Sunrise Chronicles

I was recently notified by the University of Michigan that they are ending their file hosting service, which is where my website has been for the past 30 years.

The website is currently linked from this journal, though I suppose I will have to change that once it goes away. If there is any material that someone reading this wants to preserve for themselves (such as NatPack quote lists or fanfic), download it now, because it is all going poof.

Once again I have been derelict when it comes to regular updates. This is because I have far too many hobbies and not nearly enough free time to indulge in all of them as much as I would like. As WoW is in the middle of its weekly service downtime at the moment, however, I can tear myself away long enough to run through what I've been occupying myself with over the past several months.

Photography
In August I went to visit family in Hawaii for a week. I spent a lot of time with my fancy digital camera taking pictures. Since the time zone was three hours behind, it was relatively easy to wake up early, allowing me to take a bunch of shots of the sunrise over the ocean. I also got a bunch of pictures of waterfalls as well as closeups of various flowers, leaves, and mushrooms. This one is my favorite because I managed to get the flower in perfect focus (which was super hard, as the branch was blowing around in the wind) with a delightfully blurred yet still interesting background. That said, the sunrise photos are pretty spectacular. I plan to go through all the hundreds of pictures and have a few printed out to hang on the wall in my guest room, which has a Hawaii theme.

Computer games
I'm still playing Diablo IV, sporadically, but I have transferred most of my online gaming time over to my reactivated World of Warcraft account. Yes, getting sucked back into that after 10 years is probably a lapse in judgment. But the latest expansion is all about dragons. Dragons! I couldn't resist that. The sad thing is that my former guild is no longer active, though some of the members are still playing on other servers. At least the guild itself is still there, and my characters weren't kicked out of it.

Manga
I took a few weeks to get caught up on reading and reviewing the past year's worth of manga that I ordered online, but I have no place to put it anymore, as my storage is full. That set me on a mission to cull volumes from my collection...again. I've already gotten rid of any titles of below average quality in previous purges. Now I'm going through from A to Z, reading the ones that are borderline to solidify my opinion of them, and culling anything that's simply average. If they're inoffensive yet not memorable, they have to go. I've been making steady progress since summer, and I'm currently in the M section. (One might think that's halfway, but due to the distribution of author names, it's more like a third of the way through.)

Board games
I've acquired a number of new board games, and I'm busily playing through them with my parents. The game boxes also have a storage problem, as I have filled all my available shelves. Once the stacks of manga have been put away, that will clear up some space for the games, but it's still an issue. That concern has set me on the task of cleaning out and organizing my garage. It's a huge task, as the garage is crammed with stuff that I didn't have space for in the house, but I'm trying to tackle it a small section at a time. I managed to get rid of a bunch of useless stuff this past weekend, which is a good feeling. With space opening up there, I can shuffle things from my closets out to storage tubs in the garage, which provides the games with new storage options.

Fiber arts
I've picked up a lot of new yarn this year, and I'm continuing to work on various knitting projects. This summer I completed a sleeveless blouse, and I'm currently working on a pair of knee socks. As if that weren't enough, I ordered a 24" loom for myself for Christmas. I've been interested in weaving for a while, and I'm going to try practicing some small items. Did I really need another hobby? No. But it's knitting-adjacent, so I think I will enjoy it.

Traveling
I didn't get to go on an international trip this year as I had hoped, but maybe I'll get something scheduled next year. Visiting Hawaii was fun, and I'm planning to go back next March (if the annual leave draw lottery goes in my favor). I also went on a short road trip through Northern California with my parents in November, staying in Napa for some wine tasting and Mendocino for vegan cuisine. The redwood forests are truly amazing, though the curvy mountain roads can be unnerving, particularly in the dark with the occasional deer peeking out at the headlights. I've been living in the state for 15 years now, and I still haven't seen very much of it, which is a shame.

That pretty much covers everything (outside of work) that has been occupying me since my last post.

