#397 - Campfire!

Another wonderful morning of sleeping in. I was awakened around nine thirty because my Teams app was still binging as people from work started their day. I could mute the feed, but as long as I don’t have to get out of bed I don’t care when I wake up.

Robyn was already downstairs at her computer, and her side of the bed was cold. I grabbed my iPad again and watched a couple of YouTube videos before putting on another episode of Lupin, the French master thief.

I was getting a bit peckish, so I headed downstairs and made a cortado with some toast and pepper jelly once again. I still had to replace the jar of jelly I was dipping into. I didn’t want to eat toast in bed, so I brought my iPad down to the kitchen table and watched it there. The sun was up and shining and I faced out looking through the windows. It was a lovely start to the day.

After eating and finishing the episode, I moved into the great room and continued to read the article by Algis Budrys. Then I started the new course called Location, location, location. It was a bit thin on information, but the first week of their classes are usually softballs to get things going. I made notes in my app in iPad and was upset to see they changed the way it worked. Some of the changes were good, but others seemed less premium.

None-the-less, I was able to make in the way I used to…. sort of.

The videos lasted about an hour and by the time they were done it was nearly twelve thirty. I whisked Robyn away from her computer and we hiked the trails around the property. There is a bit more elevation than we are used to and I was feeling it in my legs and cardio. It felt good to know we were getting in some good exercise. The weather was cool and the sun was still shining, which made for a nice walk. We end the walk down at the dock and walk to the end of it. Then it was time to walk back up the hill to the house.

The kiddo had most of the fixings for tacos ready to go, but he didn’t feel comfortable cooking the ground beef. Robyn did that while I read some more of the article. I ate two tacos which was one more than I should have.

I headed out to the local Walmart after lunch by myself to pick up a few items. Robyn wanted a regular toaster, and the kiddo wanted some sandwich meats and more chocolate. I found the pepper jelly and bought two jars, one for me and one for my sister-in-law. I got a splash guard for the big pots. I planned to cook some Chicken Ruby this week, and it can get a little messy.

I returned and did a bit more reading before heading upstairs and watching some more Lupin. I may have snoozed a little as well.

My friend John sent me his new song, but we had trouble getting it to play. Turned out that the iPhone was converting his mp3 to m4a files and they wouldn’t play on the iPhone. We both updated our IOS to the newest version and the problem seemed to have been fixed by the developers. I was able to listen to his latest tune, which was a comedic toe tapping song about a guitarists need for more than one guitar. I enjoyed the solos and the overall groove as well as his bass guitar in this song. And of course, the lyrics were right on point.

I walked out and down to the dock at sunset. Laying down on the dock, I stretched my back and just rested a bit. I closed my eyes and just listened. I stared up at the bluest sky and let my mind wander as it wanted. It felt amazing and incredibly restful to just lay there. My back certainly felt better afterwards, and I took a few minutes to stretch it by turning left and then right until my spine cracked in the loveliest ways.

I walked back up the leaf covered trail with a bit more spring in my step.

I stopped by the garage to see if the electric leaf blower was there, but it looks like my father-in-law took it home with him. There was a gas-powered leaf blower in the garage, but I didn’t want to start messing around with that and I didn’t know if there was any fuel for it around either. We’ll just have to live with all the leaves for the time being.

Robyn made us sandwiches for dinner and we ate them in the great room while we watched Animals on Netflix. It’s the new movie directed by Ben Affleck and produced by his studio. It tells the tale of a mayoral candidate whose son is kidnapped. The whole movie felt a bit like déjà vu to me. I’d seen this premise before somewhere, but I couldn’t put my finger on where I’d seen it.

We were expecting Robyn’s friend, Alison, to arrive sometime around eight. Me and the kiddo went round the rear of the cottage where a fire pit was set up and we started a campfire. Robyn has some things to attend to and eventually Alison arrived and joined us around the fire.

The kiddo made Alison a pisco sour and I had the rest of my blackberry wine. The stars were out and the fire was mesmerizing. It was cool outside and the fire felt wonderful and it was relaxing to just stare into the flames and let the world go bye.

Eventually, everyone went for a walk down to the dock and I was left to tend to the fire. I say for a few hours and just enjoyed the peace and quiet of the evening. At one point there was a toad moving through the leaves and he made quiet the racket. Definitely no way to be stealthy this time of year.

