It’s another Friday. The week’s not been awful; just the usual meetings, plus my boss is off taking a class for the month of June (I’m on the docket to take it in August; neither of us were looking forward to it), so I’ve got a few less distractions than usual. That said, office gossip about the future of this organization is running rampant, but I’m doing the right things according to the right people, so I’m not too worried; just taking in the info and banking it for the future.

Outside of the office, I’ve been biking…a lot. Did twenty miles yesterday, because it was gorgeous, and I’m occasionally a glutton for punishment. I hurt afterwards (still do), but it’s a good hurt, and a good reminder than I’m not in my twenties anymore (even if I’m in better shape now), and I made the right call by listening to my aching behind and not doing twenty-five. I’ll be taking tonight off (see below), but I’ve got sixty miles down so far this week, and will probably knock out another twenty or so this weekend assuming the rain holds off.

Otherwise, I totally didn’t fix my bass input jack yet, mostly because I’ve been biking, and haven’t been in the right frame of mind to do it – the soldering iron intimidates me, even if I’m not terribly bad with it. When I get around to it (ideally this weekend sometime), I’ll do a beautiful job and feel like a superhero for the next couple of hours, but I need to work up to it.

I’ve also been watching some upleasant drama/fallout from the con I attended as a musical guest this past weekend, which thankfully didn’t touch or intrude on my experience at all, though some of the stuff I’m hearing (I’m not going to link to it; if you care, it’s out there) does concern me. I expect we’ll get some more news in the coming days. The politics of fandom is just as weird as the larger American community, perhaps weirder because so many of the fans are less-than-competent at social discourse under the best of circumstances.

As for the coming weekend, the eldest and I are taking a father-daughter road trip out west to Jefferson’s Poplar Forest to catch a performance of Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor’s Lost that a few of her friends from school are involved in this evening, and I’ve got a friend’s birthday celebration Saturday evening I’m hoping to make an appearance at. Otherwise, I gotta fix the bass and ride the bike, as previously described, and hopefully watch a bit more of that Bobby Kennedy doc on Netflix I’ve been trying to keep pace with.

Anyway…tunes. Nice, different than usual variety this week!

1. “The Beauty of Dead Cities” – Borknagar
2. “Bye Bye Beautiful” – Nightwish
3. “Shine” – Mondo Cosmo
4. “Here If You Want (Pale Blue)” – MOSSS
5. “Panama” – Van Halen
6. “This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)” – Talking Heads
7. “Just Like Heaven” – The Cure
8. “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) – Eurythmics
9. “Midvinterblot” – Unleashed
10. “Never Be The Same” – Surf Rock is Dead
11. “Dammerung” – Equilibrium
12. “Dear Life” -Beck

Oh, and having read the news this week about Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain, and hearing a story on NPR this morning about dramatically increasing suicide rates in this country…as a person who has been touched by this very personally, if you’re having thoughts in that direction, know that there are people who love you, and please, please get some help – one option is the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.