Salt-fermented loquats
Verdict: Edible, but nothing special. The flavor just doesn't have a decent punch to it, probably because loquats aren't very acidic in the first place. I pureed them together with some vinegar and spices to make a blend similar to honey mustard sauce, which is pretty tasty (though in the future I will peel them first, because even pureed, you can taste the fiber).

Ume syrup
Verdict: As an alternative to umeshu, it's a nice change and relatively simple, just ume and sugar. I canned 4 cups of it and that still left me with some in the fridge to use.

Ume miso
Verdict: OMG, this stuff is fabulous. The blend of flavors makes it taste like wine-infused Asiago cheese. I could eat this with a spoon. I am definitely making more miso so I can do this again next year.

I bet miso would be good with my sour cherries coming up in a week or two...

So, that 5K word estimate I made last time turned into 15K+ words, but I did eventually finish. My third novel has now been posted: Blood of the Master. I also finally got around to making a basic author page.

My term as an acting supervisor came to an end on Saturday, so I am now back to my position as a beagle handler. I was worried that my dog might be out of practice, since she only got to work at most one day a week since February, but when I took her out on Sunday she did great. I will definitely appreciate being able to walk around and get exercise again; as a supervisor, I had to stay near a phone pretty much at all times in order to deal with emergencies like people calling in sick or maintenance personnel requesting access to locked areas or whatever.

My garden is going to be rather basic this year, mainly beans and squash with a few potatoes. I had planted out a bunch of pepper seeds a couple months ago, but just as they were beginning to sprout this past week, snails ate them all. @_@ I planted my squash inside chicken wire cages this year as an experiment to see if that will protect them from squirrels. If the method is successful, I will probably buy more cages next year.

The fruit season is beginning. I harvested the first raspberries today, and a lot of the loquats are ready to pick, though I'll probably have to deal with them next weekend. It's also time for the ume harvest, though I ran low on alcohol for making infusions (and I have a bunch of jars from past years still), so I will try making syrup with them this year instead. Cherries, blackberries, and crabapples will be coming up next.

I'm working on knitting a decorative blouse, and it's coming along nicely, though I did make a slight miscalculation in that I made the length of the back the same as the length of the front. Since the front has more distance to travel from shoulder to waist than the back does, they should have been different lengths to account for it. I'll know for next time. Meanwhile, I'm thinking I'll use short rows to give it an asymmetric hem, transforming the flaw into a design element. Hopefully it turns out well.

It has been a number of months since I've posted under anything but my Japanese manga filter, so I have a lot to update.

I took a week off work in May to declutter the house and work in the yard. I got a lot accomplished, mainly in the garage, where I cleared out a pile of old broken appliances and took them to the recycling center. I also reorganized storage, which let me clear out some space in my kitchen cabinets and make things I use often more readily accessible.

In the process of the decluttering, I had hoped to start on the project of digitizing my boxes of VHS tapes from the 1990s. That's when I discovered that one of my two VHS players was dead. Dead dead. Wouldn't even power on. I also discovered that my video capture card freezes recording when it encounters static--not a good trait when digitizing from VHS. I ordered a new one that supposedly had the best reviews, but it was SO user friendly that it didn't offer any customization options at all, it was just "push button to record, then push button to save." I tried it to record a 3-hour video of my performance in a high school musical, but when the recording was done, it encountered an error when I tried to save. Since the "push button to save" didn't work, and there were zero other options, I just had to close out of the software and lose the entire file. I tried an alternative video capture method, but it dropped a lot of video frames and altered the sound to keep it synchronized, which made all the voices sound funny. Watchable, but not enjoyable.

I returned the capture device and ordered a different one, but by the time it arrived, my week off was over. I still haven't had time to go back to that project. I did throw out a box of VHS tapes that I decided I didn't really need anymore, which allowed me to move around some stuff in the closet, but there's a lot more to be done.

