A tale of two tales

Pretty much everyone who has used social media has seen how easy it is to inadvertently confuse people, whether we posted a photo, shared something from someone else, or maybe it was something we said, the opportunities to sow confusion seem endless. Last night, I found out it’s also possible to look a bit muddled.

I made two social media posts last night while I was watching the recorded version of a tech show that streams live on YouTube every Saturday afternoon (NZ time), something I watch in the evening because I almost never watch TV in the daytime, even on weekends, and I also watch other YouTube videos before I wathc the recording of the live stream. My first post was one I made to my personal Facebook, and the other was a photo I shared on Instagram (at the top of this post), and my Instagram posts are set to share to automatically post on Facebook, too. However, the two posts were very different in tone and focus.

My first post, directly Facebook, was about what I was watching, and how I related to the show’s content:

Tonight I was watching a discussion on the weekly live show (recorded in my time zone) show from a tech channel that made videos Nigel and I watched, often together, and as my eyes glazed over watching the video, I thought about how Nigel could both explain to me what they were on about AND educate me about what to do. I find it extremely difficult to navigate *some* of these tech issues, and while I do my best, I’m second-tier at the very, very best. To this very day, despite all my best efforts, I still struggle. And so it continues.🤷🏻‍♂️

I don’t remember what topic made me reflective, and that’s partly because they talk about a lot of subjects on the show. The bigger reason, though, is that once I start thinking about something, especially if I’m wring down my thoughts (even on Facebook), I tune out other things going on around me, especially things on TV.

The hosts of the show were most likely talking about something to do with parts for PCs, or things related to Windows, however, my computers and devices are all Apple (I even watch YouTube videos using an Apple TV attached to my television). The fact I didn’t fully grasp what they were talking about merely made me remember how well Nigel understood it all, and how much I relied on him for all things tech, something I’ve talked about many times.

Shortly after I made that Facebook post, Leo jumped up in my lap and went to sleep. He fell deeply asleep, so much so that he even snored a bit. I took the photo, and shared it to Instagram, writing:

Tonight I was watching the weekly livestream video (after the fact…) of a YouTube tech channel Nigel and I used to watch (though we never watched the streaming shows…), and I looked down. Leo was sound asleep on my lap. He’s somewhere near me always. He’s a good boy. ❤️

My Instagram post was really about Leo, and it actually didn’t matter what I was watching at the time. However, I was still feeling reflective, about an hour after my Facebook post, and that’s why I mentioned watching it. The post automatically shared to my personal Facebook, where it appeared above my first post.

There have been times in the past where I’ve decided to not share an Instagram post to Facebook, usually because I shared a different photo there. Or maybe I shared one to Facebook first. It’s more common, though, for me to share things only to Facebook—actually, I often forget about Instagram for weeks.

All of this means that it’s extremely unusual for me to have two Facebook posts that cover similar ground follow one another. I don’t have a social media “strategy”—though maybe I should—but I often try to share nice or even sweet photos on Instagram because that’s public, and I’m well aware how much of social media is worse than a clogged sewer line. Those same photos then show up on Facebook (and ones of Leo usually get more “reactions” (like Likes) than almost anything else I post there.

Like Instagram, I seldom post anything terribly serious on my personal Facebook, either, however, I’m much more likely to post something reflective on Facebook precisely because it’s not public. It never occurred to me to post the photo only to Instagram, partly because I seldom do that, but in retrospect I wish I hadn’t mentioned watching the show on the Instagram caption. In fact, I thought about editing the caption to take that reference out, but I usually only edit to correct typos, not to completely change what I’ve said.

In the end, it made me realise I need to pay a little more attention to what I’m posting, not as obsessively as “influencers” seem to do, but simply for clarity and to avoid seeming like I’m being inconsistent. In that sense, it’s a good thing that posts were even more jarring right next to each other

There’s one thing more about all this, and it’s the reason I didn’t make any changes to what I posted: Facebook is notorious for not showing FB “Friends” everything that their “Friends” post, and that means it’s probable that only a handful of my “Friends” saw even one post, and that even fewer saw, so I was quite possibly the only one who noticed the difference in tone between the two. Besides, photos of Leo are probably seen more often by my Facebook “Friends” than almost anything else I post (and yes, I'm aware that talking about the two posts could mean more people see the text of both than ever would've otherwise).

