Ocean Pacific Learning to Ride the Waves

I was reading about dealing with overwhelming things. Situations and conditions that are too overwhelming to have any control over. The advice was to consider the ocean, "you can't control the waves, but you can learn to surf." The fires here in LA are just such a condition. No fire here in Los Feliz, knock on wood, but the ash in the air is ominous. Little flakes of it float by my face like snow sticking to my notebook screen. It would only take an ember on the wind to spread the fire to a new neighborhood. Everything is tinder dry with no rain in sight.

Oddly the air quality is good to moderate, and I don't taste burning when I go outside. However, the experts warn that the air quality readings do not take into consideration the microtoxic particles in the air too small to be counted. They are the result of fires that burned buildings and cars miles away. I decided to sit outside by the pool today with an N-95 mask left over from the COVID-19 lockdown. I am surfing the waves of my situation.

We know people who had to evacuate, and sadly people who lost their homes. We have the double worry that if our building burned down not only would we lose our home but also our employment as building managers. Yikes! On the upside the trains and transit were free this week, I took the B line downtown and got an all-clear report for my skin cancer check-up. We have a new resident who got moved in just ahead of the windstorm he must be really happy he found a place before the big surge in people who have to find new places to live as a result of the fire.

I am feeling pretty relaxed all things considered. While we were staying inside I got busy doing some tidying up. I rediscovered my desktop after two days of sorting papers into their folders. It got pretty bad with last year's documents getting mixed in with the new year crop of new accounting. I opened the late Christmas cards and found a gift card. Bonus! I even created the tax file for our 2024 taxes.

See the whole link for this week's James Clear 3-2-3 Newsletter

What am I reading this week?

Neuromancer| William Gibson

Ok, it's dated and you can buy it leather-bound. It's even more fun to read it 40 years on. The alternate reality of AI and database manipulation gets a pre-blockchain treatment. I love that there is a place in all his books for the creative/counter-culture. In this book, we find them in Tokyo and Orbiting the planet. Speak to the dead? In this book, it's an app, and it pleads to be erased.