4000 Days of Writing: February 2022

Day - 680

Friday, February 25, 2022

Oh dear, this invasion is going to be awful. I can't stop reading updates. It reminds me of the Syrian civil war where so many people died and so many buildings were blown up. What an evil monster Putin is. And yet Mike Pompeo loves Putin. I do not like this man. Two like-minded sociopaths if you ask me.

In the evening, I went to the Oakland Museum with Richard and Lisa to see the Afrofuturism Exhibit. What an enjoyable evening, but pretty cold outside. We grabbed some food truck fare and took it inside the museum.

Day - 681

Thursday, February 24, 2022

Watched an old poker program from 10 years ago and was struck by the difference in strategies today. What a difference a decade makes.

There was an article about two top prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney's office who quit their investigation against Trump because the case was proceeding too slowly. What is going on with this? Why is this criminal so untouchable?

Russia has launched its attack on the Ukraine. This is not going to end well at all.

Day - 682

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

How big a misstep will a Russian invasion of Ukraine be for Putin? I would wager a substantial one, but what do I know. This is the will of someone detached, unhinged, bored. Two years of Covid may have dulled his calculated clarity. Or this is simply the next evil step in his evil master plan. At any rate, this feels like something out of the dark side of the 20th Century.

Day - 683

Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Cold in Oakland. Back home and have two books from Amazon to look forward to:

Day - 684

Monday, February 21, 2022

Happy President's Day!

Went to Korean Market after breakfast for tonight's dinner, Fish Soup with hamachi sashimi. So good!

Played a few hands of bridge with Alice's bridge group. Time to study book 2 of the ACBL Bridge Series we started a year ago:

Putin gave a speech tonight about the reasons why he's about to invade the Ukraine. I haven't watched it yet, but it sounds a little crazy (like invading Iraq back on 2003). Has two years of isolation and twenty years of authoritarian rule turned him into a bored sociopath? This will not go well, unfortunately, for anyone. Hmm. Time to focus on more hopeful issues, like this:

Day - 685

Sunday, February 20, 2022

Haircut, Costco, lunch, reading. Ordered this online.

Day - 688

Thursday, February 17, 2022

I haven't watched any Olympic coverage this year. None. I'm just not into the Olympics anymore. I've enjoyed enough sporting events and competitions and have other things to do. I wonder if that simply comes with age. Probably. The Canadian Women's hockey team beat the Americans for the Gold. I would have enjoyed watching that.

Day - 686

Saturday, February 19, 2022

Got gas at Costco early in the a.m., then arrived in SF by 8 a.m. We cleaned up the Airbnb for afternoon guests, then had egg McMuffins with Audrey's eggs. So tasty!

After breakfast, we headed to Chinatown for a short bicycle ride along the Embarcadero with Alan, Sharon and Kathy. We hung out at the Ferry Building and ate lunch at Fisherman's Wharf. A beautiful day, so warm!

Day - 687

Friday, February 18, 2022

Work was busy this afternoon, not surprisingly. I had a dental appointment in the morning and brought a dozen bagels and cream cheese to celebrate our victory over Guardian Dental and their bogus refusal to pay the claim on my crown. Everyone was appreciative.

After work, I headed to the Oaks and survived all kinds of river destruction, but later in the evening I ran into some seriously brutal luck when my KK lost to JJ all-in (I'm an 80% favorite there), and then I lost to a flush when my AKs lost to my oppt's AKs flush. That's poker.

Day - 689

Wednesday, February 16, 2022

Our 6 a.m. morning conversation was good. We talked about a few of the moments in Who We Are. It was a spirited conversation. Then later in the afternoon, Dorian, Khaled and I recorded a podcast for an hour. Maybe we'll launch sometime in the spring.

Day - 690

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Watched Who We Are with Dorian at the AMC Emeryville. We were the only viewers in the theater. That was fun. D took a call in the middle of the doc and it was like, go ahead. The documentary brought up what I've been reading these past 20 months, which is basically the history of the country. Oh wow, is our history dark and brutal and racist. It's sort of founded on it, so what do we do about it in 2022? There's a moment in the film where Jeffery Robinson is in Tulsa driving by the empty grass-filled lots called the Steps to Nowhere. These are some of the remaining foundations from the Greenwood massacre where rebuilding never happened. That image says so much about our conflicted present. Steps to Somewhere is a possible name for our podcast.

Day - 691

Monday, February 14, 2022

Alice received a Valentine's gift from her chickens...their first egg! Probably from Audrey.

The house was full of flowers, from me and Hana (for Austin).

Austin and Hana made special Valentine's Day cookie dough. Oh, good cookies!

