This is an untitled post. It does have a title in Tinderbox, but it includes an exclamation point, which tells the export template not to include the title in both the web page export and the rss feed export. The result is that it looks like an ordinary "toot" to Mastodon. For images, it includes the photo. If I title the post, it looks like a blog post and doesn't include any images. All of which is just some meta-discussion as I link to this piece on "easier programming," which I found interesting.

Because it mentions BASIC.

Maybe it's just because I'm getting old, but I find John P. Weiss is always worth a read.

This post is prompted by something Jack Baty posted, and so is kind of directed toward him, but is more about blogging in general. In his post, Jack mentions that his posts are more widely and automatically distributed by way of RSS and his micro.blog account. And his post suggests that this wider dissemination has made him somewhat self-conscious about his writing. His reaction is to default to not "syndicating" his content via RSS ("really simple syndication").

The marmot is similarly re-distributed by way of micro.blog, to my Mastodon account.

I'm ambivalent about Mastodon, but I'm willing to participate, largely as a guest of the kind and generous Rob Fahrni, who runs a small instance at curmudgeon.cafe.

I've been blogging a long time. I'm pretty sure Jack's been blogging nearly as long. Maybe longer? Writing online is a public act. I am self-conscious as I do it, and from time to time it can be uncomfortable. Writing in an offline tool like Tinderbox makes "publishing" a more deliberate process. (Offline in the sense that my posts aren't as "live" as they might be if I were writing in the browser. Tinderbox can be as connected to the web as you want it to be. See here.)

In my now former blog, Groundhog Day, which still exists as a large Tinderbox document here in marmot central, I had a container called "The cooler." I'd start writing an angry post and think twice about it and park it in the cooler to think about it before I posted it. There's a lot of stuff in "the cooler," much of it unfinished. I'm inclined to believe it's no great loss to the world that it never felt the delicate touch of Google's robot crawlers.

In the marmot, one of the Displayed Attributes ("Properties," Obsidian, take note.) in each post is a boolean checkmark HTMLDontExport. After writing a post, I can preview how it will appear online. Reading it in Preview helps in editing. Spelling errors or awkward construction that were missed in the main editing view become more apparent. If I'm confident I'm not going to utterly embarrass myself, I then tick the HTMLDontPublish check box and export the marmot. Only thing left to do at that point is sync the folder to the server, which I haven't automated yet.

So posting is a fairly deliberate act, with a fair amount of "friction" that allows me to kind of check my inclination to be glib or snarky. It sometimes doesn't work, but trust me, you don't see the worst of my online self. That guy was mostly on Facebook and Twitter, and I didn't care for him much either.

But the point of having a blog is to share those thoughts, not hide them. And publicly sharing thoughts and ideas can be a fraught thing. Ego is involved, vulnerability, our old friends Dunning and Krueger, the chance to be publicly foolish or wrong. I mean, if you're not a little self-conscious, you're probably doing it wrong.

So having gone to the trouble of buying a domain name, paying for hosting, writing a post and publishing it, yeah, put it out there!

RSS is a superpower. Back in the early days, blogrolls were kind of two things. One was to show who you read and thought was worth sharing. The other was a convenient list of bookmarks you could visit, even if you were away from your own browser, to see if they'd posted anything new. With RSS, that "discovery" portion is centralized and simplified for you.

But RSS is also an enabling technology, a glue-layer or wedge that other services, like micro.blog and Mastodon can leverage, so why not take advantage of it?

And besides, nobody cares about your blog.

Embrace the RSS. Cast your posts to the wind!

I'm not of fan of Cory Doctorow's work. I've never met the guy, maybe he's a warm and wonderful human being. But whenever I've actually made an effort to read his work, as I did today, he comes off as deliberately, proudly and oh-so-self-satisfiedly abrasive. It's like someone deliberately put sand in what might otherwise be a nice sandwich they made for you. It's not just that he's angry, I can read angry writing and relate to it. It's the posing, that accompanies it. It's exhausting.

Some people seem to enjoy that sort of thing. I suppose my "I'm too old" post is abrasive, but I'd like to believe it's not my default setting. And I'm too old to put up with that schtick.

Whatever. I don't like Cory Doctorow's writing. I don't read Cory Doctorow's writing. Everybody's happy.

Anyway, with all that by way of preamble and warning, I did read this post, painful and unenjoyable though it was; and I think it's worth pointing to because it captures something important, albeit wrapped in that patented Doctorow contempt that saturates the whole damn thing.

