This blog still doesn’t have an About page. But while I was trying to write one, I thought of a different page to add: the Quest Log.
It’s basically a running list of things I’m making progress on. Once I’m done with something, it goes in the “Completed” section.
Calling them “quests” at all is a gross overstatement, but the current quests are:
a few books I’m reading,
a video game I’m playing,
a trip I’m preparing for, and
the ongoing adventures of transitioning to Linux on my desktop PC.
(For that last one, I’m not exactly sure when to mark it as “completed” — maybe after I’ve been using Linux for a year. Or if I end up switching back to Windows, I’ll have to add an “Abandoned” section.)
Trying out a new teapot from Teabloom. Wanted to try a glass one, plus this one’s big enough to brew for both Camilla and I. Making us Earl Grey.
Loved this ode to the mystical power of waltz in 19th century Vienna — from inside one of our old records, “The Strauss Family Album.” Still plowing through a pile of hand-me-down records, sorting keepers from not keepers.
On the way back from West Virginia, we stayed a night in Logan, Ohio, and checked out Hocking Hills State Park.
The stop felt almost obligatory. People have been telling us we need to go to Hocking Hills for a few years now. It’s definitely on the upswing: they built a huge new visitor center in 2019, had a nice Covid bump and have been reported to be growing in popularity faster than almost any other state park in the country.
All for good reason. These were very good hikes — a total of about 5.13 miles across one evening and the following morning. I loved the staircases carved into the sandstone, the caves and hollows, the “honeycombed” rock faces, chaotic piles of huge, eroded stones – and, because of the time we went, dramatic walls of icicles.
Listening to a record of Barry Manilow’s “Tryin’ to Get the Feeling” while we do some deep cleaning. So far the best thing about it is the back cover art.
Winds howlin'.
The Everglades are a vast subtropical wetland that behaves like a giant sponge, soaking up floodwaters and filling an underground lake that supplies drinking water to about 9 million people.
One of the only natural areas within walking distance of our apartment is a small island in a man-made lake next to the dead mall. They spent most of last year rebuilding the bridge to it. Definitely glad to have it back. I walked over on my lunch break.
