Wednesday

My leave request for Thursday & Friday was approved :-)

I'll take Dax on a hike this morning.

Hurricane remnants will come through during my time off, though, so if I want hot tub time I should grab it tonight.

The house is definitely missing the maids, I'm not keeping up to our usual level of cleanliness.  They plan to return next month, but we need to work out the best date for our schedule, especially with the basement work happening next month also.

I "met" Steve on FaceTime last night to play a game and talk.  He's keeping his Quarantine bubble pretty tight because his partner is high risk, but he's available for FaceTime socializing.

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Apple has suddenly decided that Amazon Music is "malware" -- it forced me to remove it from my laptop.  Ditto for HP printer drivers.  I looked this up and found reports that this is widespread.  A bug, or an example of monopoly power?

Previously, my fan was running hot every time I ran Chrome.  Via careful examination, I discovered that the Apple security system was constantly scanning Chrome while I was running it.  I found a suggestion that deleting and reinstalling Chrome could help -- so I did this -- and it did help.  But was this a bug, or an example of monopoly power?  I often found that the Apple-based network at the condo worked better with Apple Music than with Google Music, until I quit Google Music for other reasons.

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There's plenty of feverish speculation among liberals and other concerned onlookers that Trump, plus Republican state legislators, plus the conservative Supreme Court majority, are going to find a way to steal the election from Biden regardless of the actual vote count.  Via a combination of not counting all the mail-in ballots, overriding the vote count with appointed Electors, and Supreme Court scale tipping.  Well, yes, this could happen, and it wouldn't be the first time in US history, so ... maybe such a naked power grab in 2020 would enrage enough people that we'd finally fix or replace the US Constitution ... maybe it would lead to a new secession movement by liberal states ... but all of this is still feverish speculation.  In the game of politics you can't control what other people do.  You can only control what you do.  For now, vote your vote and wait to see what happens next.  Is it your job to count the votes?  No.  I mean, not unless you're an election worker.  Let them do their jobs.

It's pretty clear that Biden will win the national popular vote, based on every indication everywhere.  But that's not how elections are decided in the US.  We've never been a true democracy, we've only piously pretended to be.

flood watch

We aren't getting the basement fixed for another couple weeks, and another flood watch TONIGHT because of hurricane [whatever, we've run out of names], and y'all know what happened the past few flood watches, we either experienced a flooded basement or we stood outside in the rain and bailed water with pots and pans.  Outside in the rain.  The heavy flooding rain.

So ... Bug stands ready.  Except T purchased and implemented a temporary option, we'll see if that works.  I still spent some time this evening lifting stuff off the floor of the basement and trying to build a rudimentary dam by the basement/outside door.

T also installed an alarm that should go off if the basement starts flooding.  I don't know what it sounds like.  Or whether it will wake me.

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Meanwhile, Sir Ben gave the best idea for NaNoWriMo ... I think I'm gonna do it ... all the way through November.

I won't have time for creating music, but that's OK, I'm gonna do it.

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Also, I restarted my meditation game this morning.  The only way I can meditate is if it's a game.  I can't just do "30 minutes per day" blah blah ;-)

Although that last blast of meditation is what allowed me to survive K moving away.  My future and past selves conspiring to effect my maximum lifetime record of meditation amount precisely after I see K for the last time before he moves away.

Causation truly works in both directions.  Which makes me sound crazy, but it's the fucking math.  Y'all suspend your disbelief to read your favorite sci-fi/fantasy novels, but this is the math.  Causation works in both directions.

But it doesn't change anything, to realize this.  It's how it's always been.