Good morning good morning! Issue number 1776! This is the real 250th anniversary of the US, amirite? July 20? The Battle of the Island Flats, Wikpedia tells me. Sounds important.

Just back from dropping Jane off at CAMP INVENTION, where they try to invent things under inexplicably draconian rules imposed upon them by the camp. It is real weird. Every other camp is super chill but this camp is like, here is 200-page manual for how we expect you and your kid to behave at Camp Invention. It is run by her school, and I guess they’re so used to being an actual school, they forget this is a camp and it’s supposed to be fun. Saw three parent-friends this morning. Real weird to see people I know before 8AM. Do not like it. Don’t know that this has ever happened before.

Some dude in an Ioniq 5 took umbrage with me passing him when he was going 25 in a 55, then he zoomed to 70, cut me off, then slowed down, then got out of my way and creepily waved, then parked next to me at the grocery store and creepily waved again and you know what dude? It worked. That was creepy AF. I half-thought that it was one of my parent friends but a) I know their cars, and b) I stayed at the school in the parking lot to read all my email newsletters. I was by far the last one to leave the school.

Creepy creepy creepy do not like.

The Cary Covid Pooper seems to have spent the bulk of last week in Raleigh, as the single sewage maintenance district in the area that had a covid spike was Raleigh 2. It is so weird how there is only ever one. Maybe he is, like, visiting his mom or had to work a long week for a pitch or something.

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!

Listening this morning to the new Hercules and Love Affair EP, a collaboration with someone or someone(s) named Hips and Hips. It would make me very happy if Hips & Hips was a duo of two people named Hips. Oh wait. It’s Hips and Lips. That’s okay. I would still be happy. This EP is very dancy. Nothing like H&LA’s moody last album with Anohi all over it and Andrew moodily singing. I liked that album. In Amber it was called. This one sounds kinda like Hot Chip. It is called Danseur.

Hey question: Is Bike Courier culture still a thing? Are there sexy, strong, swarthy bike couriers of both genders who always have their courier bags on them and hang out at random downtown parks all day waiting for a call? And then they all go to the same bars and date each other? I wonder if that is still a thing. I mean, we are “paperless” now but we had email back then too. I suppose we have Docusign now. Did Docusign kill bike courier culture? Do they even know?

Also did all those 90’s and oughts bike couriers marry each other and have little bike courier babies?

I miss that scene. Even if I wasn’t cool enough or ripped enough for it.

Great weekend of chores, A+ no complaints. I got the floor done from the dormer window all the way to the steel beam on the east side of the house. You do not know what that means and I forgot to take pictures but it was a lot. About 200 square feet now done with wiring, Safe N Sound, and layer one of OSB. Had three epiphanies about the studio while working: one great idea and two paranoid situations. I am suddenly paranoid that the foam I am using for the anti-vibration layer isn’t jiggly enough. And I watched this video on tongue-and-groove ceilings and how you should have two ventilation areas — one between the insulation and the roof, and one between the insulation and the T&G. I was only planning having the second of those two areas, and I don’t have any method of doing the first, because the whole roof is spray foam. I am now super stressed about this. I think a smart one-way vapor barrier lining the Sonopan should do the trick, but also I don’t even know if vapor barriers will adhere to Sonopan.

Luckily I have, like, two years to worry about that. As for the vibration level of the foam layer, I am pretty sure I am fine and I can definitively ease my fears in the next couple days. It will involve a vibrator.

I am convinced I’m more out of shape now, or at least substantially more out of breath, than I was a few months ago, and it is making me crazy. Is it hypochondria? A side effect of this blood pressure medicine that’s making me fainty? Summer heat? I don’t know man. All I know is I am constantly out of breath, and as a 50 year-old man it is very stressful! Like you’re supposed to get your heart pumping a few times a week and I do, but then I’m convinced I’m dying? How can this be normal. It’ll go on for hours. I hauled about 20 loads of OSB upstairs — 35 pounds a trip or so. And I swear to god I used to be able to do two trips before I needed a breather but now I am taking one every trip. I did ask my ultra-fit mother-in-law what her heart rate gets to when she’s doing running or something and she said low 150s, and that’s about where mine is when it’s pumping and I need a break, but. I don’t know man. It is deeply unpleasant. I wish I could do more without getting out of breath it is very humiliating.

Jane’s been pretty good the last few days. Did her teeth without complaining this morning. She is very excited for Camp Invention this week — she has two classmates in her group. She’s excited for Boston next week and so am I. I miss that place and miss my friends.

Really shoulda done a Real Wild Child this trip I don’t know why I didn’t I just couldn’t get my head around it. Alas.

Last week Jane was in POP STAR CAMP so on Friday afternoon we went to the camp school and watched her and a bunch of other girls do seven different routines for songs and it was so amazing and cute and hilarious. You could pick any kid in the group and watch them and it was like an amazing drama story, just such a wild ride. I seriously thought these sorts of things were going to be one of the most tedious parts of parenting but I was totally wrong THEY ARE THE BEST OMG.

That camp was not cheap (though a bargain compared to camp prices in major cities my god) but it was so, so worth it.

It’s very hard to show you photos from it because I’m not gonna put pics of other kids on the internet. Maybe I will find some time today to Photoshop a few of them or something. But my god. Just the cutest.

Got a goth playlist for you today. About half old, half new, owing to my recent re-listen to the wonderful Doctor Death compilations. Also just discovered this amazing woman gothy artist SOFIA ISELLA and she rules. I don’t know anything about her yet but my god. What songs. Just amazing. Oh and Amy Rose Mills she is so good. That was a Bill recommendation. Solid rec. That guy gives good music recommendations. Worriedaboutsatan should be even more goth than they are, but they are Goth Enough™.

All right oh god I have so much work today I should really get to it. Talk to you tomorrow, friend.