My garden has had good points and bad points. I lost an entire pear tree to fire blight, which made me really sad because the pears were delicious last year. I've ordered two more to replace it, trying to get varieties that claim resistance to fire blight. Critters (squirrels and/or raccoons) ate all of my sweet corn, all of my persimmons (which wouldn't even have been ripe until November!), nearly all of my apples, and most of my squash. Fortunately, I have a bumper crop of crabapples and figs, so there's still some left for me after the critters stuff themselves. (I get the feeling animals come to my yard from miles around to chow down.) Oddly, nothing has been eating my tomatoes this year (well, aside from the spider mites, but they just drink the sap), so I've managed to put up lots. I also had a good crop of zucchini, cauliflower, and peppers.

The fireworks weren't so bad in June this year, but July was AWFUL. I didn't get a full night of sleep starting from the Friday before the 4th until 3 full weeks after the holiday. I finally discovered that my border collie isn't accidentally knocking breakable things off my desks, bathroom vanities, and kitchen counters. He's doing it deliberately. I think he's trying to generate noises loud enough to drown out the scary fireworks. I can't just close the doors to the rooms with breakable stuff, because then he scratches up the doors and door frames and even chews on the handles when he gets desperate.

I was so fed up with the destruction (nothing like cleaning up bits of glass from a shattered lamp at 1am because some joker in the neighborhood wanted to hear an illegal big boom after midnight), I splurged on a special crate for high-anxiety dogs. It was freakishly expensive, but hopefully it will keep him safely contained on nights with excessively loud noises. At the very least, it will keep him from stepping on bits of broken glass or shards of ceramic cookware.

I took two weeks off in August to visit friends and family in Michigan and attend Gen Con, the board gaming convention. That was a good break. I have about 4 days' worth of use-or-lose leave that I need to spend yet, which I will probably end up taking in November. We're dealing with a bunch of staffing issues and budgeting issues and various other changes, such as the fact that our contracted kennel went out of business and we had to move all our dogs to a new one. As happens every year, all my coworkers who volunteer for overtime are reaching their cap and can't do it anymore, which means they have to draft people (like me) who don't actually want to work the extra hours. That state of affairs lasts until the end of the fiscal year, September 30. On the bright side, I just got my bump up from Step 7 to Step 8, so those overtime hours are worth a few dollars more.

I'm continuing to pour what money I can spare into paying off my mortgage, since the return on that is far better than my other savings or investment options this year. I just have to keep back enough to make the property tax payment, which keeps increasing every year.

A couple weekends ago I went to the Palo Alto summer art festival, which was quite grand. I didn't buy much (just a pair of non-pierced earrings), but I saw a lot of inspirational work. One artist had gorgeous pieces that were essentially layers of Japanese washi paper with some simple origami and a splash of ink. The prices for the items on display ranged from $150 to $350 each. I was tempted to buy one, but then I thought about it and decided I could do something similar myself and have it completely customized to my taste. Thus, I have started collecting materials to try my hand at making my own paper from scratch. It turns out that a lot of the things I already have growing in my yard are good materials for making paper. (This isn't technically a new interest; I recall buying a washi-making kit when I was in Japan 20+ years ago, though I don't think I actually used it.) I'll just have to find the time to squeeze this in among all my other hobbies.

I keep thinking about posting, and every time it seems like I should just wait a couple more days until something notable happens that would be worth reporting, and then several weeks slip by.

There have been a couple major updates recently. The work on the sewer line in my backyard was finally completed, and my dad reassembled the raised beds that had been removed to allow the work to be done. Potatoes and raspberries were planted. I have a number of squash, pepper, and tomato seedlings that will be ready to get in the ground within the next few weeks.

Our chief's plan to hire new supervisors from outside the area failed miserably (no one wants to move here, since it's ridiculously expensive if you didn't get in when house prices were low a decade ago), so he finally relented and promoted one of my fellow handlers to a supervisor position. Along with various other staffing changes, that means I'm moving up in seniority on the team. Hopefully that means I'll be in a good position to achieve a favorable work schedule from now on.

I've also been working on getting my second novel ready for uploading to Amazon. It took longer than I anticipated to put together the cover picture, but I finished that over the weekend. Now I just need to do the final edits and formatting on the text. If I stop procrastinating, it could be ready to go next weekend.

