What I'm Doing Right Now (10/24)

I started this series last month. They're intended to be just a quick snapshot of life. I've been blogging long enough to know that the future me will appreciate being able to come back and remember what was going on during this time.

Ditching Suburbia Offline

In that vein, I'm mourning the apparent loss of our old Ditching Suburbia travel blog. I knew the family that bought it hadn't been posting for a while, but it was always nice to be able to quickly google up a memory when needed.

I do have a backup copy of the site, but it's hidden away on an external hard drive somewhere. For all of our technological advances, my book will probably still be the best "future-proof" archive to pull out on a whim.

Weight

Last month, I set a weight-loss goal of 50 pounds. I'm happy to report that, as of this morning, the first 15 pounds of that are already gone. I'm not one to step on the scale all the time, but I have been noticing my pants fitting looser.

I'm not doing anything too complicated:

• Overnight oats for breakfast.
• A couple hardboiled eggs, some lunchmeat, and a tupperware full of carrots, snap peas, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and grapes for lunch.
• Supper is more random; sometimes Greek yogurt and fruit with granola sprinkled on top.
• Reducing portion sizes for everything else.

I'm also trying to move each day—either walking or biking to the office or getting a walk on my lunch hour. My hope is to get a better workout plan in place after our upcoming vacation.

Missouri House

We spent another long weekend at the house getting things packed up, trimming the tree, touching up floor paint, clearing out the garage, etc. MsBoyink's parents hired movers to come get the furniture and everything else we wanted to keep. It's now all in storage until either one of us figures out what's next.

We put the house on the market on a Tuesday and accepted an offer the following Saturday. Barring anything coming up with the buyer's inspection or appraisal, we'll close on it in early November.

Vacation

Our vacation is imminent. Our goal is to explore New Mexico north of I-40 but there is no plan. We prefer to figure it out on the fly so we can adapt to weather, unforeseen circumstances, or unexpected opportunities.

For example, we just found out the Albuquerque Balloon Fest is going on. It might be good to see or good to avoid, but we're better for knowing about it.

I have several attractions highlighted on our atlas. We'll see what happens!

Jobs

MsBoyink's job is about the same.

My employer did some staff reductions in September. They included my boss, some coworkers, and some folks from the Marketing team. Those of us remaining on the Corporate Communications team now report into Marketing.

Unchanged

Kids, volunteer efforts, campervan, and TulsaRemote status all remain unchanged.

Reading

After some reading disappointments last month, I'm happy to report better experiences with new installments from other favorite authors:

The Atlas Maneuver by Steve Berry

Published earlier this year, this installment of Berry's Cotton Malone series held my interest (although I'll admit to skipping over the detailed explanation about how Bitcoin works). Berry's ability to weave history into an action story remains top-notch and none of the recurring characters went sideways.

The Ghost Orchid by Jonathan Kellerman

I've read dozens of Kellerman's series featuring psychologist Alex Delaware and Detective Milo Sturgis. I wouldn't say Ghost Orchid was among the best in the bunch, but it was a straightforward and interesting read.

My only quibbles were:

• Most of the plot was dedicated to identifying a murder victim as if fingerprinting never existed in this world.
• The "b-story" around a child evaluation case for Alex served as the ending for the book but felt more like just a page filler.
• There may have been some meta-message relating back to the killer in the main plot (who was also an abused kid), but even that felt thin.

First Frost: A Longmire Mystery by Craig Johnson

I'm a longtime fan of Johnson's Walt Longmire series. The dramatic TV show based on the books was OK as well, but as usual I prefer the versions of the characters in my head over their onscreen counterparts.

First Frost is both a prequel and update, flipping back and forth between events from the 1960s and whatever time period "present day" is supposed to be. The older timeline was more action-packed and interesting while the present-day timeline covered Longmire testifying in a court case about events from a previous book. My only quibble is that the two timelines remain separate storylines without converging or relating to each other.

Watching

We realized we had never seen On Golden Pond, Henry Fonda's last movie from 1981. The boat featured in the movie was a Chris-Craft, and our first house in Holland, MI was just a block away from one of the company's manufacturing plants. Random trivia: The main doors to Tulsa's Church Studio have Chris-Craft portholes installed in them.

Listening To

Recently visits to the Boyink turntable:

• It All Comes Back by Paul Butterfield's Better Days. I'm not too familiar with Butterfield's career; I think I first became aware of him while watching this BB King and Friends star-studded concert (highly recommended now that so many performers have passed away including Butterfield).
• Fore! by Huey Lewis and The News. When this album came out it was all too pop-rock for my hairband tastes, but it stands up well 38 years later. I love the harmonies on it.
• Eddie And The Cruisers Soundtrack by John Cafferty And The Beaver Brown Band. Another possibly-forgotten gem from 1983. I actually didn't know there was a sequel. Reviews look mixed but I'll probably check it out for the music if nothing else.

With all the focus on our house we didn't see much local music during September. We were supposed to attend a Beth Hart concert, but on the day of the show we learned it had been postponed again—for the third time. I bought these tickets over a year ago and am now just waiting for them to announce a new date so I can ask for a refund. I understand life issues cropping up but there's a point when maybe it's just time to cancel the tour, get refunds out, and come back down the road.

Thanks for reading!