What did you do this weekend?

Long story short: don't try resetting your circadian rhythm by sleeping over.

I've slept for 32 hours straight during the weekend. I may have reset the internal clock somewhat, but that's only due to the fatigue afterwards. Woke up with a raging headache, couldn't do a damn thing but lie in bed for the remainder of the day.

Just... don't.

I sat inside as fires raged here in Colorado. It looks as if it is midnight and it's raining ash.

I went to my first live music event since COVID started. A local club has a street behind it that they block off part of, set up a stage and place a bunch of tables in a long line socially distanced. It was hot as hell (>100F) and the air was full of smoke from the wildfires, so it was brutal but I had so much fun. God I missed raving.

We had actual visitors come to stay. It was very exciting. Some good friends came, they brought their tent so they could sleep in a distanced fashion and we spent as much time as we could outside just to be as safe as possible. But, guests! Our kids played together. I cooked for everyone, which is my all-time favourite thing to do with other humans. We got to play some board games. We went to the park and flew kites. Everyone was a little giddy with excitement.

It was so lovely after so long not doing this stuff. I didn't realise quite how much I'd missed it. Of course now the schools have re-opened so we're probably going back into some degree of voluntary hiding for a while until we find out how that situation will play out.

My wife and I went shopping for a sofa. We were completely ignored by the sales staff at a La-Z-Boy Gallery because of my shaggy appearance. I guess they didn’t think I was worth their time.

I got so fed up with being cooped inside, despite the heat, I went on a bike ride across the Golden Gate Bridge up toward Hawk Hill. I turned around earlier than expected because I noticed the air quality was getting much worse on the coast, and I just barely made it home before the air was unbearable. I mean, the air quality was part of it, but I was also crazy out of shape and couldn't actually make it up the whole way... Next time I'll make it up the whole hill, I swear!

California is currently undergoing an apocalypse. Yesterday I didn't go out at all because it was 120°F. Today I went grocery shopping because things had cooled down somewhat, but the sky was full of ashes.

Hiked the Solstice Falls trail/loop in Malibu. It was a good way to escape the heat, as it was 10 degrees cooler up there than at home. Going through LA made it not worth the trip. My brother's fiancee and her aunt had to turn around and go back the longer, but easier and more shaded way, because the second part of the loop was killer for a bunch of relatively out of shape young men, and she was already having trouble. The fiancee and her dog followed her aunt for family bonding time in the shade. They beat us back, as well, despite having to go further, because the hills were that intense.

I also had to wrangle a class project into shape. Nobody knew it was a group project, and the one guy who had an indication didn't come out and say it. We built it off of what I'd done for my assignment because I uploaded it first. We got it in, it's reviewed tomorrow (online, of course) with the professor, but we got it in. This is going to be an interesting semester.

I got curious about webrings, and built one for Midnight Pub. It's called the Midnight Webring and it's there to connect the homepage of the patrons.

Relaxing! I've had a busy few weekends lately, and the enxt two, possibly three will be too. So I mainly played some video games, relaxed, and that's pretty much it!

I got engaged over the weekend, which is pretty cool. We were in a two-person kayak at dawn in a swamp with lots of Cypress trees and Spanish moss, so it was quite picturesque. Nothing about our relationship feels different since this has been a long time coming, but suspension of international mail made getting the ring take longer than I'd have wanted.

We mostly escaped the heat by staying in Monterey. There is still some smoke and it’s hot in the afternoon, but not like most places in California.

All the beaches and shoreline areas are closed, which really means the beach parking lots are closed and many people park across the street and ignore the signs. Which we eventually did too. We went early Monday morning to avoid other people and took pictures of hermit crabs in some tide pools.

My mother went to take care of my uncle's dogs because he went on a trip to another state. We also went to a square where people make and sell burgers and hotdogs and ate some. To be honest, most of the stuff that doesn't come from a large, international fast-food chain falls flat, which is 9/10 Consoomer behavior (There is a real term for only liking food you are familiar with but I don't remember what it is ^{and I do know the connotations words like 'Consoomer' have}) but I can't stop it.

Friday night we had a family corn roast. My siblings' families and my family got together at my parents' house and we had a socially distant outdoor meal cooked over a fire. My mom set up individual tables for each subfamily, and we all had corn on the cob, hot dogs, smores, cupcakes, and other unhealthy things. It was generally a pretty great time; my parents live out in the country so once it got dark, we had a good view of the stars without much light pollution.

We went to my in-laws for a socially distant day-time get together where we played a lot of badminton and bocce, and had chicken pakoras and kebabs and chutney sandwiches. I hadn't seen my in-laws in a while, including my brother-in-law who I've missed recently. My son (5) got to have a lengthy talk with his granddad about cars, which is probably the favourite topic for both of them, and my daughters played an electric piano that we brought with and sang songs.

I cleaned my office. It had been getting pretty unmanageable; I spent many hours on it. I had a collapsible table set up on which I had placed lots of things that needed sorting - mostly tools, but also knick-knacks, books, toys, computer parts. I watched a few episodes of "The Boys" season 1 while doing the cleanup - I'm going to rewatch before starting season 2. I found a core i9 extreme in the pile of crap that was above my computer, and I might build another PC and give it to my mom. I just need a motherboard, GPU, and power supply to do so.

We played games, went for walks, did some yard maintenance, and I even started watching "Schitt's Creek" with my wife. She doesn't like watching things that as they are airing; she likes to be able to watch at our pace.

All in all, this weekend was filled with things, and most of them were quite enjoyable.