It’s easy to inadvertently confuse people when we post to social media. Last night, I found out it’s also possible to look a bit muddled, even if the only one who noticed was me.

Lockdown v2 begins

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by arthur_amerinz (@arthur_amerinz)

Above is the selfie I posted to Instagram this evening, after the press conference had concluded. My usual padlock photo, symbolising lockdown, now has two padlocks because it’s our second complete lockdown, and because there are technicality two different ones at the moment. I said in the Instagram post’s caption:

Well, that’s weird: There was a case of community transmission of Covid and so New Zealand is going under lockdown from 11:59pm tonight. Auckland and Coromandel will be locked down for at least seven days, the rest of New Zealand will be locked down for 3 days. The vaccination programme has been temporarily suspended—so lucky I got my second jab! Oh well, fun times!

What was actually weird about it to me is that I found out about the case in the community while I was driving to get my second and final Covid vaccination jab, as I said in me previous blog post. Still, it is what it is. I may end up getting bored over the next three (maybe more) days we’re under a Level 4 lockdown, so I can’t promise there won’t be more selfies—or that there will be, for that matter. We’re all making this up as we go along.

Kia kaha.

Leo said good night

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by arthur_amerinz (@arthur_amerinz)

I forgot to share this the other night. Maybe it’s because I seldom embed Instagram posts directly anymore, and instead I post the photo separately. Dunno. But right now Leo wants to go to bed, and that reminded me. So, good night?

Jake has a champion

I’ve helped a problem Jake was having, and it says something about me as much as about him. The basic story was in the Instagram caption:

My boy Jake is 14 now, and has “old man problems”: He’s hard of hearing, hard of seeing, and hard of moving (and so am I sometimes…). I noticed he was taking longer to eat his meals, and sometimes he’d stop and raise his head before finishing. So, I took a collapsible step I keep in my kitchen for reaching high places, and put his food bowl on it. Now he gobbles his food just like he always used to and no longer raises his head. I’m glad the idea worked and that it makes him just a bit more comfortable in his golden years. He’s definitely earned a good retirement!

The important thing here is that Jake was struggling a bit and now he’s not. That’s all that matters. Also, he seems happier because of the small change.

What occurred to me later is that this is my strength: I see a problem, evaluate possible solutions to arrive at what I think is the best solution, and then I put it into action. In this particular case, it worked the first time, which isn’t necessarily a very common or usual thing, but what matters is that this is how I operate. And that it worked.

Nigel and I were very different. He’d conduct in-depth research to arrive at the best possible solution, while I’d look at all the observable facts to arrive at a useful solution. He was more about the right solution, and mine was more about a workable and fast solution (and, to be honest, one that was cost-effective). This particular time is one where my solution may have been his choice, but it’s also one he’d have have backed, even as he looked for a different (probably more elaborate) solution. Whatever works, especially for our furbabies, is all that would’ve mattered to either of us.

What matters is that Jake is less challenged than he was before. All the rest? It’s about me finding my way in this foreign life I’m now in. Jake, he just is. But he still has a champion.

Powering up, part two

Last week, part one of the “Powering my future” project was completed. One week later, this past Thursday, part two was completed when the electricity meter was switched out for a new one. The final part will be the inspection of the installation.

I would’ve talked about this on the day—I planned to—but I just got too tired, and didn’t have a chance then or the following day. However, on Thursday afternoon I posted the above photo on my Instagram, and said:

One week ago today, I had solar power (PV) panels, and the equipment to use them installed. Today the lines company swapped the power meter for one that can tell I’m sending power out (and so, I won’t be charged for the electricity I generate, and I may even make some money). Now I’m just waiting on the inspection of the electrical work to make sure it meets code, and then I can switch it on. The photo is of me and the PV panels today, after the meter was changed.