It came to my attention by way of Ian Betteridge.

Saw a snowy egret and a little blue heron too, but the bluebird made the best shot. The Wikipedia entry for "Bluebird of happiness" included this:

The world rolls round,—mistrust it not,—

Befalls again what once befell;

All things return, both sphere and mote,

And I shall hear my bluebird's note,

And dream the dream of Auburn dell.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, May-Day, 1867

A few items not mentioned in the Huffington Post listicle.

Elon Musk. Life is too short to waste any time reading or thinking about this guy. Jesus.

Donald Trump. Same as above. Except for that fact that, you know, he might just wind up being president again. Which is the stuff of nightmares.

The website formerly known as Twitter. I mean, who cares? Let it go! The planet's on fire, there are more important things to think about!

Bloggers who continue to obsess over the above. Except for the planet on fire part.

Photography web sites. Stick a fork in 'em, they're done! I guess there's always a new generation coming up that's "discovering" photography, so it's kind of evergreen in that sense. But if you've been reading them for 20 years, you've probably read everything four times. At least.

Film! Oy. We loved digital because you didn't have to pay for developing and prints! Instant gratification! Crop and edit your own stuff! But now film is the new hotness. People with too much money and time on their hands and not enough sense. Hello? Planet's on fire! "But it'll look so much more compelling in Velvia!"

Superhero movies. I thought we'd reached peak superhero years ago. I guess not.

"Social media." You mean "attention aggregation web sites." You aren't the consumer, you're the consumed. Run! Get out! It's coming from inside the house!

The Republican Party. They're basically Nazis now. A fact that totally seems to elude them. Also the stuff of nightmares. But I'm so tired of Republicans. If you're a Republican, I'm sorry. Read some history. Be better.

Operating system "updates." Please, just stop. Make the shit you've already shipped just work. Please! I don't need a new branded version of the OS every year! It's not a fashion statement! Small, incremental improvements, chiefly in things we already kind of understand.

People who absolutely must photograph their concert experience, but don't understand how to work their camera, so the stupid flash keeps going off next to me. Morons!

The fucking Confederacy. I live in Florida, so it's never far from anything. It was a bunch of rebellious racist losers who wanted to own human beings. There is absolutely nothing to be proud of in that legacy. Get over yourselves.

Lawns. Truthfully, this is less of an annoyance than it might otherwise be. I bought a condo so I'd never have to do yard work. After spending over $70K to remodel my condo, Mitzi wanted to live in a house on the ground floor. She has an ankle issue, so I understand. But I told her I'd never do yard work. We had a few lawn services since we moved here. They all suck! Every single one of them. Figure it out, low pay and "time is money" speed. You catch every fungus and insect from every other lawn they service. They cut the grass too low, and do it whether it needs it or not because they're contracted for x-number of visits per year.

Mitzi does the lawn herself now, and the damn thing looks like a carpet. It's still a colossal waste in nearly every dimension, unconscionable in the present circumstances. But she does a really good job. With all-electric lawn tools.

But I hope there's a special place in hell reserved for the guy who thought leaf-blowers were a good idea.

There are probably many more, but this itch seems scratched for the moment.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 09:02 Sunday, 30 July 2023

Coincidentally, I put the drone up yesterday afternoon because it was such a nice day and we'd had so much rain. Wanted to take a look around. I put a couple more shots up on Flickr. (That's just a link to my photostream. Those images will eventually scroll into the past and off the page. But should be easy to find for now.) I flew the mini into the clearing over the water and got some shots looking back at the house. You can kind of see what the kid was facing, except, you know, in the dark.

So I'm guessing we're talking maybe 20 yards past the retention wall? Through a bunch of palmettos. I can see the drone when I fly it in there, until I get really low. Water doesn't seem very deep, plants are growing out of it. It's wet 365 days a year.

Anyway, hope the kid's okay and didn't get bitten by anything. There's another area of open water between the trail and area in this pic, and it's solid green with algae. Which can be problematic.

Hygiene... One of those words that, the longer you look at it, the less you think it's spelled right.

I'd write, "I digress," but I haven't even started!

I'm going to meta-comment my way right out of this blog post...

Moving on...

