For the last couple of months, our program management center leadership team has been working on establishing more codified processes to get requirements properly managed, documented, and satisfied. Before we started this, there frankly wasn’t much of a process, which kind of pisses off auditors when they come in to look at things.

So, this week we’re starting to take the process out to the field, and it’s becoming tedious. Lots of it is centered around a particular law and some industry standard classification systems, and while those points are pretty clearly documented and easy to explain, it’s a real pain in my ass dragging these set-in-their-ways folks kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Lots of saying the same thing over and over in slightly different contexts and totally having the information not penetrate their thinking.

It’ll get done, but it’s honestly not going well; I’m still deciding whether the deficiency is on the part of the target or the deliverer, but landing on the latter; damned Dunning-Kreuger.

Otherwise, since the really nice (apart from the vulpine saboteur) mountain bike adventure, I’ve had a couple of head-clearing outdoor adventures on foot, which have helped me retain some sanity after disengaging from the daily vocation.

I also got out and voted early at the courthouse, because I’m booked for a dental procedure on election day and have no idea how I’ll be feeling. Better to get it done now. You should too.

Looking to the weekend, Saturday we’re heading out to Williamsburg with some friends to catch our old Marscon compatriots Griff’s Room Band at The Virginia Beer Company for their “reunion” tour. These guys are excellent players and we’re hoping it’ll spark some pleasant hops-and-malt infused memories.

I changed up the playlist a bit this week; instead of just grabbing Discover Weekly, I had the algorithm dieties build a playlist from that first song from Charlottesville VA singer/songwriter Rob Cheatham, that I heard on WNRN yesterday afternoon on the way back from the park, where it just kind of grabbed me as an example of a damned near perfect storm of pop song (reminds me of some stuff I used to hear in central PA bars in the ’90s). The rest follows from there, and kind of keeps that pop/rock alchemy going. It’s a little repetitive, but the revisits (particularly #8’s whole deal and the simple-but-awesome bass on #11), as the kids say, “slap” and are “total bangers”:

1. “Love You Forever” – Rob Cheatham and Co.
2. “Records” – Lily Hiatt
3. “Let A Little Light In” – Parker Millsap
4. “Aaron Lee Tasjan” – Til The Town Goes Dark
5. “Party Right Here” – Ron Brody
6. “I Know You’re Gonna Break My Heart” – Rob Cheatham
7. “New Age” – Cut Throat Finches
8. “The Night David Bowie Died” – Lily Hiatt
9. “Baby Let’s Go” – Fruition
10. “Sipsey” – Will Stewart
11. “Wake Up” – Chastity Brown
12. “Red Silo” – H.C. McEntire
13. “Long Way Down” – Becca Mancari

So, a fox tried to kill me yesterday.

After work, I decided to take advantage of the beautiful day while we still have them, and hauled my mountain bike over to Pocahontas State Park to ride the many very cool single-track trails through the woods.

After running a few of the shorter, easy trails to shake the dust off (it’s been a month or two since I was last there), I tried one of the more complex ones I’d not run before (Lost Spring, for those keeping track). It was a nice run, fast, downhill, and right at the edge of my skill level and/or tires, though about halfway through, a furry blur of red darted out from burrow under a dead tree stump and crossed the trail less than ten feet in front of me.

I hit the brakes right in a section of loose dirt, and felt control slipping; toward a small tree on my left, which I caught with my arm to further slow me down, though the bike kept going for another five feet or so before toppling over.

The fox didn’t even stop to check on me. Jerk.

I was undamaged, apart from a couple of little nicks on my calf and a small cut on my thumb, and the bike was dirty, but apart from a cracked rear spoke guard, likewise fine. So, I finished the run, ended up getting a little lost on the old CCC roads at the far end of the run (not the first time I’d done so, which I why I keep a copy of the park map on my phone), but found my way back to the mountain bike center, ran a few more trails, and got back to the car shortly before sunset with a little over seventeen miles on my wheels.

It was a nice day, though the fox was still a jerk.

This week, honestly, just kinda happened. I mean, I was there, and did some stuff, but the actual occurrences are just a blur of meetings, hikes, headaches, and ’80s movies.

