Stay safe, sushi guy

[hrj]

Today I’m trying the whole “get up earlier and be creative before work” thing. It worked, although since Monday is LHMP blog day, the writing was all for the intro to the article.

Every time I look in the mirror, I wonder what my hair is going to look like by the next time I get it cut. It was just at the point where I usually cut it at the start of the SIP (shelter in place, though at work that acronym stands for “steam in place” for sanitizing large equipment). I sometimes think about trying a new hair style but you need to start out with more hair to do any truly different from your usual. Maybe this time...

Dayjob was frustrating again today, with stakeholders offering ambiguous and contradictory answers to a request for alignment. Closed one investigation and have about four more ready to drop as soon as one last thing falls in place. Once more it feels like I do nothing but nag other people to do their jobs. Except finishing my deliverables is never their primary job, it’s always something piled on top of their primary job. When they come through, it can be magic. I spent an hour this morning drawing up a list of people who rose above the call of duty for a recent problem that I’m going to recommend for a corporate attaboy.

It was too cold to do yard work this evening, so I settled for watering the new plants, just to tide them over until tomorrow’s promised rain. It’s probably time to run tests on the irrigation system, replace the batteries, and start it going on the spring schedule. I love the programmable irrigation channels that run off the regular hose, but I really, really need to get someone in to do some hard-piping instead. Sometime when all this *waves hands vaguely* is over.

I decided to take a break from home cooking and ordered in from one of my favorite sushi restaurants through GrubHub. Too expensive to do often, but I don’t begrudge supporting the supply chain when I do. I opted for a hands-off porch delivery, but when I went out to pick it up, I called after the delivery guy, “Stay safe!” He asked me to include him in my blessings. May all the gig-working delivery people stay safe and healthy and able to support themselves.

So I broke the Estates requirement for dinner, but breakfast was steel-cut oats with plum puree* and yogurt. Lunch was a roast lamb sandwich made with apple chutney* and some miracle whip that’s been sitting in the door of the fridge for about four years. I’m not sure that it’s actually food--it looked the same as the day it was bought. I broke open another of the Bingley’s teas varieties for my afternoon tea, “Mr. Darcy”. And I'm keeping a bag of dried apple* slices by my desk for nibbling. Somehow in last year's crop I managed the perfect dried apple. Although they only seem normally dried when I bag them up and pop them in the freezer, they must get something of a freeze-dry effect because now they're perfectly crisp and crunchy. (If I keep the bag well sealed, they stay that was for weeks out of the freezer, though they're still good if they go limp.) The current bag is one of the cinnamon-sprinkled variants. I may try even more flavorings next season. A powder douce flavor would be nice.