Getting my roof replaced tomorrow.

Dating: I've been talking with this girl I met at the YMCA. We do the same class every week. We text about once a day, sometimes less. She seems really busy, and when we talk I feel like she's really engaged in getting to know me better. She brought up dating without talking about us dating. Just, she seems open to it on however long of a timeline it might take.

I might find someone on an app that would reply within an hour and be up for dinner this weekend, but I'm far and away more excited about the girl from the Y. While I'd love to talk and meet up more often, I have my life and the sense I get is she has hers. I want to integrate a partner into my life and have a huge amount of respect for someone else looking to do the same.

So yeah, good luck with whatever you decide to do. I'm 42 and haven't found the right person. If it's her, if it takes another two months to do something together again and two more to have a proper first date, that time is an insignificant blip.

I gave my boss my resignation two and a half weeks ago, and he's yet to reassign any of my projects. This is a perfect example of his leadership.

I had only one small meeting today so I took the day off and did nothing. I tried going out for lunch but the place didn't have immediate seating, so I went home. I thought about swimming or biking, but it was raining most of the day. I could have done either inside, but in the end the full day of rest was probably good for me.

I did make homemade pizza today for the first time in months which was delicious. I even included a chopped up habanero pepper I grew myself.

My pepper plants seem to be doing pretty well with several peppers almost ripe. My Carolina reaper plant is doing well but no flowers yet. From what I read that's normal, and my habanero plants are all years old so they could flower pretty quickly in the sun. I think my oldest pepper plant is from 2018, and I moved it over to a bigger pot last week. I'll probably need to repot the others, too, but the one was starting to look yellow and was probably getting constrained in the pot. It's looking greener today.

I was dating someone for about two months, and it ended about two weeks ago. She pointed me at attachment styles (before we split up), and the quiz I took came back that I'm avoidant while she's anxious. I don't know if this is pseudo science, but reading more on it, it seems accurate. Basically she wanted a baseline of being together while I wanted a baseline of independence. Or a little more harshly, I felt smothered while she felt I was uncommitted.

I'm disappointed it didn't work out, but I'm not disappointed it ended because it wasn't going to work out.

This Saturday is my next triathlon in a series of seven, and it's my first official Olympic distance. I did a couple this distance on my own last summer. The bike course is really hilly and really hard for me. I rode the course last weekend, and my watch recorded 2200' of elevation in 26 miles. In comparison the last tri I did had a 16 mile bike and 450' of gain.

The fastest will be finishing in close to 2 hours, and I'm targeting a goal of 3:15. 33 minutes in the water, 1:45 on the bike, 57 minutes for the run and... ok goal of 3:20 because I'll need a couple minutes for transitions. I will probably finish in the last 10%.

Two second hand anecdotes:

1. There was opposition to a solar plant here by non-participating land owners. There was some speculation they opposed it because the farms had been struggling and those opposing had hoped to buy up the land cheap.

2. I've heard offers to farmers are more than they can make farming but with zero time and zero equipment from the farmers. Imagine a 10% raise but you never have to buy fuel or sit in a tractor for 14 hours a day during planting or harvesting or buy the tractor at all.

And bonus wind farm anecdote: a plant was being built in a very scenic but very rural area. "Very rural" is another way of saying "few opportunities for income" while "very scenic" means "wealthy out-of-state people have summer homes here." The anecdote I received was that the locals were all for the wind plant. "You're going to pay me $500 a month for a small piece of my land, and I can still farm the rest? Where do I sign?" The non-locals were opposed. They didn't need any money; they just wanted their little rural lake house.

I think the last girl I was seeing broke things off because I haven't had a long term, live-in relationship.

Also maybe because we had different views on marijuana. Me: "I have nothing against it but work would VERY much frown on it." Her: "I think I'd just quit. I used to smoke every night and only quit realizing it was a rut." Might be good to screen pot use, too. I think among late 30s/early 40s there can be some polar opposite opinions.

Good luck on your dates! The girl I'm seeing now called not living with a partner a yellow flag, not a red flag, and we've talked about exes and relationships more since with all going well.

I got my second vaccine shot today.

My date on Sunday went well, I think. We're talking about dinner this weekend. I should probably propose some plan soon. I suggested dinner, she suggested take out and board games.

I don't feel like signing up for the report, but the summary is right that coal capacity factors have been declining. I've heard the term "death spiral," and I think it applies here. Coal is most economic at higher capacity factors and with multiple units at a single site. For example, a 2x500 MW plant might have been built assuming 80% capacity factors. Declining economics means it's dispatched less. Retiring one unit might raise a remaining unit's usage, but now you have maybe a third less staff but half as much income. This then kills the economics of the remaining unit.

