Week of 20260607 - Visit from Drew; Planning for DC; Doctor for Lipoma; Zumba in a Dress; 17th Amendment Talk; Charting Real and Predicted Activity Together; Applying Hacksaw to Rebar
= Sunday, Drew, Michelle's son, was visiting Montgomery and came to church with us even though he hadn't gotten off the bus until 0230 this morning. He and I had a good visit while we traveled and Steph got dressed. We think highly of him.
= Thoughts from testimonies: Our leaders are inspired, even when they aren't sure about their decisions. God knows each of us more thoroughly than you might think. How do I "remove my sandals" as Moses did to make *myself* a holy place? We receive blessings as we invite others to the restored gospel, study the scriptures, and attend church. You don’t have to create some grandiose invention to matter; you already matter to God.
= After dropping off Drew, we selected dates to go to the Washington DC area to visit with Mary-Lorraine, our oldest daughter, and her husband, Michael, during their special visit from Japan to relatives in that area. We'll see them near the end of their stay and then celebrate our wedding anniversary by sightseeing in DC.
= Monday after work, Steph saw a doctor who prescribed medicine for nerve pain and provided a referral to a doctor who can deal with the lipoma in her arm. After shopping a bit, we went to Zumba in the clothes we wore to work: a dress in Steph's case! Afterward, we picked up medication and finished shopping by dinnertime.
= Tuesday when Steph struggled to wake up, I told her I planned to talk at Toastmasters, and she rallied. I gave an impromptu speech on the loss of Senatorial accountability caused when the 17th amendment stopped the election of U.S. Senators by State legislatures (which had provided strong ties to State interests) and instead caused them to be elected by the entire State at large. Now that U.S. Senators have to appeal to the entire State, they are effectively accountable to no one except the donors whose help they need to campaign effectively. Federal overreach is a byproduct of appealing to the masses.
= Steph has agreed to be the next President of our Toastmasters Club (July-June); today I agreed to be Sergeant-At-Arms [the master host]. We will likely be elected in a couple of weeks.
= Once we got home, I offered a ride to Dan Gordon, and we talked while eating augmented snow cones from Fancy Nancy's and listening to jazz, some of which featured lyrics written by his mother, Isabel Molina.
= Wednesday, although Steph had been awake in the studio all night, she worked at work; I explored prediction models. At home, Steph was asleep by 4 and essentially stayed that way all night except for medication. I spent most of the evening tussling with a work puzzle on my own time. Afraid of waking Steph, who was sprawled across the bed, I spent the night on a recliner.
= Thursday, Steph awoke before noon but stayed in bed. At Michelle's request, I ordered, picked up, and delivered special sandals (for water and land use) to Drew; he'll use them at a trek sponsored by his Stake for 14-and-up.
= I spent most of the day investing personal time on that work puzzle and had a workable approach to predict future activity and assess the accuracy of that approach against past activity. Excel's FILTER() command made consolidating data from many rows into fewer rows easier and also allowed graph lines to stop when they hit "zero" instead of dropping to zero: especially useful for real values that are on the same chart as predictions that continue across the graph for additional weeks.
= Friday, during the AI meeting, Steph described arguing with an automated persona; we joked that we're going to need an AI Therapist on the staff. I described how I had been using formulas suggested by AI to which I had to add my own instrumentation to show the difference between older real values and what would have been their predicted values.
= For Date Night, we drove to Prattville and saw “Masters of the Universe", primarily He-Man, followed by dinner at Teriyaki Madness, a restaurant with good food and service even though it was attached to a gas station quick stop; we would eat there again. Home, we watched "Tombstone", in part so I could hear this week's word of the day being delivered by Doc Holliday: "Reckoning". Two episodes of "The Closer" followed, and we went to bed at about midnight.
= Saturday afternoon, I bought fresh hacksaw blades and cut rebar in half to anchor our raised, self-watering planters (and to anchor our aluminum pipes that we had stored for use as trellises). I anchored an empty planter. Together, Steph and I anchored a planter that was already filled with dirt and plants (heavy). Rain interrupted the garden work after I cut some more rebar. I fed the journal and blog until evening. Past 10, Steph went to the studio to record. I went to bed at almost midnight.
We have seen that its residents band together to help each other, even now.
Sundays, 9 AM
(I might have to try that.)
[That led to Steph and me watching "Tombstone" on date night, in part to hear that word in context.]
Beau Lore, in the background, was the Toastmaster of the Day (master of ceremonies).
Of course, they could just buy a minivan :)
(chairs, tables, and the rest room are to the right, not shown)
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