Nigel and I both wanted to tread a little more lightly on the planet, including by generating our own power, something he spent a couple years researching, preparing for, and dreaming about. He didn’t live to see the dream come true, so I’m finishing it for him.

That sums up what happened last week and this week, because I realised I hadn’t posted anything to Instagram about it. I wanted to share the project there, too, because the people I interact with there, on my personal Facebook, and through this blog are different, despite some overlaps. One of my minor goals in this project has been to normalise installing PV systems, and, by doing so, to encourage other people to do it, too. Well, that’s my hope, anyway. I also chose to do a selfie with the panels because selfies seem to be better liked on Instagram than ordinary photos, and because a photo of the new meter was pointless (see below).

The final part of this project is the inspection, and it’s the last thing stopping me from turning the system on. Despite my eagerness to get it going, there’s a good reason to wait: Once inspectors approve the installation’s electrical connections, they’ll issue a CCC (“Certificate of Code Compliance” or “Code Compliance Certificate” – both names are used). That’s an official government record that says, basically, it was done properly and according to code (which I’m sure it was). If I switched on the system without the CCC and there was a fire that was caused by an electrical fault in the system, as highly improbable as that is, my house and contents insurance probably wouldn’t cover the claim. This is one time when patience is mandatory.

The delay lets me indulge in some of my usual joking. This afternoon, after the rain finally broke and the afternoon sun streamed in through the windows and stacker doors on the western side of the house, I looked at it and said out loud, “look at all that electricity pouring in!” I was, of course, echoing Nigel’s joke about the wind, “Listen to all that electricity!”, something I mentioned last week. I also said out loud, “that one’s for you, Nigel.”

The meter is behind opaque glass and

not very interesting. Those who know

me well also know that the fact there

are all those stickers irritate me, but

not as much as the fact that they're

not aligned—and especially that the

PV sticker is way off centre. 

This solar power project is now two-thirds complete. I’m already starting work on the next one. The reality is that part of my motivation for this particular project has always been to realise Nigel’s dream of living more sustainably and self-sufficiently, though doing so in a way that makes sense for me and my life without him. So, it wasn’t just me dedicating a joke about the “electricity” pouring in through the windows to Nigel; in fact, the whole project is dedicated to him every bit as much as it is to my own future.

I guess I’m not really just building power self-sufficiency: I’m also building a bridge from the life I had and loved to whatever my life will become. That’s a lot of significance for one project to carry. None of the other projects have been so significant, and will most of the ones I still have planned won’t be, either. They’re all bridges of a different sort, mostly connecting where I am to where I want to be.

Speaking of which, I'm already starting on my next project.

Busy boy

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by arthur_amerinz (@arthur_amerinz)

The Instagram post above highlights one of the things Leo does that I think is hilarious. Well, I do now, maybe not so much when I go to put all the bark mulch back in place.

When I thought about it after posting the photo, I realised that I haven’t posted much with Jake lately. The last time I posted a photo of the two of them was almost two weeks ago. So, equal time and all that, below is a photo of the two of them this afternoon.

Further cooking experimentation

Tonight I tried another dish I never made before, Chicken Pad Thai. The description in my Instagram post:

Made Chicken Pad Thai (a Thai noodle stir fry) for the first time tonight. I made the sauce from scratch using an Australian’s recipe. The chicken was perfectly cooked, and the sauce was pretty good, BUT: There wasn’t enough sauce because I had too much noodles. I also didn’t get the noodles quite right, partly because I used too much, and because I’d never used them before. 👍

I give myself a solid B+ for my first attempt. It was good enough to try again—with less noodles.

When I said I used too much of the noodles, I wasn’t kidding: I have enough for lunch tomorrow, and possibly dinner, too. What that actually means is that I stumbled across how much to make if I was to make it for the family. Serendipity, that was. No, wait—good planning is what is was. Yeah, that’s what I meant.

In any case, it was a little fiddly to make, but that was mainly because I’d never made it before. I’m sure that if I make it a couple more times, it’ll be much easier for me, and certainly far easier than butter chicken is.