If you want to get a good night's sleep, I do not recommend watching Season 2, Episode 3 of Luther, and then go to lock your front door before retiring for the evening, only to discover fire and rescue outside with a bunch of sheriff's office vehicles.

I didn't see the cop cars initially, just fire and rescue. I live in an over-55 community, so it's not terribly unusual and I figured a neighbor was having a medical emergency.

About the same time I see the lights from the rescue vehicles, Mitzi's phone rings, and she's telling me "Tracy says there's a kid lost in the woods behind the house."

Mitzi has a daughter named Tracy who lives in California who sometimes calls after 9, and so my response is, "How does Tracy know what's going on behind our house?"

We also have a neighbor across the street named Tracy who, heretofore, hasn't called after 9. Mitzi squared me away. Duh.

So, back to the screened enclosure to assess the situation. Mitzi puts Tracy on speaker and I get some part of the story.

Apparently, there was some young man, around 20, who was upset in some way, who kind of got himself "lost in the woods," and the police were called. I don't know if this individual was a relative of someone who lives in the neighborhood, or any idea of how he came to be in the preserve behind our house, which, as I've mentioned before, is a swamp!

Cops are two houses down at the fence adjacent to the preserve. It's an aluminum, spaced-picket kind of fence. Can't keep much out, but might deter the feral pigs. I don't know, we don't have one. I hear a cop yell, "You gotta come to us, we can't get to you!"

And I'm wondering if this kid is thinking, "If they can't get to me, how am I supposed to get to them?"

Oy.

I don't know what these guys know about what's behind us. They have a drone up, but it's dark. There's moonlight so maybe they can see the reflections of the water. So I wander down like any busybody, and mention this to one of the deputies, and that there's no fence behind our house. I didn't mention the unfortunate choice of words.

I hear what I think is the kid yelling something unintelligible. I go back to consult with Mitzi.

This seems like a bit of a clusterfuck. I'm guessing these guys don't want to get wet, and there's no way you're going into that swamp without getting wet. The kid has apparently already told them he's soaked and unhappy about all the water.

Like a dumbass, I figure I'll just go put my Timberlands on, some long pants and a long-sleeved shirt because of the mosquitoes. and wade out into the swamp with a light and see if I can get the kid to come to me. I'm hoping the cotton mouths and gators are as reluctant to encounter me as I am them. I know the Timberlands aren't going to keep my feet dry, but at least nothing's going to bite my ankles.

So I get dressed, put a big battery on my Makita portable worklight and go down and tell the cop, I'm just gonna wade out into the water behind the house and see if he can see me, let's go get this kid. Deputy says, no. They've decided to get him to walk to the trail on the other side of the water. Which kind of made sense. We've hiked off the trail a bit when we first moved here. To see how close we could get to the house. We got to the water. There are fire trails back there, and evidence of past burns, which is a little disturbing, so maybe that'll be easier for all concerned.

So I head back home and watch as all the vehicles are loading up and leaving. I'm thinking maybe they got the kid. I change out of my dumbass ensemble and get ready for bed. I take another look out back before turning out the lights, and the drone's back up behind the house.

Maybe they haven't got him.

Anyway, I go to bed.

Not exactly a "sweet dreams" situation, if you know what I mean.

We got 3.6" of rain yesterday, which seemed like a lot. The retention ponds were all full. So I checked NOAA's Precipitation Frequency Data Server, clicked on Florida, entered my address and learned that 3.6" of rain in 24 hours can be expected at least once a year. Pretty cool little service. Pretty sure that data is less valuable now, given the frequency of extreme rainfall events we're experiencing, but it's a useful data point for context. Yesterday wasn't an "extreme" sort of event.

A lot of rain though.

Anyway, clicking around on NOAA's page, I found this page over at EPA, "How's My Waterway?" So I entered my address on the little postage-stamp sized box on the right, and I got this cool little GIS-mappy-thing. I told you I live in a swamp. An impaired one at that. You can switch on the Monitoring Locations and Permitted Discharges and look at those features in their respective tabs.

Something you might want to bookmark (not Ponte Vedra, but your location) for future reference.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 11:49 Saturday, 29 July 2023

Huffington Post listicle from a Reddit thing.

Mitzi and I went to see Jackson Browne at the Moran Theater at the former Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts. As one might expect, it was an older crowd. Browne is 74. We did have reserved seating! Browne mentioned that he wanted a summer tour because he wanted to perform indoors, in smaller venues, with air conditioning.

