the silence of the vendors

— पञ्चसहस्राणि पञ्चशतानि पञ्चनवति च — What a nuts morning I had at work today. Multiple items needing immediate batching to stores, contract revisions needed from multiple brokers, errors on a new item form from a vendor, at least two among all these people repeatedly and inexplicably misunderstanding what I emailed them with the same clarity I have always communicated with, resulting in multiple email replies re-explaining what should have been clear from the start. I was dealing with all these things simultaneously, and then got a text asking me to join a Teams call I forgot I was scheduled to attend. It may not necessarily sound excessive that I sent out 34 emails in the three hours between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m., except for the amount of calculations, spreadsheet copying and pasting, and repeated, detailed written explanations I had to do. What a pain in the ass. On the upside, I get paid well. Still, my brain hurts. I'm now even more grateful than before that I am taking tomorrow off, and will be on Lopez Island for the weekend. — पञ्चसहस्राणि पञ्चशतानि पञ्चनवति च — Speaking of which, quick update on my bike: I did manage to leave work an hour early yesterday, which gave me plenty of time to take my bike from home over to 20/20 Cycle, and get my front tire tube replaced. This tube has a different pump valve, and that seems to have been, I learned from the guys at the bike shop, my issue when I snapped the valve in half on the old tire two weeks ago. This is something you have to unscrew part of the way before air will come in or out—and that's after unscrewing the cap; I'm not talking about the cap here. I was totally unaware of that two weeks ago, which would explain the portable pump seeming to get stuck on it, and then the valve snapping when I tried to wrench it free. Hopefully I remember this going forward. I was just relieved that they were able to fix it immediately, I only had to wait about ten minutes, and then I was able to ride the bike home with it totally fixed. I really thought about riding to work today. But, it was only 41° this morning. Fuck that, I don't want to freeze riding my bike through air that cold. I'll still bring the bike with me to Lopez Island, where I'm not likely to ride until it's around 50° anyway. It'll still be chilly, but that's better than 41° — पञ्चसहस्राणि पञ्चशतानि पञ्चनवति च — — पञ्चसहस्राणि पञ्चशतानि पञ्चनवति च — So last night was Action Movie Night, one of two that Shobhit will be missing while he's in India. A guy named Tom got his first-ever opportunity to choose the movie. He shared to the group beforehand that it was his all-time favorite movie, which made me very interested in what it was. It was The Silence of the Lambs, an excellent choice—being 33 years old, it holds up astoundingly well, at least in terms of plotting, pacing, tension, and especially performances. Its approach to trans identity is a different story entirely, making this one of those deeply problematic movies that many of us continue loving in spite of how problematic it is. This remains the most recent of only three movies in history to win all five of the five biggest Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay. Even with Shobhit not there, we had 10 people at Action Movie Night last night: Tony, Jake, Ben, Ryan, Chris B, Chris G, Derek, Daniel, Tom, and myself. Getting to 20/20 Cycle as early as I did, I had plenty of time to make a dish to bring to the potluck before the movie (no one else there ever calls it a "potluck," but that's what it is). I made pasta, and to the pasta sauce I added sauteed red onion, green onion, celery, and a sample from work called "mushroom crumble," a ground beef veggie substitute. It was very tasty, I got complimented on it at the potluck (by Tom in particular), and it was unusually popular: I'd say a fifth of the total I made, at best, was left when the night was over. It'll provide me with an easy dinner to eat tonight, after I get home from Book Club, where I only plan to buy a hot chocolate. — पञ्चसहस्राणि पञ्चशतानि पञ्चनवति च — [posted 12:31 pm]