Speaking of butter chicken, I made it again a week or so ago and it was truly awful—the worst attempt yet. I made the alterations to the recipe that I’d planned to do, and it was a disaster—not at all what I wanted. Thing is, I decided against using a different recipe because it was so complicated, but maybe it would’ve been better. Or, maybe that’s never going to be a dish I get right. Nigel often said that he never found a butter chicken that was anywhere as good as what a good Indian restaurant or takeaways would sell. Maybe I should stick to buying it from one of them: It’d certainly be much, much easier.

I often think that Nigel would be pleased (and surprised…) to see me experimenting so much with cooking. That was always his thing, and I tended to just make the same things over and over. Well, actually, he did, too, but when he experimented, it was always good. I also think he might be a bit perturbed that I didn’t do all this for him. Oh well, at least it gives me something to do, I guess. I think it’s about time I made a list of the dishes I want to try making. If I do, that’ll give me something to talk about, too.

Shearing time

Last week, the dogs were shorn again. Neither one likes it, but sometimes it’s the only way to do it. Like when they’ve been neglected, for example. Jake always gets over it fairly quickly, but Leo? He becomes neurotic for about a week. Next week they should both be back to normal.

The dogs both needed grooming for quite some time, but so did Sunny. I didn’t want to groom her because she was so unhealthy, and because she’d look even worse after: She was nothing but fur and bones her last few months. But the bigger truth is, I was so wrapped up in caring for her (and worrying about her), that I just didn’t have any room in my head to figure out how to get the other two groomed.

I knew I couldn’t leave Sunny at home alone while the other two were done because she’d become a bit more emotionally needy as her disease progressed. Ordinarily, if I wasn’t there, Jake and Leo were. So, I could get a dog sitter to stay with her all day, or I could get a mobile groomer to come to the house. This latter one is a good idea because Leo gets car sick, and their usual groomer is now located about an hour and a half away. It was all too difficult for me to figure out while I was so focused on caring for Sunny.

Sunny died before I could resolved the dilemma, and instead my cousin-in-law arranged for us to take Jake and Leo, her dog, and a friend’s dog all together to be groomed. We’d have a human day out while they were at the doggie beauty parlour. She drove so I could hold Leo the whole way: My mother-in-law and I accidentally found out that if someone holds Leo, he doesn’t get car sick. It worked.

My cousin-in-law and I went to Te Aroha first and had a late breakfast, wandered around a little bit, then headed off to the larger town of Morrinsville. There we had a coffee and wandered around the shops. I also took a photo of one of the many cow statues in town, and I also posted one with me and of the more unusual cow statues. I originally planned on sharing them here, too, but—yeah, this time getting away from me thing is really, really common.

At any rate, we picked up the dogs pretty much on time and headed back to Hamilton. One of my sisters-in-law requested before and after photos, and those are above. Jake always looks so much older after he’s been shorn, but not so much when his fur is a bit longer.

Leo always looks like a completely different dog after he’s shorn. I don’t mind—his fur grows out soon enough. But when he gets groomed—shorn in particular—he’s neurotic for around a week afterward: Running from one end of the house or the other, hiding under the bed or under a pillow on a sofa (photo below), jumping up in my lap in any chair I happen to be in (and sleeping there for hours if I let him), and often compulsively licking himself (usually his forearm). This usually takes about a week to go away, so by the middle of this coming week, he should be back to normal (he’s part way there already).

I’d like to have a go at maintaining their look, but I don’t know how that’ll go. Jake will let me, but he can’t stand for very long anymore, and Leo—well, the very last time Nigel and tried to groom him he bit us both and drew a little blood. He’s mellowed since then (I think he was two at the time), but he doesn’t like me to trim the hairs over his eyes when they get too long, so I’m not optimistic this idea will work.

Instead, I’ll probably need to get them trimmed professionally, and I’ll do it much sooner this time. The last time I had them all trimmed was in June, not long after a lot of Sunny’s teeth were removed. That’s an unusually long time between groomings, but just like late 2019, whne they were also were also way overdue, there were extenuating circumstances that delayed me getting them.

