Sauntering Vaguely Downward

[This is cross-posted from the Dreamwidth community threeforthememories, which is great and you should all join it. You have until next Monday 24 January if you want to post three photos to it that define your year last year, and no time constraints on enjoying everyone else's posts. I think it might actually be years since I've either promoted a community or cross-posted from one. Yikes.]

1. Telstar (RIP)
   
   This is - was - our beloved cat Telstar, just before he turned twelve in June of last year. We had no idea that we only had a few months left with him at this point, as his decline was very sudden. Losing him is an event that will forever be associated with 2021.


( ”+2” )

We had clear sunny weather for the most part while I was there, but then one morning it decided to snow. And yes, my dad drives a black Mustang, hahaha.



This is one of two baby bunnies living under the bushes outside my parents’ back door.



Here is a slightly wonky photo, taken by our server, of me and Sockenmonster with my parents and their friends at a breakfast gathering at the local golf course. I'm not smiling because I'm in the middle of explaining to our server which button to press to take the picture.

These were taken just over a week ago. It feels like a lifetime.

Hello dear online community. I have missed you all. I'm slowly making my way back through the timelines, but if there's anything you'd like me to respond to specifically, please PM me with the link.

We've spent most of the last few weeks in the USA, visiting my family. My apologies to anyone located in these places who would have liked to meet up; my parents were distraught due to the very recent death of one of my father's sisters, and my auntie had an itinerary planned for us which was magnificent and also jam-packed.

I'm currently assembling all my photos (thousands between phone and dSLR) to make a book of the trip. Humuhumu has expressed a desire to help me as she adores the ones I've made out of previous trips and pores over them regularly. So we'll be making a project out of it. Below the cut is a very rough timeline, without photos, to get us started.

( 10 days in the USA )

Ever since I was a child I've been able to immerse myself completely in things to the exclusion of everything around me. This power of concentration, or "total lack of situational awareness" if you prefer, never left me. My favourite anecdote about it is the one from when I was about ten. My dad handed me a drink whilst I was reading. I took a big swig of it without looking at it. It was beer (stout). I ran around the house trying to find things to eat and drink to take the taste away for a good quarter of an hour.

Today was the first time in a while I've had this particular ability tested. I work in a big glass fishbowl of an office. I like the fishbowl. It's clean, modern, has good lighting, and I have a nice desk between two lovely colleagues, with three on the other side of the partition. The fishbowl is quite a busy place, with phones ringing and people talking.

I was in the middle of writing a document when one of my favourite lecturers came up behind me. According to my colleagues, she became curious when I failed to react to her presence, especially since all five of them had acknowledged her. (She has a very strong presence. She is also quite mischievous.) She crept up very close to my chair and said cheerfully, "Hello!"

I leapt out of my chair and then burst out laughing. She looked almost as astonished as I was. "How did you not notice me?!" she demanded, sounding mildly offended. "It's my superpower," I replied. "Rubbish, isn't it?"

My soon-to-be-retired line manager brought me a final crop of Cassini memorabilia. Pictured are badges, produced by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, commemorating the following events along Cassini’s journey to Saturn:

1. The first Venus flyby (April 26, 1998)
   
2. The second Venus flyby (June 24, 1999)
   
3. Earth swingby (August 18, 1999)
   
4. The Jupiter flyby (December 30, 2000)

The lithograph is of some very old promotional artwork, also produced by JPL.