I keep watching news on Japan's travel restrictions, with fingers crossed that I'll be able to take a vacation there again eventually, but it seems that it won't be anytime soon. Perhaps next year. In the meantime, I'm accruing a lot of annual leave and have few plans to spend it. If this year is anything like last year, I'll end up burning my use-or-lose time just staying home and doing things around the house or yard. Next fall I will bump up to the next tier of leave earning as I hit my 15-year mark, so I'll have even more time to burn if travel doesn't go back to normal by then.

I've been working on baking different kinds of bread over the past couple months, and I believe I have two recipes polished enough to post for posterity. One is for a tofu-enriched dough that can substitute for a brioche-style soft bread (I've been using it as a base for cinnamon rolls), and the other is a plain whole wheat baguette.

Lots of updates since the last time I posted.

The biggest news is that I completely paid off my car. Yay! Now I can put extra funds into other things, like paying off my mortgage faster. (My brother keeps insisting that I'm better off financially if I put extra money in a high interest investment account. Maybe so. But there's something to be said for not having that mortgage as a point of constant pressure--in case we have, like, another government shutdown or something.)

The last of the quinces were transformed into fruit leather. Now I just have to plan for next season's planting. I'm replacing my diseased apricot tree with a bunch of raspberries, and I ordered a ton of strawberry plants. The kiwi berry is gone, and I'm thinking I'll put artichokes in its place. This month will be dedicated to pruning all the trees and grapes in preparation for spring.

Beginning this week, the canine handlers are on a new schedule. I will have weekends off, at least for a few months. We'll see if we get to keep it. One of our two new official supervisors has reportedly already said that she doesn't like our schedule, goodness knows why. One of the things she wants is to have us all train at the same time, which is...impractical. You can't have people on a super early morning shift train at the same time as people on a late night shift, you'll be cutting into somebody's union-required 8 hours off. We'll have to wait and find out how that goes.

We finished our leave draw for 2022, and I managed to reserve all the days I wanted. It helps that I didn't need any of the major holidays, though I did get Memorial Day weekend for a local board game convention. I'm hoping to trade or auction a big chunk of my old games there to make space in my house. I reserved all the days for my season pass to the musicals playing in San Francisco, plus I got a ticket to a Weird Al concert. If I won't be traveling much, at least I'll be doing things nearby.

I finished writing the rough draft of my second novel. Once it's done receiving edits and I have a cover picture for it, I'll be able to post it.

I had reserved two weeks of annual leave in order to attend this year's Gen Con, but then the convention runners decided to postpone it until September (hoping that more time would allow for more attendees to be vaccinated), which meant it was impossible for me to go. Instead, I used my two weeks to fly to Michigan for visiting friends and family. I loaded my bags with my own stock of board games until I hit the weight limit.

I used the digital boarding pass for the first time, rather than printing it out. It worked well most of the time. The one instance where I had an issue was upon checking my bag for the return flight. My app was set to use my fingerprint to log in for the boarding pass, but it was so hot that my hands were sweating, and the phone couldn't read my print with wet fingers. I had to resort to typing in my password with one hand (since my ID was in the other hand), which was tricky.

Also, TSA pre-check rocks.

Frankly, I'm surprised that the airlines are still feeding snacks to people on domestic flights. I can understand allowing people to bring their own food, but why give people more excuses to take their masks off? With as closely as people are packed in those seats, is it really worth it for a couple of pretzels? I declined all snacks and beverages both ways.

I managed to get lots of games played during the visit. It was great to see people, and there was lovely garden-fresh food too. The one hiccup was that a series of thunderstorms rolled through and knocked out the electricity at my parents' house for several days. Fortunately they had a generator they could use to keep the freezer and refrigerator running, and to charge phones, but it did throw a wrench into some plans. Since their stove is electric, it meant eating things that didn't require cooking. Plus, we couldn't play any games unless the sun was up.

My dogs were rather naughty while I was gone. A friend agreed to drop by a couple times a day to feed them and control the dog door, leaving them mostly unsupervised inside the house. I shut the doors to the bedrooms before I left, but they managed to get both doors open. The beagle found my stash of potato chips and ate those. He dragged my work treat pouch out to the back yard and ate the couple of treats that had been left in there.

