jimsjournal
Waking up -- 05/30/04

So I went all week without posting an entry. And yet, I posted hundreds of words on other people's comments area. (Well, mostly I got into a political debate with some of John Scalzi's other readers during the first half of the week.)

And a link from Eugene Volokh brought me a huge spike in readership on Thursday. (Well, rather than try to explain it, just check it out.) I thought it was way cool because, more than the brief (but large for me) jump in traffic was being able to make a small contribution to the Volokh Conspiracy blog, a site that I read on a daily basis.

The chart on the left shows what my usual traffic looks like, with this big spike on Thursday. I don't suppose that this represents all readers. (The free hit counters are worth every penny, but they sometimes miss visitors.) Also, there are more than twenty people on my notify list and I assume that they probably click on the link in the notify e-mail and go directly to the newest entry, bypassing the index page.

Anyway, 'twas a busy week with work, but nevertheless I apologize for not having gotten around to writing an entry since the 22nd.

And it is nearing midnight and I am very tired so I had better get to work on this entry before today becomes tomorrow.

Nancy's sister Karen and her husband Bob were hosting a party yesterday, featuring the first northern visit of their granddaughter Anna Brett (born Feb. 5th) -- Anna's parents were the bride and groom whose wedding brought us down to to Charlestown, SC via train about three years ago. Anna Brett is beautiful and the party was lots of fun. (And there were lots of other babies there, too -- the 25 to 30 age group seems to be busy expanding the population.) Lots of good food too -- Bob once again prepared his famous deep-fried turkey. (Yeah, I've got some pictures, maybe I'll get a couple of them up in a day or two.)

Attending the party meant a trip over to New York State on Saturday morning -- Nancy and me and Nancy's mom -- over to Nancy's sister Clara's house, then to the party, then back to Clara and Paul's, sit around talking, go to bed, get up in morning, drink coffee, eat marvelous breakfast, hop in car and head back to Rhode Island. Traffic had been surprisingly light on Saturday, but today it was very heavy. Interstate 95 was (as usual) quite miserable, almost bumper-to-bumper traffic, averaging about twenty miles an hour (which means crawling to a near stop, speeding up to reach thirty or even forty miles an hour for perhaps a quarter mile, then sudden slowing to fifteen or twenty. (And this was not the part of I95 that has construction going on.) We left I95 for a while, traveling for several miles on winding two lane country roads, but then had to get back on as we were running out of side roads that were roughly heading in the right direction.

When we reached Rhode Island we took a detour to the town of Westerly. Nancy had read that they were having an antique show and an art show and she thought it might be interesting to stop by and take a look. The antique show was at the Westerly YMCA. (My theory is that if I want to see an antique, I'll just take a look in the mirror.) Eventually we left the antique show and wandered a short distance down the street to Wilcox Park. We saw some interesting work there. The average exhibitor might not be as good as the average exhibitor at the annual art show in Wickford (which should be coming soon), but the best artists were at that level. The exhibits were lined up along the pedestrian paths, leaving large grassy areas available for children and dogs to run around in... one of those grassy areas was occupied by a bagpiper. I happen to like bagpipe music, so I enjoyed listening to him.

After we left Westerly, Nancy's mom suggested getting a pizza for lunch (it was now past two o'clock in the afternoon) -- what great idea -- she used her cell phone to order a pizza from a little combination pizzarea - sandwich shop - grocery in the village of Hope Valley. We pulled into Hope Valley only to find the road blocked because of a parade. We persuaded the cop who was blocking the road that we only wanted to go down the street to the market on the left side of the street. He let us through and we picked up the pizza, but even though the parade was now past and traffic was moving, the parade was still blocking our way on route 138, so we had to zig-zag along back roads to get around Hope Valley. We ate the pizza at Nancy's mom's house and then came home and sort of collapsed with exhaustion and the Sunday newspaper.

And, just for the heck of it... Here are my answers to this week's Sunday Brunch.
1. What time do you normally wake up?
On weekdays, usually somewhere between 5:30 and 6:00. On weekends there is greater variety: I usually sleep a little bit later, somewhere between 6:30 and 7:00, but occasionally I'll sleep in a little bit later.

2. Do you wake with or without an alarm clock?
On weekdays, with an alarm clock. On weekends I might set the alarm for an hour later than on weekdays but often I don't set it and just wake up without it.

3. Name the one thing you must have immediately to start your day.
Coffee!

4. How long after you wake up do you turn on your computer?
Probably within ten minutes of coming downstairs. Maybe less. Must have coffee first. I like to check e-mail, see if I've received any notify messages from the various notify lists I am on. I like to check the Day-by-Day cartoon and Lileks' Bleat first thing

5. Breakfast is considered the most important meal of the day. Do you eat breakfast every day?
Yes. I might not eat it right away, getting by with coffee and a glass of juice and not eating until I've been up for a while, but I rarely skip breakfast. I usually eat cereal with fruit. (Sometimes I might skip breakfast at home and pick up a toasted bagel with egg and bacon at a Dunkin' Donuts on my way to work. These days, of course, I only tend to go to the office once or twice a week anyway.) On weekends I might still have cereal, but sometimes I like to fix eggs or pancakes for breakfast.


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