What the summary doesn't address is why they think coal's experience will apply to nuclear and especially to hydro. Existing nuclear has a lot of cost to remain running, but it's all fixed cost. Nuclear is expensive to run, though (compared to wind and solar).

Hydro has lower fixed costs and zero fuel costs. I can't picture a scenario where new wind and solar is cheaper than existing hydro (unless it's substantially subsidized which it might be).

New wind and solar tend to hurt their own economics because if it's windy at one site, it's probably windy at all sites in a pretty large geographic area. Solar obviously has the same issue, including weather like clouds. Any solution like batteries or more transmission hurt the economics.

Gas has risk, though, I agree with that. Cheap gas is contingent on fracking staying economic. Lower oil production could drive higher cost for gas and push its usage lower.

I'm about a quarter of the way into Stranger In A Strange Land. I've read it before and didn't remember much about it other than the basic details. I'm not really enjoying it much.

Bravey by Alexi Pappas comes out tomorrow, and I've ordered it. I'm looking forward to reading it and hope I can learn some things from her.

It took a week and a half for my ski boots to arrive, but I got them last Thursday. I've been able to get out skiing three times since then and feel more confident each time.

I'm skiing classic cross country and got some narrow metal edged touring skis. The metal edge really adds a lot of stability, I think.

It's nice having something new to do.

My retirement dream is to have a small rural house. What I picture is something that could be called a cabin but is definitely four seasons. It's five minutes outside a small town and 45 minutes to the edge of a bigger city and 60 minutes downtown. I'm basically describing living outside Lodi, Wisconsin. Bonus points if it's west of town and that much closer to Devil's Lake State Park.

Aside: one of my phone's recommendations after "Devil's" is "lettuce." I'm certain I've never typed that.

I've been doing a lot of purging of stuff at home. Some things were trash, some donated, and a couple giveaways on Craigslist. I still have some vacuum tubes to offload and need to call a local guy back about them. He owns a HiFi shop and is into old tubes. I'm keeping the ones that fit my amps but he can have the rest.

My spare bedroom is almost usable again, with most of my hiking stuff now making its way into the closet.

I found my old PlayStation 2 which I never used much and don't have a way of hooking up anymore. It feels weird to donate it, but it's sat in a shoebox for years. Better for the humane society thrift shop to get $10 for it and for someone to enjoy it than for me to hold onto it.

This started because I bought a new bike trainer and needed space to set it up. So now I'm one of those dorks on Zwift. Hills and the overall experience on Zwift are way better than any other indoor trainer I've used, but you still can't really coast.

A coworker is juggling kids at home while working from home. He sounds really frustrated, saying if daycare is closed he might as well quit work. I'm not sure what his wife does, but it sounds like she has to be out of the house. So if daycare is closed, he's with the kids full time. I think his kids are like 2 and 4 years old.

My cats are asleep near me. One is on the chair next to me and the other is on a chair under the table behind me. They distract me a bit in the morning, especially the younger one who wants me to play with him and his toy such, but it's no worse than a coworker in the office talking about something I don't care about. I like working from home.

I would have died if not for the help of complete strangers

Remember the search and rescue folks were strangers, too. I read about a winter rescue two years ago where S&R (both rangers and trained volunteers) had to bring a hiker out about 16 miles, including at least one full mile of breaking trail down a mountain. It took something like 40 hours. Your experience of a short distance in good weather puts in context how hard rescue is.

Question: what would you do differently the next time, other than not jump off the boulder?

Remember, it isn't just dying earlier, it's also the lower quality of life at the end.

I passed fifteen years at my current company.

I also applied for two jobs at a different company out of state, both of which I'm very qualified for. One specifically wants someone senior, and since it's a niche job I expect my experience stands out.

The idea of moving to a new area is overwhelming, and in my personal life I feel like a lot of great right now. I have running friends, and I've been swimming a lot with my pool routine and starting to get comfortable with lake swimming. I'd start all that over in a new city. But work is no better. I can't see staying here. I have an HR screening call today.

My mom has this idea that she's supposed to give her kids money at Christmas. Her dad did it. I suppose that's where she got the idea from. Her dad wasn't wealthy but was careful with his money. He shared his surplus with his kids, all of whom have kids (and corresponding bills) of their own.

My parents also are not wealthy but are not at all secure. I don't have kids. I don't know how to tell her while the $150 she gives me is no small sum, at the same time it has little impact on my life. I save money to buy a car or make a house down payment, and anything else is just budgeting. I've spent $150 on baggage fees alone on a single trip.

She should be keeping that money herself because it's a lot of money in her budget and, if she wants to do something for me, donate $20 to an animal shelter I adopted cats from. Or if she wants to give it away, give it to my sister who has kids and a lower household income than me.

