18 January 2026

Brian Bilbrey

New Year Blues

Nothing serious, just going back and fixing the last couple of post title dates from 2025 to 2026. Meanwhile January weather is like a bouncy castle, too warm for a little while, then back to cold again.

I hear voices asking if warm is such a bad thing... well, yeah. It's not actually warm, just high 30's to low 40's. First, it turns all the fluffy icy stuff into a slushy mess that's miserable to walk through, and still very slippery. Then when it gets cold again, sheet ice, no bueno. Yesterday, I was due for less than an inch of snow, and some sleet/rain. Nope, all snow. Not much mind you, about three inches worth. Not hard to shovel. Later in the day, however, I walked the dog  along our normal route. While it was successful, in the sense that we got a walk, and I didn't fall to cause myself a cranial injury ... three inches of snow over mostly smooth ice really isn't good footing. Not that it bothered Georgia in the least:

Georgia the rescue american bully mix dog, on leash on a snowy trail
Georgia on her walk today, with four paw traction 

Moving the Long Arm

Today was the first phase of getting Marcia's HandiQuilter Fusion Long Arm machine  moved along to the new caretaker. The machine, sled, computer, and ... realistically a couple of grand worth of thread are all moved across town to the new home. Next week is the big move - the frame. I'll be dismantling it and staging components upstairs over the next few days, and we'll load it into a truck and get that across town too. I'll help assemble at the other end, as I can, given work. Speaking of...

Countdown

15 weeks left until I become a retired gentleman of leisure (or home repair, choose your ending). In that 15 weeks, I have 15 or 16 days of accumulated vacation time to burn, so realistically 57-ish working days before the hammer falls on this phase of life. Not that I'm counting or anything.

Entertaining

New Star Trek - In this 60th anniversary year for Star Trek, a new show premiered this last week: Starfleet Academy. It's streaming on Paramount+, which is one of the few streaming services I retained after Marcia left the building. She'd have loved this show, I think. Holly Hunter is a lead character, and I love her style a lot. I've watched only the first episode, so I'll let you know how the show grows on me over the next little while.