Still, they’re shorn, and that will make it easier to maintain them, whoever does the actual grooming. That’s the main thing.

Crop failure

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by arthur_amerinz (@arthur_amerinz)

When I shared the above images on my Instagram, I said, “This is the first time I’ve ever had a failure growing tomatoes,” and that was true: I’ve had some years that were more productive than others, but not complete wash-outs like this year. I may or may not try again next year.

The thing is, in summer tomatoes are cheap and plentiful in the shops, so is it really worth my time and effort to grow them? This year I had a lot of success with flowers and some other things, so I may concentrate on that next year. They also need a lot less watering than tomatoes do, so there’s that, too.

I didn’t plant tomatoes for last season, of course, because planting time was about a month after Nigel died and even by then I knew I’d be moving on, possibly before they’d be ready to harvest. Plus, for obvious reasons, I simply wasn’t interested.

This year, the plants were given to me, though I had to buy the pots and dirt, of course. Still, that wasn’t much of an outlay, really. It was just a lot of work watering them every day. I had to water the flowers, too, but that seemed less of a bother for some reason.

At any rate, it’s time to replant my VegePod, which has worked out well, and I’m planning on getting a “greenhouse” cover for it so I can grow stuff this winter, too (like lettuce and herbs). That’11 be a whole new adventure.

Live and learn, I suppose, but sometimes things just happen, and this was one of those years. Just as long as I learn for next year.

Two years before the two years

The Facebook Memory at left is about a stop we made at the edge of the Manukau Harbour in Auckland four years ago today. This photo is from what was a bit of a secret mission because the "errand" I mentioned was that we were at Clarks Beach doing a walk through of the house we'd just bought, the last one that Nigel and I shared. For reasons I still don't really understand, I didn't talk about the move in advance, however, I know that part of the reason was that Clarks Beach is a very small settlement, so I was a little worried it'd be too easy to find us, since my Instagram and blog are both public (I was trying to protect us both, but especially Nigel because there are some very dangerous people who use the Internet to do harm to others).

We were there because we had a list of things we wanted to check before settlement, including a couple just for our own information (such as, where the hot water heater and fusebox were). We also noted a couple very minor things that needed to fixed before settlement. Settlement was on February 24, and we moved in the next day.

This particular photo was taken at my favourite (if that's the right word) beach access, not far from our house. I never actually went to the one closest to our house, one that was only accessible on foot. That was one of those things I meant to get to, but we ran out of time.

The photo below was taken at the same time (I turned to my right), and I shared it in a blog post that day where I talked about harbours, but, of course, not the reason I was there to take the photos. Even so, I foreshadowed what I thought would be a lot of photos at the harbour’s edge: “As I start to get around the outer reaches of Auckland a bit more, though, I’ll share more photos. Today is just the start of that.” It sort of was, at least a little bit.

Still, I've always liked the photo in that memory, which is reason enough to share it.

In addition to the 2017 post I linked to, the photo up top can also be seen on my Instagram account.

This one was for Nigel

View this post on Instagram

I just dropped off my ballot for the US Federal elections. It cost me NZ$50 to send by international courier because I can’t trust the US Postal Service to be able to deliver it, and it was important to me that I fulfilled a personal mission: When Nigel knew his cancer was terminal, he said to me, “I just hope I live long enough to see that bastard voted out of the White House.” He didn’t, of course, so I made it my personal mission to vote this year despite all the obstacles, to do my small bit to get the result we both wanted. As I completed the transaction, I thought to myself, “this one’s for you, Nigel.” That would’ve put a big grin on his face. Mine, too, actually.

A post shared by arthur_amerinz (@arthur_amerinz) on Oct 14, 2020 at 7:03pm PDT

Today I sent my US General Election ballot by International Courier. As I said in the caption to my Instagram post today (above, or follow the link), it was a bit of a personal mission: This one was for Nigel.

