Fortune

I got a fortune cookie the other day which had the following fortune: "Be open to new opportunities in business".  Yet another sign that I'm going to get laid off.  And of course I'm obviously reading too much into this.

Passing Time

If I need a break from work, my current go-to diversion is timeguessr.com.  A variation on geoguessr, this one involves looking at historical photos and identifying the year and location.  It's interesting and challenging.  And recommended.   

More Trail cam Footage (but not much)

My trail cam did not capture very much over the last 3 weeks.  Lots of squirrel action, some rabbit action, and a few birds.  Disappointing.  I'm sure there is more wildlife out there - I might have to consider repositioning my camera if I continue not to capture the more interesting stuff (deer, coyote, raccoon, bobcat, possum, etc).  At least I hope we still have that wildlife - not particularly happy to find out today that my landlord has got a second cat.

Receipt

It's a bit disturbing when you do some grocery shopping, and you wonder why the receipt is so long when you've only bought a few items.  So you check the receipt, and it includes a number of recall notices.  These recall notices list a number of products that may be contaminated with LISTERIA MONOCYTOGENES (capitalized in the receipt for emphasis).  And if eaten, "could result in severe illness to those individuals who may consume this product".  And what is particularly disturbing is that it is very plausible that you have bought at least one of these products, and have already consumed it.  So it is absolutely stupid and pointless to state that you can return the product for a refund.  How about refunding me for the severe illness?  Which, admittedly, I have seemingly been very lucky to avoid.   

Haircut

I got my hair cut yesterday, and I'm not particularly happy with how it turned out.  I went to the barbers I normally go to - and I think this might be the last time.  The Vietnamese woman who cut my hair seemed to be in a hurry (even though there was nobody else waiting for a haircut) and have no attention to detail, and my hair just doesn't look right now. Or maybe I'm just imagining things.  I suspect it is as much the fault of my hairdresser's skills as it is my increasingly thinning hair.  And perhaps I need to get some proper advice on a hairstyle that might suit me now.  I'm thinking I should just go very short like I used to i.e. a buzz cut instead of the crew cut I think I've currently got.   

Aurora Bust

Was outside late last night in the hope of seeing the aurora - the forecast for aurora activity was high, and the skies were relatively cloudless.  Did I see anything?  Did I heck.  This was clearly nowhere near as good as it was that time earlier in the year.  Or perhaps I just happened to miss the peak time for activity.  I think it was the kind of event where you really needed to go somewhere with a much clearer view to the north.  Outside my house is not going to cut it, where the view is hindered by trees.  I did see some photos and videos of the lights taken in various locations in Washington (mainly to the north) - so perhaps I just needed to be more patient.  The aurora was also visible in the UK - and since I think all parts of the UK are further north than Seattle, the views were probably much better.     

Sunset

I made the most of the nice weather and went for a stroll around Lake Union whilst waiting for the evening rush hour to die down, so I could drive home from the office without being stuck in traffic for too long.  For a Thursday - by far the worst day of the week for traffic - it wasn't too bad today.  But I think I know the reason.  The Seattle Seahawks happened to be playing a Thursday night game (which they lost) - so I suspect more people than normal stayed at home or left early today.  Weirdly, there were also problems with accessing our garage so not many people were in the office today (thankfully including my annoying cube neighbo(u)r) - apparently the gate broke this morning, so people were either stuck and not able to get out, or not able to get in and had to find on-street parking nearby (either not easy or not cheap).  Fortunately I wasn't impacted, but that could easily have made what turned into a stressful day even worse.