My grapes had been just a few days away from being ripe when I left. I came back to find that squirrels had devoured nearly all of them. There were just a few of the Concord-style grapes remaining; I picked what I could salvage and made jam out of them this weekend.

I'm now starting to get tomatoes and figs. I should also be able to harvest the apples soon. Most of my squash plants died off, but I have a monster (20' long) butternut squash plant in the front yard that survived and is producing well. I'm thinking of planting beets and cabbage for the fall.

I'm still chipping away at decluttering. The game room is vastly improved. I can probably cull out a few more books if I try, though the biggest hurdle is the VHS tape collection.

I had hoped that with pandemic restrictions being lifted, and people therefore not feeling as confined and in need of excitement, that there would be fewer fireworks this year...particularly since we are in another drought and the danger of starting a massive fire is high. Sadly, that appears not to be the case. The fireworks started up a couple weeks ago, and they have been sounding off sporadically nearly every night, starting around 8:30-9pm and sometimes going as late as nearly midnight. Every time a firework goes off, even if it's several blocks away, my border collie goes into a panic and it takes 30-60 minutes to calm him down again. In the meantime, he tries to climb every piece of furniture I own, particularly my bathroom vanity (he has already broken the soap dish by knocking it on the floor) and my computer desk, where he tries to hide behind the monitor. Not to mention my bed. It's not pleasant to have a panicking 50-pound dog stepping on one's face in the middle of the night.

Needless to say, I'm not getting a lot of sleep.

Work is going well enough. International travel hasn't picked up much yet. In fact, with restrictions on travelers from India, it has actually decreased. On the bright side, one of our new handlers has been scheduled to attend training to get his dog starting next month. We're hoping the others will be assigned to classes before too long, although that brings up another problem. Namely, vehicles. We placed an order over a year ago for new vehicles to cover the new handlers, but we haven't gotten any yet. With vehicle manufacturing shortages, plus staffing issues at the facility designated for installing the K9 containment systems and heat alarms, we'll be lucky if we get any new vehicles before 2022.

My garden is ramping up production. I'm currently being deluged by passion fruit. Unfortunately, my apricot tree is diseased and appears to be a lost cause. I've decided to cut it down so it won't spread anything to my other stone fruit trees. I haven't made up my mind yet what I will plant to replace it.

The month of March has been relatively eventful, compared to the rest of the past year.

The big news was that I got my vaccination shots, thanks to DHS classifying all of us as first responders. The first one was like a giant mosquito bite, with swelling and itching for a week. The second one made my arm hurt for a day and gave me a mild headache, but nothing worse.

The detector dog training center is gearing up to open classes again. None of my coworkers are scheduled to go yet, as far as I'm aware, but maybe before too much longer.

I've had a couple weekends of nice weather, so I've been able to get some work done in the garden. I planted out potatoes, cabbage, onions, leeks, and squash. The turnips and beets that I planted earlier are coming along nicely; the hoop tents of bug netting are working out great, though it took some scrambling to find enough rocks and bricks to weight down the ends so the netting wouldn't keep getting blown by the wind. I've got a small crop of both kumquats and loquats ripening. The yuzu tree that I planted last fall is starting to show flower buds, as is one of the pear trees I planted last spring. I'm not sure if I'll get fruit off them yet, but it's promising.

My next door neighbor decided to pull out their privacy hedge, which has been dying for years, and put in a redwood fence. The nice thing about that is, it leaves me a narrow swath of bare ground on my side of the fence where the hedge used to be. I bought some soil amendments for it and I'm working on getting it cleaned up to plant summer veggies and flowers there.

One disappointment is that I won't be going to Gen Con this year. I had tickets for last year's convention, which was cancelled, and the tickets rolled over to August of this year. Unfortunately, the scheduled convention dates, for which I already reserved annual leave, were considered too early to be safe. The convention was postponed until mid-September, when none of my friends can go because the school year will have started, and I don't have any leave reserved. We may get a chance to do something with just our small group during the originally planned period.