It was a good show. Maybe great. Mitzi wanted to go, I probably wouldn't have paid to see him in concert. He's more of a headphones/earbuds kind of artist to me. He was letting the audience shout requests, which is perhaps unwise in Jacksonville, ("Play Freebird!"); and at one point he told us something to the effect that, "The order of the songs is kind of important. Because there are only a few happy songs, and if you use them up too early, you start losing altitude quickly." Self-aware humor... I like it.

His voice is as sweet and mellow as ever. Small 3-piece band and two backup singers.

Sound was too loud. Got a few warnings from my watch during the show. Tinnitus was screaming when we left. If I'd have been wiser, I might have brought along my AirPods Pro and tried that adaptive transparency trick.

But yeah, I'm definitely feeling my age. He started promptly at 8:00 p.m., which shows respect for the audience. Took a short intermission, and wrapped a little before 11. The only time I remember clearly is 11:04 p.m. because we were just outside the theater headed back to the car and I recalled a Falcon Heavy was scheduled to launch from Canaveral last night, so I looked at my watch. I gather it went up at just about that time! Couldn't see it from downtown Jax, and I didn't bother to try.

Anyway, we got home a little before midnight and I was down for the count. Didn't get up until 0700, and didn't walk this morning. Giving my knees a day off.

Got the paper this morning and was surprised and pleased to see the guest editorial I submitted was published. (Noted below in the previous post.) I hadn't heard back. I wrote it a little over a week ago and hadn't looked at it since. I cringed a bit when I saw the headline in the paper, but it read better than I remembered when I wrote it. I'm biased.

Commander Dave gets his name in the paper again. Along with several paragraphs of text.

Good morning, Jack.

I saw that too. I immediately thought of "attributes."

And Tinderbox.

(Which is on sale now, 25% off at Summerfest 2023.)

From the Houston Chronicle in Apple News+:

Olivarez said earlier in the day that troopers are told to use their judgment and discretion when deciding to distribute drinking water. He said the state cannot give a bottle to everyone when 600 to 1,000 people are crossing every day. “If they see a child or an adult that looks like they’re suffering from some kind of heat exhaustion, they’ll give them water,” Olivarez said. “But we can’t just keep handing out water because what’s going to happen is, you’re going to continue to encourage them to come.”

In Florida, we give our water away to Nestlé, Inc.

Then they sell it back to us in little plastic bottles, which we then carefully place in a landfill. Or, you know, anywhere.

The whole world has gone nuts. We live in a simulation and the admins are screwing with us, that's what I think!

The "Unexplained Aerial Phenomenon" guy? That former intel weenie? Is he related to George Santos? I mean, the Spooky Mulder in me "wants to believe," but is anyone else's bullshit meter pegging here? I don't know what happens in some people's heads. Does he own a lot of cats or something? And these congresspeople? This is like catnip to them. The pilots I'm ok with. I'm sure they saw what they saw, and I sure as hell don't know what it was.

And wtf with Senator Yertle the Turtle? Whoops! No problem. Just had to reboot the android. "I'm fine." Sure, buddy.

Anyway. The list goes on. We have "departed from controlled flight." I don't know what to tell you. Just try to enjoy the ride.

We're all getting off at the same stop.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:29 Thursday, 27 July 2023

I have, of late, eschewed commenting on the whole "X" fiasco. But I will link to this, because I think it's hysterical.

Lying awake since 0400, debating whether or not to "exercise." A little squall rolled through and took the matter off the table for a short while. My knees ache. It's not "pain" per se, I'm just aware of them and in not a good way. Of course, my shoulders ache too, especially lying on my side in bed.

I finally got tired of arguing with myself, got up and went and did it.

Yesterday I ordered a couple more shirts and pairs of shorts, so I don't have to wait on laundry day. But I did select Amazon Delivery Day (Saturday), rather than today.

Too early to say I'm "committed," but it may be trending that way.

Always pleasant to see the bluebirds. There were a couple of turkey vultures grooming themselves in a tall pine too. Put them up on Flickr.

Nothing philosophical, just an update on my 2019 27" iMac, now with 128GB of RAM. Right now I'm sitting at about 78GB in use. It was over 80GB when I was doing some work in Topaz SharpenAI. So I think the investment will prove worthwhile over the long run.

I have a very modest 16 tabs open in Safari.

We're going to take another stab at Mission: Impossible this afternoon. If we fail, this theater will be disavowed.

