hrj

This past Sunday I went out to do yard work and discovered that at some point since the previous Sunday (when I had last done yard work) some ... person ... decided the back wall of my house needed graphiti. Nothing recognizable -- just some swirls. It seems to have been a crime of opportunity because the tool seems to have been a can of black spray paint that I'd left on the back step in the middle of some project or other. But I find it unsettling that the sort of person who thinks it's a good idea to spray paint strangers' houses is prowling around in my back yard. I've sent off a (useless) "citizen crime report" to the police and am contemplating biting the bullet and putting in a gate across the driveway to make the yard less accessible, and -- more for practicality than security -- installing some outside lights with motion sensors. I've been thinking for some time that it would be convenient to have sensor-driven lights roughly on the corners of the house so that, for example, I don't have to try to sort the mail, or put my bike in the shed, or whatnot in the dark. The really annoying thing is that it's going to be next weekend before I can get it painted over because I'm never actually home during daylight this time of year.

The "portent" of the title was a snow-white dove (ok, pigeon) that was sitting in the dark on the bench right outside my office building when I left work today. I cooed at it and it looked sideways at me but declined to fly away. No meaning yet assigned.

Tuesday afternoons are a time of testing and trial for me because the Procedural Discrepancy Abatement Team meetings always get truly excellent food from catering. (We always get great catering at B****r meetings -- it's one of the benefits of having an in-house food service.) But the meetings happen right before I get off work -- which means right before I go to the gym. Great food -- heavy exercise. Great food -- heavy exercise. Hmmm. I often compromise by indulging lightly, exercising lightly, and then skipping dinner. Today, however, we have a smoked salmon spread. Little rolls of salmon, chopped tomato, egg white, and onion, sliced cucumber, capers, and some roasted garlic foccacia to pile it on. I caved. (And then eliminated the ab crunches from my workout.) There's always twice as much food as the team can eat, and we follow the usual practice of sending the leftover off to the production lunchroom -- sort of like distributing the broken meats at the door as alms, or perhaps like sending a dish down to the lower table. But today I packed up the leftovers and kept them all for myself.