We did have our first frost of the season this week, and with that a new slate of mold and spore and plant particulate, leading me to take my first sick day in probably three years on Wednesday, as after about 30 minutes of trying, I just couldn’t focus through the gnomes hammering in my head, so I hung it up, went back to bed for a few hours, and spent the rest of the day watching old movies I’ve seen a million times before.

Honestly, I needed the mental health day, and it’s sometimes tough for me to admit that sort of thing.

And that’s really all I have to say about that. As for tunes this week, it’s a weird mix of rhythm & blues, early electronic music, and whatever else. Sure:

1. “Topless Dancers of Corfu” – Dick Hyman
2. “Livin’ for the City” – The Dirtbombs
3. “Mama Told Me Not to Come” – Odetta
4. “One Word” – Brian Eno, John Cale
5. “Motel Room” – Kiss the Tiger
6. “Little Movies” – Aaron Lee Tasjan
7. “PIERCED ARROWS” – Hurray For the Riff Raff
8. “I Don’t Care (Yo No Sé)” – Los Dug Dug’s
9. “Hard Working Man” – Marcus King
10. “Charmer and the Snake” – The Velveteers
11. “Season of the Witch” – Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
12. “Interstellar Overdrive (live)” – Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets
13. “21st Century Schizoid Man” – black midi
14. “Didn’t It Rain” – Sister Rosetta Tharpe

10 CALL ROUTINE “short_week_feels_long.rt”
20 CALL ROUTINE “$random_generic_work_antidote.pgm”; ELEMENT “dull”; “boring”; “slog”
30 CALL ROUTINE “$random_playlist_comment.pgm”; ELEMENT “americana”; “rock”; “flute”; “indie”
40 PRINT
50 END

1. “Timebomb” – Old ’97s
2. “Back and Forth” – Dismemberment Plan
3. “Stuck Between Stations” – The Hold Steady
4. “That Man of Mine” – Joyce Street
5. “Reasons for Waiting” – Jethro Tull
6. “Another Nail In My Heart” – Squeeze
7. “Cat Black” – Mark Bolan
8. “Endless Summer” – Superchunk
9. “Confetti to the Hurricane” – The Deer
10. “Dream in Blue” – Los Lobos
11. “Ripe” – Screaming Females
12. “I Am The Moon” – Tedeschi Trucks Band
13. “Pants Is Overrated” – Lyle Lovett

I could say that I wish the last week was more exciting and eventful, but I really don’t want to . I’ve made steady progress in some important areas, didn’t encounter any serious problems, had a bill or two come in a bit lower than expected, had my bar tab covered the other night by a new friend a couple of stools down, and the new car continues to be a pleasant experience and a good investment.

Yeah, the 15k business words I wrote this week probably won’t get seriously read or considered by anyone, but they check some boxes, and I think the 3k words I wrote for HR in support of my annual assessment look like they’re going to hit the marks I need them to hit to get the kind of evaluation and financial compensation to which I am accustomed once the whole bizarre appraisal process wraps up.

What I can I say, if I learned anything in the course of two decades’ worth education I’ve got under my belt, it’s how to spin bullshit for targeted purposes.

That said, the week’s still felt a bit longer than I’d rather it felt, between the actual work and the other life stuff that’s part of adulting, though by the end of things, the hurricane remnants had moved on, and on Thursday afternoon I had a really pleasant bike ride in sunny, mid-70s temperatures, and I’m kind of looking forward to the same this afternoon once I clear that unfortunately late meeting I’ve got on the Friday calendar (it’s with west coast folks; they’re doing their best with the time zones…).

And, of course it’s a long weekend; Christopher Columbus and his whole age of encounter bullshit can bite me, but I won’t say no to the paid federal holiday (and my Commonwealth has started the transition to Indigenous People’s Day, assuming the current Governor doesn’t trash it this year to satiate the MAGA folks), even if Election day next month would probably be a better choice.

Yes, politics work their way into everything; sometimes you get good news, though, like this step the White House took yesterday, which does a lot of good for a lot of people.

