{"id":1653,"date":"2014-09-08T08:41:32","date_gmt":"2014-09-08T12:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/?p=1653"},"modified":"2015-03-07T10:29:04","modified_gmt":"2015-03-07T14:29:04","slug":"an-ideal-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/archives\/1653","title":{"rendered":"An Ideal Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>There are different types of ideal days.<br \/>\nFor me, surely today was one of them.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>After what may have been the best night\u2019s sleep that I have had in two or three months, I woke up with a cool breeze above my pillow and came downstairs to discover a nutritious <strong><em>breakfast smoothie<\/em><\/strong> and a pot of <strong><em>hot coffee<\/em><\/strong> to go with it. Thank you, Dana, for getting my day off to such a positive start. TSLA, YHOO, TJX, and FEYE took over from there, when the market opened, and I spent a productive morning managing my <strong><em>active trades<\/em><\/strong> for four separate accounts, including the <em><strong>Trust investment<\/strong>.<\/em> I may have gotten a suitable entry price for a long position in VMW, but only time will tell with that. When the office intercom beeped, I was the beneficiary of a delicious <strong><em>roast turkey sandwich<\/em><\/strong> with a bowl of <em><strong>fresh gazpacho<\/strong>.<\/em> It has been a fine season for tomatoes, and I am still working on getting my fill. Dana said that aging Walie was having one of her most lively days in a long time. After lunch, I noticed a new <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ommatidia.org\/\" title=\"A STORY ABOUT HOLLY\" target=\"_blank\"><strong><em>Ommatidia story<\/em><\/strong><\/a> by Brendan (which always makes my day), checked email, and worked a bit on my <strong><em>Spotify playlists,<\/em><\/strong> now that Marty has me successfully making the transition from Pandora. Some time ago I figured that eventually one would be able to watch any movie or TV show on demand, but I had not expected so soon to see the same be true of music. Yes, I have to listen to commercials now and then, but they are not as obnoxious as those on the Pandora site, since most of the Spotify ads are about the musical offerings themselves. Then it was into the <strong><em>painting studio<\/em><\/strong> for another session on the GAB portrait (with a few <strong><em>Danny Darst tunes<\/em><\/strong> for good company). I can say that I finally overcame the wall of fear (compliments of an old pal named perfectionism) that became attached to this commission, but now the pressing need is to find a <em><strong>route to the summit<\/strong><\/em> by the end of the month. I have pledged to myself to complete the artwork for Greg\u2019s and Lynne\u2019s return from their trip to France. At 4 o\u2019clock, I crossed the street to <strong><em>play chess<\/em><\/strong> with the library group: one win, one loss (strangely enough, it usually works out that I beat the people I am capable of defeating and lose to those I am not capable of defeating). Although I rediscovered chess through vision therapy a while back, I am getting more serious about it this year, now that I can regularly match wits with local players right next door. Before I left, I checked out <a href=\"http:\/\/www.abebooks.com\/Dead-Comedy-Three-Acts-Twain-Mark\/4889816045\/bd\" title=\"A COMEDY IN THREE ACTS\" target=\"_blank\"><strong><em>Is He Dead?<\/em><\/strong><\/a> (I admit that I wanted the Mark Twain comedy primarily to study the <em><strong>engravings by Barry Moser<\/strong><\/em>). When I got home I <em><strong>crossed paths with Dana<\/strong><\/em>, leaving to meet her spiritual group at the library, and then I jumped back into my yew-trimming <em><strong>topiary project<\/strong><\/em> in the front yard. With each passing growing season, it is easier and faster for me to keep them in shape, but more difficult to make significant changes or refinements. Nature will provide an occasional opportunity for a new direction or interesting detour, but it is mostly about keeping the whole effect under control. When the \u201cskeeters\u201d decided it was time to bite my ankles, it was off to Centre for some <strong><em>weight lifting<\/em><\/strong> before dinner. Being settled into the <strong><em>gym groove<\/em><\/strong> has always been a <strong><em>confidence-booster<\/em><\/strong> for me, and that goes back nearly 45 years. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.briansdriveintheater.com\/hercules\/peterlupus\/peterlupus27.jpg\" title=\"our favorite big guy with Annette ~ plus some fake-o muscleman\" target=\"_blank\"><em><strong>Peter Lupus<\/strong><\/em><\/a> emphasized that <strong><em>100 twists a day<\/em><\/strong> kept his waistline small, although I have not been able to achieve the daily habit yet. In the workout room, I combine strenuous twists with the \u201cab chair\u201d to manage my own belly, plus a circuit of machines and dumbbell exercises, in addition to <strong><em>the trusty bench press<\/em><\/strong> (where is that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/j.michael.menke\" title=\"currently living in Kuala Lumpur\" target=\"_blank\"><em><strong>best buddy<\/strong><\/em><\/a> to spot me?). As I entered our back door after a brisk walk home, a blend of magnificent odors told me that Dana had been <strong><em>baking up a storm<\/em><\/strong> \u2014 sourdough bread, chocolate cake, and apple pie! We are preparing to celebrate <em><strong>Marty\u2019s promotion<\/strong><\/em> to full-time employment at Hitachi in Harrodsburg. I am not the only member of the household on a roll. Well done, Grandson (and he got an A in his first course at the Technical College). Marty happened to be catching up on sleep (I cannot imagine handling a night-shift + school schedule the way he does), so Dana and I <strong><em>split a Red Hook<\/em><\/strong> and enjoyed a bowl of <strong><em>Swiss-chard-lentil soup<\/em><\/strong> with <strong><em>raw-tomato-basil-cheese salad.<\/em><\/strong> All that was left for me to do was to record <strong><em>my ideal day<\/em><\/strong> at this blogsite, and now I am ready to hit the sack. <em>Tomorrow we shall begin again!<\/em><br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/PiePictureByMarty.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/PiePictureByMarty.jpg\" title=\"Let Him Eat Cake! (Marty\u2019s picture from the kitchen.)\" width=\"444\" height=\"249\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1669\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/PiePictureByMarty.jpg 960w, https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/PiePictureByMarty-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 444px) 100vw, 444px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are different types of ideal days. For me, surely today was one of them. After what may have been the best night\u2019s sleep that I have had in two or three months, I woke up with a cool breeze above my pillow and came downstairs to discover a nutritious breakfast smoothie and a pot [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,33,35,88,17,12,68,21,18,42,29,8,82,69,38,83,28,22,23,40,16,24,84,6,34,14,15,74,27],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1653"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1653"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1737,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1653\/revisions\/1737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}