the boat lottery

— पञ्चसहस्राणि पञ्चशतानि चतुःनवति च — I want to say I had a chill evening alone at home last night, and I kind of did. But, I had to go on a bit of a wild goose chase first. Shobhit wanted me to buy his PowerBall lottery ticket for him, since he's in India. I have never done this before, so I had to get on the phone to get clarification on what exactly I needed to do. He already had tickets filled out, and I took one for "two plays" over to 7-11, which is just a block away, where Shobhit thought they might take a debit card, though he knew they don't take payment on credit. The guy told me it's cash only. So, I drove to the Broadway Market QFC. By then, it was nearly 7:00. The Customer Service desk was closed. Fuck. I didn't want to deal with the worse parking at the QFC on Broaway and Pike, so, with the car parked at Broadway Market, I just walked the block and a half down Broadway to Bank of America to take $30 out in cash. By then, Shobhit had already Zelled me the $30 to cover it, so I didn't have to pay for this stupid lottery ticket. I walked back to the car, drove home, parked, walked over to 7-11 again, and bought the ticket. I don't know what happens now or how long before anything is known or what. I'm guessing I'll have to go back to have the ticket scanned in that machine or something, well before Shobhit's back from India on April 23. Anyway. Back home again, I was able to get back to this week's episode, from Sunday, of The Regime on HBO (watched streaming on Max). Then I watched this week's episode of Shogun on FX (watched streaming on Hulu). Then I returned to Max/HBO to watch Sunday's episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. All of it was great, as usual—actually, The Regime was better than usual; finally something exciting happened. I usually watch all of these with Shobhit. That did make me miss him. — पञ्चसहस्राणि पञ्चशतानि चतुःनवति च — — पञ्चसहस्राणि पञ्चशतानि चतुःनवति च — In other news, today is the middle of only three days I work this week. After Barbara's six-day visit from Wednesday last week through Monday, on Friday I leave for my first overnight travel this year anywhere besides Olympia: the weekend at a cabin on Lopez Island, with Gabriel and his groomsmen's wedding party: his brother Garret, and his other friends Andy and Brian. The cabin sleeps five but has only one bathroom, so that should be delightful. I'm genuinely looking forward to it, to be honest. It's kind of a lot so soon after Barbara's visit, and then I have Jennifer and Matthew visiting the next weekend, but that's all my own doing. No one to blame but myself! We had some uncertainty regarding all of our travel to the island, specifically the ferry from Anacortes to Lopez Island. We all discovered a bit later than was ideal that reservations were recommended, and when Gabriel settled on the 12:35 ferry as the one he'd like us all to aim for, on Monday Brian booked what was, at that time, the last available booking on that sailing. It turns out, though, that they release slots for reservations 2 months in advance (25% of standard vehicle space), 2 weeks in advance (25% again) and 2 days in advance (25% again). So, the rest of us made a plan to check for availability at 7 a.m. Wednesday morning (that was today). But then, yesterday Andy sent a note to the group chat that some spots already opened up. This was at a quarter till 3:00 yesterday afternoon, I saw the text at work, and I immediately got online and booked my reservation. Andy clearly had too. I hadn't even though to check back to see if any more spots were open before this morning. Andy must have been checking regularly. I thought I was organized. That guy is on it. Gabriel missed the text yesterday due to taking a drone pilot's test, so when he saw it and checked, the 12:35 ferry was back to no availabiltiy. But, he got online this morning and managed to book. Garret was the only one who booked a later ferry, at 4:30, presumably due to scheduling (and maybe geographic?) challenges. I know Gabriel had hoped that all five of us could be on the same boat over. But, four of us will be on the 12:35 ferry, then Garret will be on the 4:30. The other night, Gabriel also started a conference call on FaceTime for anyone to ask questions. So, I got on to ask about food. It sounds like we may go out for lunch on Friday but apparently Andy will bring enough food for all our other meals to be covered? I may bring milk and cereal and bread and stuff for sandwiches anyway, just in case. I'm sure everything will be communal anyway, it's not like I'm going to horde it. My biggest concern right now is my desire to bring my bike. I need to get my tire fixed, after I snapped the pump valvue off it a couple of weeks ago trying to pump it up. The problem is 20/20 Cycle is closed Mondays and Tuesdays, and only open until 6:00 on the days they are open. I may need to leave work early so I can get my bike down there today, and still have time to make pasta for tonight's Action Movie Night at The Braeburn. And then, hopefully, get the bike fixed and back home tonight: I have Book Club tomorrow and won't be home by 6:00, and will need to leave home Friday probably by 10:00 in the morning—and 20/20 Cycle doesn't open until 11 a.m. So if I can't get the bike squared away tonight, I just won't be able to bring it. Let's all pray it works out! — पञ्चसहस्राणि पञ्चशतानि चतुःनवति च — [posted 12:31 pm]