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Come as You Will Be party

 Yesterday, I took part in a fun party on Zoom. It was a Come as You Will Be event. The premise is that we were our 2026 selves, after having achieved the goals that we set for ourselves waaaay back on New Year's Day of 2021. We were to dress as our future selves, and tell everyone what we had accomplished, how we had reached our goals, what pitfalls we had to avoid, who helped us along the way, and so on.

I dressed for the beach, as my goal is to have a shore house.  I had my tankini top, a beach coverup, sun had, sun glasses, battery-operated fan, and my beach radio., Behind my head, on the mirror behind the sofa, I had a whole bunch of summer-related window clings.

I was hobnobbing with folks who were published authors, audio book narrators, and folks who had started their own companies. One lady had pics of her house in Hawaii, and a few people had magazine covers from Time, Smithsonian, and Rolling Stone with themselves on the cover. 

Then we had a question that I hadn't been expecting. Where did we see ourselves in the next five years, in 2031?

My answer was that I expect to be renting houses at the shore to other people, so that others can enjoy the shore as much as I do.

The truth is that this is a realistic answer, when you get right down to it. There is no reason why I can't do exactly this, if I play my cards right. There are people who use rental income to pay the mortgage and property taxes on their shore properties, and I see no reason why I can't be among them.

One thing at a time. First, we have to have the one shore house. Preferably, one that is either a duplex where we can rent out one floor, or has a separate in-law's quarters so we can rent the main house (or if it's a duplex, get two rentals from it). Once that has been achieved, and I have already notified Mark that I fully intend to see this through, then we can figure out what the next steps look like.

I am all about it. Watch this space.

Let's Go, Flyers!

The Flyers started early today, at 4 PM, vs. Washington. Fortunately, my work schedule allows for me to watch without difficulty, because I work from 7:00 - 3:30. 😀

We also get to watch a second screen including all the in-arena stuff that we would get to see and hear if we were at an actual game. I'm loving this.

https://www.nhl.com/flyers/fans/playoffs?mi_u=545994

Bye-bye, Isaias!

Well, that was an interesting morning of weather. Tropical Storm Isaias blew through town, literally and figuratively, dumping a monsoon of rain on us. It was pouring like a sheet off the awning while the storm was at its height.

All morning, the Weather Channel was giving alerts for this locality. First, it was a stream of Tornado Warnings (of which, the first one was for this county and triggered my phone and watch to blare an alarm). It was easy to tell what direction the storm was moving by tracking where the Tornado Warnings were being given next.

Now, the sun is out, and the Tornado Warnings are over with for this area. However, we are now getting strings of Flash Flood Warnings for the entire region. Every river and creek just got inundated, and I suspect a lot of them are or will soon be spilling over.  Between the NOAA radio and the Weather Channel, it has been a continuous stream of alerts for different counties and bodies of water.

At least we were at low tide when the storm was at its worst. I was kind of cringing on behalf of the shore, because when we are at low tide, they are at high tide, so they were dealing with the tides AND the storm together. Reports of beach erosion are starting to come in.  I'm not surprised.

I'm test-driving the new Blogger website, even as I type. I'm not convinced I like it better than the previous layout, but it's not up to me, lol. I'm sure they have their reasons for doing a redesign, and I suspect a lot of those reasons are transparent to the user. Sometimes, upgrades and updates involve a lot of changes under the hood, not out where the users can see them.

Hey, as long as they stay in business, it's all good.

Zoom fun

I am going to have some fun with Zoom for the next few days.

First of all, I am on a Zoom call even as I type, for users of the Orbit braille device that I own. I figure I can learn more about it this way than any other thing I can think of.

Then, next Saturday, there is going to be a "Come As You Will Be" party, where some folks with whom I took an online class will be dressing as the person we want to be five years from now. I have decorated the mirror wall behind my computer seat with various window clings for summer and the beach, and I will be dressed for the beach with my swimsuit top, coverall, sun hat, and sunglasses. 🌞🌴🌊

In other news, it looks like both of my normal side gigs are back up and running! Not only have I resumed interpreting, but my deafblind friend and his mom are at a point where they are ready for me to resume being his aide on Fridays. So life is good on that score. I'm seriously missing the income from the OT that I can't work, and losing the two side gigs was just an extra financial kick in the rump.

I also am on a mailing list that keeps suggesting work-from-home ideas, so I have been following those suggestions to see if I can come up with any that will replace the missing OT income.

Meanwhile, there are an awful lot of COVIDiots out there flouting safety precautions. Unsurprisingly, now the numbers in the USA are starting to rise again as a result. I could scream. Science really doesn't care if you believe in it or not; it's going to be true regardless. Unfortunately, what's true is that if we don't take safety precautions, we are going to spread this blasted virus at an ever-increasing rate. If the risk-takers were only harming themselves, I would say that they have the right to apply for their own Darwin Awards. The trouble is that they are also hurting lots of other people who did NOT sign on to take any such risks. Not only are they infecting innocent people, and possibly killing the medically fragile people in their lives, they are also causing infection numbers to rise. This, in turn, creates delays in the reopening of society, which then hurts small business owners and their employees. IMO, no one has the right to hurt other people in that way.

I can't blame people for being tired of taking precautions. We're ALL tired of taking precautions. This has been going on since the middle of March, with no end in sight. But the world doesn't revolve around our entertainment, and the virus isn't going to say, "Oh, you're fed up with masking? OK, I will stop spreading." The same precautions we needed in March are still needed now, and whether or not we are bored with doing these things is not a factor. We have to put our grownup pants on and just deal with it.

Wash your hands, wear your mask, and keep your 6' distance from people.