I made my way into the kitchen to fill up a pot with water to douse the embers. I didn’t want to take the chance of starting a wildfire with all those dry leaves on the ground. The last thing I need in my life is being the one responsible for burning down the cottage.

The coals were a bright yellow at the bottom, and the light moves along their lengths in the most interesting ways. They are just as mesmerizing as the flames in my opinion. The water from the pot caused the embers to his and a plume of steam shot up carrying some of the fine embers, some of which landed on my bald head. I could feel them burning me and quicky wiped them off with a hand. I poured the rest of the water more carefully and then went back for a second pot. There were still some glowing coals, and I wanted them out before I went back inside.

Robyn and Alison were in the great room watching a movie that had an octopus in it. It had Sally Fields in it, and I think it was called Remarkably Bright Creatures. I kind of listened to it while I wrote on my laptop.

I did love that the octopus was voiced by Alfred Molina. He has one of those great voices that is perfect for this kind of thing. I loved him in The Burroughs as well as Three Pines.

The smell of the campfire is still baked into me and all my clothes. I can smell it on my hands even after washing my hands a few times.

We plan to go out for dinner tomorrow night to the seafood restaurant on the pier called Henry’s. We wanted to go the last few times we were here, but we were to busy with family stuff and doing maintenance and repairs on the cottage. This week we are spending up here is purely for our entertainment. No work is expected from us and that feels amazing as I really needed this down time.

I’m looking forward to another evening where I don’t have to cook dinner for everyone as well.

I also want to spend more time writing tomorrow during the day as opposed t waiting until the evening to get it done. In my experience, I get a lot done when I do a little at a time, instead of truing to cram it into one long writing session that is physically and mentally taxing.

I was sad to hear in the news that we lost Walter Koenig of Star Trek fame. His role as Checkov was iconic and he brought a lot of fun to the role. I suppose we will be losing more of the people that became icons in the fifties and the sixties. Time waits for no one.

My writing teacher posted some more updates on the Anthropic case and mentioned the burn rate of their cash. It was something along the lines of it took them 80 billion dollars to make sixteen billion for the first half of the year. And that they had about 130 billion in cash reserves. That means they can last about eight months. But what was also interesting is that they have filed with the SEC to do an IPO of their stock. Which, if you look at the money they are bleeding, it’s no surprise they are looking for a large cash influx.

I love to check in with my writing teacher’s blog because he often has his ear to the ground on these new developments within the writing community. And he has little patience for bullshit, and I like that in a person.

There is a very real possibility that some of these AI companies are going to implode because they are just burning through money at a massive rate. An IPO might save them. At least for a while anyway.

And if their IPO does succeed, it will suck up a lot of the available capital for all the other stocks. It does seem like there is a bubble about to burst in the AI field, but there are so many people that want to make this work that I wonder if it will be allowed to fail. America is terrified that a country like China will keep investing in AI and gain some kind of advantage over them. And if that’s true, AI will get all the money it needs to burn through.

As an artist and aspirant writer, my hope is for the AI bubble to burst. As someone who would like to live a long and healthy life, I want all the benefits AI could bring to the medical space and pharmaceuticals.

Seems unlikely we can have one without the other.

It’s amazing how much louder everything is here at the cottage with all the leaves falling to the ground. The train is much noisier than I remember and more bass. Even the highway is more noticeable than it was in the summer. Just goes to show you what all those leaves were doing for the noise pollution.

It’s hard to believe that it is already halfway through the week. Time is just flying by here at the cottage. I came to the conclusion while we were hiking through the woods that my next vacation needed to be at least two weeks long. I spend the first week just getting back to normal and then I need a second week to feel rejuvenated. One week off feels like a Band-Aid in place of surgery.

Luckily, I have two weeks off at Christmas from work. One of the smart things the studio ever did was shut everything down at the holidays. It was mainly done so the owners could get a break, but none of us regular employees minded that one bit. It’s the best time of year for me to just relax. That is if there aren’t too many parties to attend and if we can skip the multiple family Christmas dinners. With my side of the family headed to Mexico for Christmas and the new year, we will have an earlier Christmas mid-December. And then the real thing here at the cottage with Robyn’s side this year. Still two Christmas dinners, but at least they will be spaced out by a week.

My wife laughs at me like I am Ebeneezer Scrooge. Bah Humbug! Too many parties and get togethers for my taste. I just want to stay at home and recover so I have the energy I need to return to work. And I’ll need all the energy I can muster in 2027!

Tired.

Going to bed.

Until Tomorrow.