I don't know how to explain this without sounding really ungrateful and arrogant.

The pool was really busy this morning. I think Thursday morning masters swimmers were there because of Thanksgiving. There must have been ten or twelve people in the six lane pool. I don't think I've seen more than four before at 6 AM.

I swam 1300 yards total. I take a 30 second break every 100 to 200 yards. I'm getting better. I'll try to bump up to 300 yards continuous soon.

The VP of my department just sent an email that his wife has a terminal cancer diagnosis. I've only met her once, but I've known him for ten years through two different departments. He's a wonderful person and a leader I respect both professionally and personally. He's a life long swimmer and has given me tips and things to practice. He's sought me out to ask how I'm doing and sketch out another exercise. While we're a somewhat small company (about 600 employees, I think), that's so far above and beyond what someone four management levels above me would be expected to do. He deserves a happy life.

Thank you for voting.

I don't think I've ever played Trivial Pursuit, but if I do you can bet I won't be taking about it on the internet.

I've started swimming. It's a lot of work and I'm not very good at it, but I'm committed to being able to do a sprint triathlon. Most of those have a 400 meter swim. I can swim 400 meters, eventually, by stopping every lap. I'm trying to slow down, and that's helping. I think I'm wasting a lot of energy.

I'm trying to figure out what to do about pools. The nicest pools are also the cheapest but are also the least available: local high school pools have some time they're open to the public. A local gym has a 24/7 pool. Membership is expensive and the pool isn't as nice. But 24/7 is great.

If he does, what do we do? I was one person in the 100,000 people marches when Scott Walker busted the teacher unions. It's eight blocks around the Capitol, three traffic lanes and wide sidewalks on each side. The biggest one wasn't so much a march as it was standing still as the crowd was so large it prevented any meaningful movement.

The unions were still busted.

There was a time when I thought I wanted to live in a big city. That time has passed. I can't imagine anything that would draw me away from my mid-tier city. Among hobbies I have, the only thing a major city would provide is high likelihood of major touring bands playing there. Anything else, no.

Last week I tripped while running and scraped up my knee. I ran all winter and never once fell on ice, and then at the tail end of winter on one of the last dark runs before daylight saving time changed, I trip and slide along the sidewalk.

I'm fine, other than some road rash. I can see the direction I slid in the scab. The front of my knee hit first, then I rolled into my side, leaving a diagonal scrape. I'm glad it was cold. My glove ripped, but my hand is fine. No upper body injuries through two layers. The knee road rash was through tights; it'd probably be up my thigh if I'd been in shorts. The tights survived! I love these tights.

pay attention kidz, grades are nice'an all but they sure ain't the beallendall.

Know what else isn't the beallendall? A good paying job that you're capable at with a nice work environment that isn't something you like. I'm speaking on behalf of some people I know. Both told me it wasn't what they wanted to do. Both are very capable. Both have impressive educations. Both do decent work. Neither do great work. There's no passion, no desire to understand the work and take it further. They only do what they're told because they have no interest in thinking about it deeper.

And then I know people with 2.something GPAs from modest schools that are great because they love the work.

I hate customs so much. I used to travel a lot to see bands. Canada usually didn't give me to much grief to get in, even if it was for 16 hours, but my own damn country acts like I'm suspicious because my vacations to somewhat distant places only last a day. Yes I'm from Wisconsin. Yes I was there this morning. Yes I realize it's 2 AM at Niagara Falls. I don't know how to open the trunk. It's a rental. Yes I was in Toronto just to see a band. No, not working for them, just a fan. No I don't know them. Sure, if it makes you feel better, I'm a pretty big fan.

Ugh.

The few blocks of Montreal I've seen are cool.

We have this monstrosity near me. Highway N is north-south. Highway B is east-west but uses Highway N for about a mile, so for that stretch the highway is both B and N. Highway BN intersects with Highway B about a mile from Highway N and then parallels Highway N.

I never realized how dumb it was until someone asked me for directions. They were so lost. I think they were on Highway B, and their printed directions said to turn on Highway B/Highway N. So they turned on Highway BN. It makes sense but was totally wrong. I hope I got them back on course.

I'm completely convinced existing AI could replace my job with perfect satisfaction. The only reason it hasn't is the cost of the custom software is more expensive than the salaries of a few niche employees.

I would bet that twenty five years from now, there will be half as many engineers doing what I do. They'll mostly be baby sitting the automation and interpreting results for other humans that have an interest. Twenty five years after that, both the engineers and the people who wanted to hear the results from a human and not a computer will be gone.

And it will be the money that drives each change.