Good morning good morning. Monday. Very very cold. You all right? I hope you are doing all right. I hope you had a good weekend and are staying warm. Maybe you are in Fiji. That would be so cool if you were in Fiji. I would be sort of jealous. But… what’s the internet speed like in Fiji? Might have an impact on my jealousy.

I am sitting in my basement office. It is not on the house’s main HVAC, has a mini-split. It was very very cold in here. The mini-split seems ill-disposed towards warming me up. Might have to break out the space heater and electric slippers. Could today be the day? My desk is a mess. There is stuff all around. Unfinished projects, unanswered mail, an unfiled W-9 for a pool vendor. New credit cards I’ve yet to activate. Two boxes of photos from my parent’s house. Icebreakers mints. A baby pumpkin I grew in the garden that for some reason my daughter has put by my desk. A family tree of my dad’s mom’s side of the family that I got from my uncle. A photo of my departed friend Megan, a video recently sent to me that I copied from Annie. I am… wow yeah I am surrounded by a lot of totems of departed friends and family, that is kinda weird. My mom’s heavy metal tape dispenser. Garner’s Modern English Usage. A USB stick containing OSX Catalina. A CD of the soundtrack of the last Hal Hartley film. A handwritten card from my grandma Florence. A thunderbolt 4 cable I have been meaning to swap out on my computer for a month. A door lock I’ve been meaning to swap out for a year. Man. Some chores go unaddressed.

One more bit of nostalgia is that in… mmmm… gonna say 1993 I had this large pad of paper, a desk pad, remember those? You could put it on your desk and take notes on it. I saved them. Somewhere along the line, I took photos of them, and then made them into computer desktop images. I thought it was funny and meta. And it kind of is? I do always like it when they come up. This one seems a little later. Gonna say ‘97 or so, because it has the names of some early Rockets Burst from the Streetlamps songs on it. Lotta phone numbers, names of people I have no recollection of. A bank account number. A quote from a House of Love song. Information about a Big Monster Fish Hook show with Victory at Sea at Green Street Grill. Wayne Magruder’s phone number. Some dollar amounts in a list. All very mysterious. My past is a mystery. Must consult the journals, the written record is all there is memory.

Join the GMHHAY slack! Reply to this email and ask for an invite if you’re a human who likes chatting with other humans about topics such as these within!

We are listening this morning to Colter Wall’s most recent album. Excellent country singer of the old school. I know a lotta you still “don’t like country” because of 80’s and 90’s butt metal stupid overproduced charting country, but there has been a real renaissance I swear. Colter Wall is from Saskatchewan. His father was the 14th Premier of Saskatchewan apparently. The more you know. Album is called Memories and Empties. He is 30. I take comfort in knowing I will (probably) be able to listen to new Colter Wall albums for the rest of my life.

We continue on with the To Investigate playlist clean-out. We have 22 hours left. Halfway. I feel confident that I can get this cleared out before Christmas. I have begun the incredibly complex logistical work to get me off of Spotify for January 1. I think I can make it. It’s gonna be hard. But I have a plan and it is in motion and I will be sure to tell you all about it once I completely confirm its viability. I wouldn’t say it’s morally unimpeachable, but it is definitely better than my current approach.

RIP Rob Reiner and Michele Singer that is some dark depressing shit right there. I went to bed hearing about their (probable) deaths, thought maybe carbon monoxide but then I woke up and oh god nope, so much worse. Man. That is sad. I do not really know what to say about it other than I am shockingly more sad about Rob Reiner than I ever would have anticipated.

ANYWAY. Excellent weekend of chores, even though both Saturday and Sunday ATTIC TIME was cut short. But I have no complaints. Friday I did home and computer chores, wrapped presents, paid Viridian bills, did a lot of email chores. Printed blueprints of pools.