Certainly better news than the daily Herschel Walker update (I cannot understand how the GA Senate race is as close as it is)…

Anyway; tunes and stuff – since I have a three month SiriusXM trial with the new car, I’ve been listening to a lot of Hair Nation, which sounds exactly like my cassette collection from middle/high school (though it’s not worth the $20+/month subscription fee once the trial expires), but this week’s Spotify Discover Weekly brings me right back to the modern indie radio I’m normally rocking via wnrn. It’s cool:

1. “When I Write The Book” – Rockpile
2. “I Hear the Ax Swinging” – Ghost of Vroom
3. “Portal” – Via Mardot
4. “The Getaway” – The Afghan Whigs
5. “Black Bush” – FREEMAN
6. “Ground Zero” – Bam Bam
7. “New Speedway Boogie” – Courtney Barnett
8. “Keep Your Hands To Yourself” – Ghost Light
9. “Back In Ohio” – Lucero
10. “Impossible Weight” – Deep Sea Diver (feat. Sharon Van Etten)
11. “Red Moon” – Big Thief
12. “hold yourself.” – Tune-Yards
13. “take it back” – JAWNY (feat. Beck)
14. “Unnecessary Drama” – Bell and Sebastian

It’s Friday…now; I spent a good bit of Thursday unable to shake the impression that it was, in fact, Friday then. It was not the best feeling.

It’s been another week of a lot of the same sort of OG Herbert Kornfeld life; writing thousands of words few if anyone will read in the service of business, sitting meeting after meeting after meeting, and generally trying to impose order on an organization where such a thing is, in practice, anathema; all along dodging the fun fiscal-year-end whining.

Oh, I also took delivery of a car.

I was as surprised as my sales guy that it arrived when it did; we were both expecting about two weeks from now. But, it rolled off the truck in all it’s 2022 Corolla Hatchback glory on Monday morning, and that afternoon I picked it up.

It continued to be pretty much the most painless automotive transaction I’ve ever had; all told, I think I’ve invested less than three total hours in the dealership reserving and doing the paperwork. I should’ve done this back in May instead of investing in that older car that bricked itself after we only had it a couple of months.

Oh well; let’s not look back.

As for the car itself, I’m very happy with it thus far after about a hundred miles behind the wheel; it drives, handles, and shifts really well, and I’m slowly figuring out all the fancy bells and whistles and safety features all. I’m getting used to the color; it’s a little generic for me, but at least it’s not silver.

That’s really the big news for the week, and it’s frankly enough. Heading into the weekend, we’re not planning much, as Ian’s working his way up the coast and should be arriving later this morning. By the time it gets here, the excitement should largely be over, we’re looking at two or three days and three to six inches of steady rain, which kind of puts damper on the weekend.

But, at least the power should stay on.

As for tunes this week, apart from starting and ending with Dominoes, it’s an interesting mix of indie, jam, and classic rock, with some jazzy stuff tossed in there for color:

1. “Domino” – Shovels & Rope
2. “Black Cadillac” – Mondo Cosmo
3. “At Your Mother’s House” – Rachael & Vilray
4. “Home of the Brave” – The Nails
5. “Wild Child” – The Black Keys
6. “Bloody Well Right” – Supertramp
7. “Little T&A” – The Rolling Stones
8. “Tell Em All to Go to Hell” – Ezra Furman
9. “Call To Arms” – Sturgill Simpson
10. “Dripfield” – Goose
11. “All Your Way” – Morphine
12. “Country John” – Allen Toussaint
13. “Chevrolet Van” – The Nude Party
14. “Bell Bottom Blues” – Derek & The Dominos

Apart from some health maintenance events, it’s been a remarkably dull and humdrum week. And those events? They mostly brought with them some dull and inconvenient but largely unremarkable aches.

The dentist noticed some gum issues a few months back, so I got those evaluated, with all the resultant poking and prodding and x-rays and whatnot, leaving my jaws kind of sore, with the imposing spectre of some further treatment on the horizon. Yeah, it sucked, but the final news could’ve been much worse, and the folks at the specialists’ office were pretty cool.

And yesterday after work I got my annual flu shot and the latest bi-valent COVID booster; both in the same arm, which is now kind of sore, but whatever. Folks I know who’ve gotten this one (Pfizer, btw; I’ve had better luck with theirs overall) have dealt with fewer side effects than the previous ones, which I’m hoping remains the case, though I’ve got a whole lot of nothing on the agenda for the weekend in case I get hit with anything.

…And after the last couple of weekends, and weeks, with the cars and the appointments and the tens of thousands of words written and the multiple test box crashes, I could honestly use that whole lot of nothing.

