraint, donning inflatable frog costumes and throwing dance parties in the streets. Authoritarianism doesn’t know what to do with joy, humor and mockery.
For a bit of levity, here’s Josh Johnson on Trump’s mispronunciation of Acetaminophen.