Good thing I wrapped presents too because we ended up doing local Christmas with Grammy on Saturday that was nice. We will be in Boston on actual Christmas so we do it with Grammy early. Shoulda gotten Chinese food. Jane was way more invested in Christmas presents this year than she has been in previous years. She was VERY dictatorial in directing the whole affair we had to keep telling her to chill out. But she loved it, we all got lovely presents, and a good time was had by all.

Friday night Jane’s school was doing their “Festival of lights” which is… kinda awesome? A ton of lights on a fun winter walkway, a winter market where kids and other crafters sell their creations, food trucks, a brass band, and then the kids in K-3 do choral concerts and oh my god Jane’s concert was so cute, just the best. First time I’ve ever gone to one of her performances, I mean, it’s the first one she’s had. And I am here for it. What fun. Just adorable.

Saturday and Sunday I got… mmm… about eight hours total working on the attic studio, but it was enough. I got the Southwest corner flooring done including the cable pass-throughs to the closet on the main floor where the current internet and security setup is. I am moving all that to the attic but I need some cable pass throughs to keep existing to make it all work. And I did such a good job. Looks great. Very proud of my work. There was one more “unreachable” section of floor I would have liked to have gotten done this year — and with one more weekend I would have finished it — but this is not a bad stopping point for the year. I am happy with my progress, and things will be picking up soon I got a big area of easy floor coming soon and then I will be able to finally see the whole big main room as it will eventually be. That will be very exciting.

Saturday Jane and Emma went to a Girl Scouts Nutcracker thing and I met ‘em in Chapel Hill for dinner at the Pizza Place that recently moved. At the old place it always played really great sorta rock-ish hits of the ‘70’s and ‘80’s, same music every time for years. This time they were playing War on Drugs, John Grant, Slowdive, like what the fuck man? So I ask a guy working there, he says he doesn’t know, but the man to ask is this bald guy over there and I go ask him, and him and the guy with him just deny the whole thing, it’s the same, always been this way. Don’t gaslight me, pizza man.

Jane had a birthday party to go to on Sunday and I went along because I had been talking to the dad a couple times and we got along and his property sounded cool and it was. Only about five minutes away from here, but more off the beaten path, they have 20 acres, and their family has lots around them too. They’re on a dirt road, they live in an octagon, it was all so Alaskan I loved it so much. They had hired a science comedian guy for the kids and the kids loved it and I chatted with parents and it was a good time. I like that most of the parents around here are academics, everyone is pretty smart and nerdy and it’s pretty fun. I mean I don’t have a lot in common with them except our kids, and no one finds my job interesting, lol, but I find theirs interesting, so I am content to let them chat. It was all quite pleasant.

We watched the new Knives Out movie and it was great even though whenever I watch well-assembled mysteries I find meaning in every single little thing and two or three of them are niggling at me right now. Some of my confusions are spoilery, so I will save those for the Slack group, but some are just kinda technical. Like, for example, someone filmed something from far away and the audio was perfect and that bothers me and I thought was a clue, but, nah. Just Hollywood being Hollywood: very difficult to tell the difference in a smart movie!

Emma had work last night so I did a full Jane bedtime. We did Daddy School, it started out talking about Skittles but rapidly morphed into a Daddy School about sleep, which was very interesting. Jane still does not seem to remember any of her dreams, but she knows she has them. When she can’t fall asleep she turns on her light and reads a little bit more. She usually does not wake up tired. We did teeth and the new color-changing strawberry toothpaste (dear god) seems to be doing the trick right now. She was very well-behaved it was all a lovely evening.

Got a noise and metal playlist for you today, everyone’ sfavorite. My god I love Agriculture so much I can’t evben tell you. And loving this new Ragana/Drowse album just listening to it right now, in fact. And abriction are an American treasure. Solo project of a 22 year-old woman living in the Bronx. Black metal, symphonic, shoegaze, choral, all in one. Epic. I love her so much.

Ten more days till Christmas. Six more days of work for me this year. Crap I shoulda taken next Tuesday off. Alas.

Have a lovely week, mmm kay?