Finished watching the Arnold bio-series on Netflix. Thumbs up. I think Arnold is a better man than I gave him credit for before. Did he need to do his own biographical mini-series? (I guess he just offered his full cooperation.) Well, yeah. He probably did. But still, it's pretty good, and everyone is "complicated." I don't know when Arnold became "self-aware," but he is and he's all the better for it.

Enjoying Hijack on Apple TV+.

Also enjoying Three Pines on Prime. I wondered about how much involvement there was of Indigenous people in the series. This kind of alleviated my concerns. I welcomed and enjoyed it, as well as the similar, though smaller role in Deadloch. It's refreshing, especially in Florida where our state government is laser-focused on erasing history and people.

Enjoyed learning a great deal about Bookends on Saturday during the Tinderbox meet-up. The application is far more versatile than merely as a reference manager. You could use it as a stand-alone "tool for thought" today, and upcoming linking and pdf features only expand that. There's a video here. Bookends and Tinderbox are two of the remarkable indie apps on the Summerfest artisanal software sale. (I own nearly every app on sale there.)

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 12:18 Monday, 24 July 2023

Cloudy this morning, which keeps the intense heat of the sun off you but makes it kind of dim for photography. Green heron.

Our efforts to address the climate emergency are taking place as our democratic institutions that are the means by which we marshal the resources to do so are under attack.

They are being attacked by anti-democratic tendencies that have always existed in some parts of our society. They are a minority, but they are energetic, determined, and they are enjoying some success of late.

If we are to address the climate emergency in a way consistent with the values of justice, equity and compassion, we must defend and strengthen our democracy and the institutions that serve it.

So I was pleased to read A. G. Gancarski's editorial in Jax Today.

Unblinking, unsparing and unsentimental, but true. And in a time when anti-democratic forces rely on deceit, disinformation and division, the truth is a powerful weapon to bring people together and rally their efforts to fight back.

The pendulum swings both ways.

The phrase, "the new normal," is non-operative. Misleading. False.

There is no "normal" now, at least with respect to weather phenomena. The extent to which meteorological conditions at any given moment are consistent with what we consider historical "norms," is merely coincidental.

The climate system that is manifesting these meteorological conditions is not "normal." It is without historical precedent in any meaningful sense of the term as regards civilization.

The rainfall events we have been witnessing in Fort Lauderdale, Pennsylvania, Vermont; the heat records being broken everywhere; the record high ocean temperatures; the record low antarctic sea ice figures are all features of a climate system that is not normal. A climate system that is not in anything approaching an equilibrium state. A climate system that is being driven by a change in atmospheric composition that is wholly without precedent in earth's history, save for giant impact events, and perhaps periods of extraordinary volcanism.

There is nothing "normal" about what we're experiencing, and it will never again be "normal" within the lifetime of anyone alive on earth today. Maybe the great-great-grandchildren of children being born today may live in a climate that may resemble that of the holocene, if we do everything we can.

Even if we were to cease all CO2 emissions and methane releases, today, it will be decades, likely centuries absent active measures to extract CO2, before atmospheric concentrations of CO2 return to something approaching what we associate with a "normal" climate.

During all that time, the climate will be undergoing dynamic transformations, seeking equilibrium. That's what "normal" will mean. Unpredictable. Unprecedented.

"Business as usual" is likewise a non-operative phrase.

Every flood plain manager in the country should be asking to have extreme rainfall events modeled for their areas of responsibility. They should identify critical infrastructure at risk from extreme rainfall events and begin efforts to harden or relocate it. Signage should be installed on all roads identified as vulnerable to flash flood events so people are aware of the risks. Such roads should be closed when conditions make extreme rainfall events likely. People living in regions vulnerable to flash flooding need to be relocated. In the interim, evacuation plans must be developed that are workable. Shelters identified. We need to become experts at temporary housing and services for persons displaced by extreme weather events. We also need to become very efficient at handling mass casualty events.

None of this is "normal."

I think people are beyond the "denial" stage at least with regard to the fact of climate change. They may not be beyond denial in terms of what we must do now.

We are in a state of emergency from now on. And we should begin acting like it.

This morning's bird.