Day - 692

Sunday, February 13, 2022

Super Bowl Sunday! I was just planning to watch alone with a bag of Doritos, but Lisa texted me Friday night, asking if I was planning to watch the game. I told her my plans and invited her and Richard to come over if they wanted, which they did! So I upped the menu with more chips, gummy bears, nuts, ice cream, beer and wine, San Tung chicken wings, Kraft Mac & Cheese, rice, vegetable, passion fruit pastries, and cheese and crackers. We had a blast and the game was good! Cooper Kupp ended up being MVP and wow did he deserve it for one of the greatest seasons of football any player has enjoyed. An amazing run by the Rams!

Day - 693

Saturday, February 12, 2022

The day began with a bicycle ride with friends Allan and Sharon and their friend Kathy. We rode to Lake Merced and then along the Great Highway.

After bicycling, we relaxed at home, then went out for dinner with Gary at Max's Opera Cafe. It was the first time we'd visited since his and James's separation. Gary's going through a tough time, but he'll come through stronger than ever, as long as he focuses on himself this year. After dinner, we attended an Music Academy of San Francisco orchestra performance that featured two contemporary pieces and two pieces by Maurice Ravel. A delightful performance. Home to bed and we crashed around 10:30.

Day - 694

Friday, February 11, 2022

Too many books to read. I want to finish Race and Reunion and The Underground Railroad this week.

I plan to see the new documentary Who We Are on Tuesday with Dorian. It's the new documentary by Jeffery Robinson, the ACLU attorney who really woke me up about our country's history and how little I know about it. I have a feeling it will be very powerful.

Day - 695

Thursday, February 10, 2022

Enjoying my new Vivaldi CDs. Fabio Magnifico. I like that name. He may be my Fabio Biondi, a larger-than-life mentor of Orianna Oh! I never tire of the uplifting optimism woven into Vivaldi's music. It's the best natural drug for happiness out there!

Day - 696

Wednesday, February 9, 2022

Started off with a 6 a.m. meeting with my racquetball buddies, talking about race, religion, residential schools in Canada, all sorts of things. Wow, history is so damn brutal. And if you're not white, look out.

Work was steady but not too bad. I cleared the decks and made time for our hourly podcast during lunch. We've taped two sessions now and look forward to more. Maybe rent a studio and do some live podcasts with guest speakers. I must organize more thoughts and continue reading all the books I'm consuming.

My Vivaldi CDs arrived today, 20 new discs on the Brilliant Classics label of Vivaldi's Opp. 1-12 with Federico Guglielmo and the L'Arte dell' Arco. Oh wow, they're phenomenal. Vivaldi continues to inspire!

Day - 697

Tuesday, February 8, 2022

Quiet at work today, so I'm plowing through my stack of books and watching a poker video or two. It's about that time to get back into live games at the Oaks, now that the Omicron variant is dying down. Ready to build that all-important skill set.

Day - 698

Monday, February 7, 2022

I have notes all over the place and a draft from a few years ago of La Stravaganza, which is occupying my head again, along with Vivaldi. There's nothing out there like this idea, at least that I'm aware of, and the melodramatic family drama aspects of the story, along with the sheer joy of Vivaldi's music, seems a fitting time to work the novel up to something presentable, then send out. A great jumpstart to the next new phase of the daily grind.

Day - 699

Sunday, February 6, 2022

Sunny Sundays mean e-bike riding along the Upper Great Highway and around the Cliff House and Sutro Baths.

Alice's chicken's loved the sun, too!

Day - 700

Saturday, February 5, 2022

Got an email this morning stating our Ireland trip is postponed until June 2023. I was hoping we would be able to go this June, but too many folks were worried about Covid, so it's off for another year. Oh well. That opens up other possibilities, like a cruise to Bermuda with Jill, Tom and the kids for a week in August. We also have our wedding trip planned in Detroit in June, which will be so much fun!

Spent the afternoon at Soren and Patrick's. Always fun and always full of delicious food.

Day - 701

Friday, February 4, 2022

One of the voices I listen to regularly is Steve Schmidt. He's always on point and uses gripping language that captures the political reality of the moment. Things just feel out of sorts and way too extreme these days, and he articulates the reality of the moment with blunt, no-nonsense, eyes-on-the-ground concern. The latest censure of Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger reinforces the push toward an authoritarian movement that continues to gain momentum. When reason and common sense are gone, everything can go.

Day - 702

Thursday, February 3, 2022

Been wondering when this would happen:

When you own shares of evil and the stock price crashes, you don't feel much pain. Shoot, I may buy more shares soon the price is so low. Here's the thing about Facebook, or Meta, or whatever you want to call it. It generates tons and tons and tons of money. Even with Apple issues and user drop off, it's still making billions of dollars annually. Until that changes, I'm not selling anything, and in fact, adding more shares to the portfolio. I think the PE is at 17 or somewhere around there. 17. The S&P is near 30. It's the cash cow everyone loves to hate, including me, but like all other cash cows, whenever you have a company that continues to print money, people tend to forget about the evilness over time and get back to the one thing that matters most...the numbers.

Lots of gems in here and more books to add to an endless list that will never dwindle, always expand.

4000 Days of Writing