And yes, since it’s Friday, that means tunes rolled out from the algorithms, and this week’s list comes across as…um…theatrical? Yeah, there’s definitely some cabaret song and dance in there along with the bluegrass emo covers and americana:

1. “L.A. (Looking Alive)” – Madison Cunningham
2. “Hollywood Witches” – Woody and Jeremy
3. “Pain” – The Texas Gentlemen
4. “Barely Alive” – Yola
5. “Why’d Ya Do It” – Sierra Farrell
6. “Head Rush” – Art d’Ecco
7. “Just Like Heaven” – The Infamous Stringduster
8. “Chloë” – Father John Misty
9. “Miles and Miles” – The Heavy Heavy
10. “Half Moon” – Janis Joplin
11. “Anitra’s Basement Tapes” – The Coup
12. “A Postcard to Nina” – Jens Lekman
13. “F**k Me Up” – Pokey LaFarge
14. “Easy to Love” – Sam Evian

As mentioned last week, the kids’ 2008 Scion xB consumed it’s own motor and has become a subcompact, boxy-yet-attractive, towable paperweight in my driveway. Work is underway to obtain some measure of value back in salvage, though it won’t be nearly what we’ve put into it over the last couple of months since we bought it.

Indeed, it sucks.

The plan hatched, also described last week, was to step up the replacement of my 2016 by a couple of years, and just pass mine back to the kids, and I start working the system to find a new car in a land of empty-due-to-supply-chain-issues car lots.

Figuing it’d take a little while to make things happen, I popped by the Toyota dealer I’ve been dealing with for the last decade with the intent to get myself on their radar as someone who’s looking for a new vehicle.

Twenty minutes later I’d put a deposit down to reserve a fresh 2022 Corolla Hatch, currently housed in a container ship making its way across the Pacific, of which I’ll take delivery of in a couple of weeks.

Turns out they’ve got several coming in, and manual transmissions scare your average American, so this one was still not spoken for (though it is now).

The transaction was, to be honest, pretty easy. Given current market conditions, paying MSRP is the best deal anyone’s going to get (rare and desirable models are getting crazy markup right now), so it was simply a matter of walking in and ordering the damned thing.

And the price is basically right, and five grand less than the two year old one-trim-level-up-but-effectively-the-same used version sitting on the lot with 20k miles and road-rashed rims.

Like I said, I don’t want another car payment at the moment, but this solves a problem I wasn’t expecting, I’m in a position to put a huge down payment on it, so it won’t be an unmanageable payment.

Now, I’ll just have to get used to all the new safety features and a big iPad sticking out of the dash…

This is hardly the first time I’m saying it, but it’s honestly been too much week, professionally, personally, mentally, and emotionally.

I sit here on a Friday morning at 7am after clearing the inbox of overnight crises, with slightly over my official forty on the books. I do plan on knocking off a bit early this afternoon for a nice, long, mind-clearing bike ride, though I’ve got a few things to handle first; it’s how I keep making the slighty-larger-than-average bucks.

Career-wise, it’s piles and piles of business cases and process flow diagrams, plus keeping eyes on a test I have scheduled for next week. I’ve written probably thirty-thousand words of business copy myself, and reviewed and commented on twice that from other folks. The most significant thing today was reading a capability need statement paragraph that started and ended with exactly the same sentence. Add “In conclusion” to the final bit, and it would be largely indistinguishable from a third-grader’s persuasive essay.

On the more personal, it’s been trying as well; apart from the greater-than-usual clutter as the rest of the household tackles the latest attempt at Marie Kondo’ing the upstairs (thanks Sif, you motivated them the way I’ve been unable to) and wrapping up a non-covid bug running through the girls, we’re down a car, as the kids’ Scion xB gave up the ghost. Yes, it had a lot of miles, but appeared in all manner of good shape when we bought it four months ago. Now? Blown motor.

It’s nothing anyone actively encouraged, but dammit, that’s more than five grand in purchase and upkeep and tires and such down the tubes – I certainly won’t get a fifth of that back in salvage.

The lesson I’m taking from this? No more private sales for me. The tentative plan is to just accelerate the timeline of replacing my meticulously cared-for 2016 by a couple of years and pass it back to the kids. I was hoping to avoid that car payment for a while, but in the scheme of things, it’s likely more economically feasible and reliable than dropping a few hundred bucks a month into keeping the walking (rolling?) dead on the road.

