I haven’t slept fully through the night but I have gotten sleep off and on. Once I awoke wondering what room I was in, and another time checking my watch to see how many days before I go home.
My cat at my GF were very happy to see me, and my fish didn’t care. I am calling that two for three, rather than two for 31. Their hair is noticeably longer (that of the mammals) and petting them feels different. I don’t pet the fish, since they won’t let me.
I have yet another pile of RPG books to read, this time the Gumshoe-based Timewatch and Dungeon Crawl Classics, a hack and slash system with a crazy magic system. In DCC, you cast spells without knowing the magnitude of their effects, so a fire spell could light a match, immolate a building or burn off your own hands. In that world is you see a mage with the head of a chicken and a stick for an arm, you’d better watch out. I am looking forward to reading both systems, plus the Savage Worlds redeux of Rifts. I may need an intervention. I told one of my guys in India that I wasn’t a collector, which I maintain is true since I have no concern for the value of things, but I definitely have tendencies toward hoarding, which I must constantly fight. This is a first-aid problem.
American food is not sitting well with me today which has led me to realize my standards of bathroom cleanliness have changed. I am thankful not to have to wipe water from everywhere before sitting down. With no evidence to support it, I won’t argue that toilet paper results in a cleaner butt than the Indian sprayer, but I have no idea how people don’t walk around with wet pants all day. Pretty much all Indian stalls are soaking wet everywhere. Fortunately a few places have a metal cover which mostly protects the roll of TP. On the plus side, Indian stalls moatly go all the way to the floor in the European style, so i can’t know if people are dancing around completely naked under the sprayer and shaking off like a dog.
Driving was interesting and I avoided the urge to honk about a hundred times driving to and from Boston to go to the Museum of Science. One of the guys from my India team asked what I do with my time when I am not working, and though there is a variety, I guess I could have used that as an example. There were a total of eight old and new friends, and we saw a DaVinci exhibit full of large models built from his drawings, followed by making ourselves full of large plates of food and cheesecake. I blame myself for my later suffering and definitely was way over my calorie limit for the day.
We went anyway despite the ongoing snowstorm. We got around eight inches of snow throughout the day, but the plows meant I only had to drive on a couple at a time, at least until I blasted through the snow bank they made at the base of my driveway. I will have to deal with that today. I took Monday off to recover and I am so far thankful that I did.
Pricing is a thing I have to get used to again. I spent around 4500 rupees for two people’s dinner and one drink, plus 1400 for parking. Add around 1000 for gas and tolls. My yearly Museum membership got three of us in for “free” for 6000. In other words the same as the cost of all my lodging and motorbike rentals in Goa and Hampi for a week, spent in an afternoon. Of course this isn’t a daily activity, but opportunity cost is interesting when measured this way. Parking at the airport during my trip was 30,000 rupees in the economy lot. I want to wait a little while before I let that mental knob fully reset.
I copied your blogs. I find them fascinating..and will look forward to your including more pictures. Although you may not think you are a great photographer, you do take interesting pictures. However, your blogs are great. I love hearing your thoughts.