Mitzi planted three of these bird-of-paradise plants last year and this is the first of them to blossom. This shot is from the Olympus E-420, which has a 10MP Panasonic CMOS ("LiveMOS") sensor. I posted some shots from the E-500 with the 8MP Kodak CCD sensor on Mastodon. The E-500 shots were SOOC JPEGs. This one I tweaked with some micro-contrast using the Definition adjustment in Photos.

Shot with the 25mm/f2.8 pancake, wide open. Probably should have stopped it down a bit for a little more dof, but it's fine.

I've been watching this thing for the last few days as it began to develop. When I went out for my run this morning, it hadn't opened yet, though the top had begun to split. I stepped outside a few minutes ago and noticed it was open, so I had to grab a camera. (Four of them, actually.)

Mitzi's kind of disappointed that the others haven't blossomed.

Figured this post belonged here rather than in the marmot.

Mitzi and I have been watching events related to extreme weather and talking. We've even been doing a mental exercise, looking at houses in other states.

Moving is an enormous pain in the ass, to say nothing of an expense. But living in Florida is a gamble.

Apart from the fascist nature of state government, climate and economics are making the state unsafe as well. The insurance crisis is just waiting to explode. Another Ian will do it. I don't know what premiums will do, and I suppose we may be able to afford a 100% or 200% increase, at an opportunity cost of some magnitude. But it will compel some people to leave, make some people homeless if they can't go without insurance because of their mortgage, and shake up the real estate market.

The "fixes" the legislature enacted mostly benefit the insurance companies by making it easier to deny claims. When people start going without insurance because it's unaffordable, and insurance companies don't pay adequate amounts to recover, neighborhoods will decline following a hurricane. They won't be able to recover. Someone has already coined "DeSantisville" as a sea of blue tarps.

Property values will tank. People will bolt, the ones who can anyway, because the handwriting is on the wall.

The race to the bottom will begin.

Most people won't be able to move. Jobs. Family. But the "wealth" that's locked up in their home values will tank, for many, the largest asset in their portfolio. We thought that the value of this home would be something we could leave to our kids, but I suspect it's going to be a lot less than we might have hoped for a few years ago.

I don't know what we're going to do. If we were better situated, I suppose we'd buy a "second home" in a safer state. Someplace to land if this place gets wiped out. But we're not so well situated that we can afford a second home. And moving after we've spent so much time and money making this place the way we want it is almost impossible to contemplate. And we're not getting any younger, either.

I guess we're just going to have to get used to holding our breath and hoping.

Welcome to "the free state of Florida."

Was on the street by 0505, but didn't get off to a smooth start. For some reason, the interval timer app wasn't sounding the chimes, so my run intervals didn't start until farther into the route. Ran harder though, so finished only a few seconds off the first effort. Took two days off because my quads were really not happy with me. I suspect it'll be Tuesday before I try this again.

Startled a pair of dogs as I began a run interval, and they startled me. I didn't bark though. May have woken a couple of neighbors. At one point a frog chirped right next to me and I started running.

I need to relax.

Mitzi and I tried to go to the movies on Thursday. We were mostly successful, except for the part about actually seeing the movie. Showtime was at 1500, and the screen was still dark. They weren't even playing the usual ads they play as people are getting seated. We were in one of those Cinemark theaters with the reclining seats that rumble and vibrate and cost twice the amount of a regular ticket. But you do get to reserve your seat, which is nice.

There was a gentleman seated next to me, then someone I assume was a grandchild, and then the gentleman's wife. Who apparently loved to talk. And talk. And talk. And not in a soft, intimate voice either. In the confident tones of a person who was absolutely certain that what they had to say would be of interest to anyone around them.

About 1505, an employee addresses us and says they've changed a bulb in the projector, and they're just waiting for it to warm up. Another customer asks if they can skip the previews and go straight to the movie. Employee says yes.

Lady two seats down has been going on at some length about why old actors shouldn't revisit characters in movies. Harrison Ford, Sly Stallone. Apparently her grandchild's generation has "no frame of reference." (Are they "out of their element" too?) And then she started going on about how unsafe large cities are. Apparently four teenagers were shot in NYC the previous weekend. "And fifteen were killed in Chicago!"

"But," she said, "I don't know if they all died."

Which just about gave me a stroke.

Employee comes out about 15:20 and says they're canceling the show, they have "technical problems." We get rain checks.

We're going to try again on Monday. I'm bringing my noise-canceling AirPods and listening to something else before the show starts.

I'll probably wear my wrist beads too, to try to remember to be kind.