That’s assuming I can actually find a successor on a lot somewhere, but I’m working on that.

That whole business has really kept me from enjoying the one or two cool things I got to do this week, like having won tickets to the Lake Street Dive show at the raceway on Tuesday. They’re a band whose pop-jazz-Carole King-rock vibe I’ve come to really enjoy, and the show was really quite good, what with talented performers on stage and nobody sitting within five rows of me in the outdoor amphitheater (that’s not my photo above), but I just couldn’t fully get into the headspace, especially since I didn’t partake of the $18 24oz White Claws everyone else in the venue was drinking…

Oh well. This is life. I’ll manage. Next week, though, is the dental examination of some lingering problems, so there’s that fresh hell to deal with.

Anyway – tunes. Kinda neat pop stuff (I’m really digging the vibe on #10), plus a fresh helping of weird (lookin’ at you, #11):

1. “A Little Tune” – Bret McKenzie
2. “Lemon Firebrigade” – Haircut 100
3. “Talkin’ to Myself” – Sarah Shook & The Disarmers
4. “The Headmaster Ritual” – The Smiths
5. “Fem in a Black Leather Jacket” – Pansy Division
6. “Place in the Century” – Adam Ant
7. “Little Green Men” – Steve Vai
8. “Kick It Out” – Heart
9. “Lover, Leaver (Taker, Believer)” – Greta Van Fleet
10. “Brand New Kind of Blue” – Gold Motel
11. “Party All The Time” – Thank You Scientist
12. “Dancin’ Late At Night” – Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers
13. “The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism” – The New Pornographers
14. “Listen to Your Heart.” “No.” – Cheekface
15. “I Can’t Break Away” – Big Pig

In conclusion, This is hardly the first time I’m saying it, but it’s honestly been too much week, professionally, personally, mentally, and emotionally.

One could say it’s been an eventful week and change. Apart from the return of she who was long missing, I spent last weekend rocking DragonCon, where we played some pretty good shows, including Saturday’s, which I’d rank amongst the best we’ve played in years. If you were there, I hope you enjoyed it too.

Apart from the excellent shows, we moved a lot of merchandise, made some new fans, saw some cool stuff, drank some excellent mead, and saw lots of friends, old and new: In particular, after being acquainted online for years, I finally got to hang out with Eric and Jen, The Faithful Sidekicks, an excellent acoustic rock duo, in person, and it was just as awesome as I’d hoped it would be. These are a couple of great people who I just clicked with immediately, and am happy to call friends.

Finding good new friends at this point in one’s life is rough, as many of you know, and it feels good when it happens. If only they didn’t live in freakin’ Oregon! (oh well – I guess I have an excuse to make a trip to the PNW one of these days).

Once I got back, of course, sliding back into the normal mundane world is always somewhat of a challenge. That said, I’ve continued to test negative (thanks, Amber and the filk track for the ubiquitous mask enforcement) since returning, have, as of this morning, finally emptied my work inbox of stuff from my absence, written a couple of pretty okay business cases, solved some minor problems in electronic data interchange, and, upon logging off for the day, kept up my physical fitness regimen; mostly hiking this week, to break in some new shoes and avoid getting stuck eight miles away from my car in a rainstorm on my bike; though I’m likely to ride some this afternoon if the weather holds.

I also have absolutely nothing on the agenda for the coming weekend, which is honestly fine with me; the last little while’s been a lot.

As for tunes out of the little black box, some neat, eclectic stuff, going from late 90s progressive metal to 70s folk to Cheech and Chong to Zappa. I’m diggin’ it:

1. “Black Flag” – King’s X
2. “Lightning Strikes” – Klau Nomi
3. “Kool Thing” – Sonic Youth
4. “Miles from Nowhere” – Cat Stevens
5. “Cheap Sunglasses” – The Sword
6. “I’m Just an Old Chunk of Coal (But I’m Going to Be a Diamond Someday)” – Billy Joe Shaver
7. “Stray Cat Strut” – Stray Cats
8. “Ratfinks, Suicide Tanks and Cannibal Girls” – White Zombie
9. “Splendid Isolation” – Warren Zevon
10. “Earache My Eye” – Alice Bowie
11. “Could This Be Magic?” – Van Halen
12. “Ruby” – Silver Apples
13. “Bright Future in Sales” – Fountains of Wayne
14. “Andy” – Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention