Highlights: Jen left for Italy early Friday am. I returned, and en route, Tommy called and wanted to have breakfast. We did; we went to LG Cafe. It's been a difficult couple of days, frankly. I am trying to balance intent, ignorance and disdain, and the hope that something will change for the better in time. I don't know that I have that time. Work issues arose with Randy and later with Marlin making me think I need to get on top of some expectations and deliverables. I'm burnt out. I had a sleepless night. The stress and pressures are negatives, and I need to reclaim some degree of focus and sanity, which brings me to the whole "Album" obsession. Like I've done in other instances throughout my life, I went off the deep end with this entire effort. What started as an idea to have some excellent retro LPs in the cool retro Hi-Fi console morphed into my revisiting the "key influence" records I once owned. Then stumbling across "close but not quite key" material had me going down a rabbit hole. A few $$$ and about 50 LPs later, I realized last night that it's just another time suck and diversion. Some aspects of it are rewarding and relaxed, and I'm not going to dump what I've amassed suddenly, but I'm going to set aside and thin out the bulk and return to the original intentions. Ultimately having a handful of 1961 releases in the Hi-Fi and a very focused set of landmarks that represent my musical maturation are sufficient. Time to focus elsewhere. I'm putting time into this I need to put it into something more substantive. I knocked off a few household tasks earlier, but the 90-degree heat made me think twice. I'm lying low for the remainder of the afternoon. Matt B, Jess, and I are going to the Mt Winery tonight to take in the Billy Joel Tribute Band. That should be fun. I put the 'bark collars' back on the dogs and set them to "11," so we'll see if that mitigates the frequency of their barks tonight. I talked to Jen on her PM there - she's having a good time so far; her apartment is cool, as is the town and village they're in. Tomorrow is their 1st-day cooking, and I'm looking forward to hearing how it goes.