I vote in general elections every two years, and it’s a duty I always take very seriously. This year I haven’t been in to it, mainly because of losing Nigel, but he’s also the reason I wanted to be sure to vote.

Nigel didn’t make me promise much before he died, but one thing I promised myself was that I’d vote in honour of him. In a sense, it doesn’t matter whether I voted or not: Illinois is solidly Blue and Joe Biden will win it handily. And, as we all know, the popular vote nationwide doesn’t determine who is elected president. However, in 2016 the current occupant of the White House lost the nationwide popular vote by just under 3 million votes, and what if this year it was 13 million? If the nationwide popular vote for Biden is big enough, it will make an Electoral College victory more likely. It would also be very satisfying to see the Republican candidate hit with a large and humiliating rejection by voters, and it’s in that sense my vote actually does matter.

I marked my ballot using the same pen I used to vote in the New Zealand General Election. Also, just as I wore a red shirt to vote in the NZ election (red is the colour of the New Zealand Labour Party), today I wore a blue shirt (blue, of course, being associated with the USA’s Democratic Party). On both days I wore Nigel’s bracelet to bring him with me. It was the first time I voted in a US election “with” him (in previous years, he was at work).

My vote won’t actually matter in the big picture, but it was important to me, and has been all along because I needed to reject the current regime in the only way open to me. But my main motivation was that I promised myself I’d go out of my way, if necessary, to do it for Nigel (and spending $50 to send my ballot qualifies as going out of my way, in my opinion). That’s another promise to Nigel kept, the only one I made to myself on his behalf.

Obviously I have no idea what will happen next month (or beyond…), but I at least know that I did my part to make Nigel’s desire to see “that bastard voted out of the White House” come true, even though he didn’t live to see it. And that’s why this one was for Nigel.

The important part at left, the whole thing at right.

Pōti ahau – I voted (2020)

View this post on Instagram

Pōti ahau - I voted, 2020 edition. That’s my New Zealand civic duty done for another three years. 🙂🗳🇳🇿

A post shared by arthur_amerinz (@arthur_amerinz) on Oct 3, 2020 at 6:07pm PDT

Today I voted in New Zealand’s General Election, which closes on Saturday, October 17. Each year an increasing number of voters choose to vote early, and for me there was no reason for me not to do it today. It was a bright, sunny, warm Spring day, so what could be a better way to spend it than to vote?

I’d planned on voting sometime this coming week, when there are a lot of voting places open. I changed my mind when my niece posted on Facebook that she’d voted this morning, and I thought, “Why not?” I used to always wait to go with Nigel to vote, but that’s obviously no longer relevant. But I did wear Nigel’s bracelet today so that, in a way, I could bring him with me.

I checked the vote.nz website to find one open today, because not many are open on Sunday. The site lists the times and day as well as date voting places are open. There was one “just up the road”—a couple kilometres away, maybe. I drove over there only to find it was closed.

I can’t begin to describe how disappointed I was—“crushed” may be too strong a word, but not by much. I really did have my heart set on voting today.

So, as I closer to home, I pulled over and picked up my phone to find another possible voting place. Instead of using the site to find me a place, I instead looked at the map (which begins with all of NZ that I needed to enlarge). There was nothing near me, so I looked a bit further afield, looking for one in my Electorate (Hamilton has two) because I knew it would be easier for everyone, and because I wasn’t sure where the Electorate boundaries actually are. I remembered only later that there are a few voting places that serve both Electorates.

I set off with my GPS telling me where to go (though I actually knew most of the way there), and as I got near I saw the “Voting” sign on the road, and turned in. Siri was not happy with me and kept telling me to “return to the route”. I’m sure it was only my imagination that each instruction sounded a bit more annoyed than the one before. I should add that the address I entered (also from the Vote.NZ website) may not have been wrong because the voting place was in a park building, and the park may have had two entrances, for all I know (there’s a lot of Hamilton I don’t know).

I went in after scanning the QR code for the Covid-19 contact tracing App, and a friendly lady directed me on where to go to vote. I saw tape marks on the floor to tell people where to stand if there was a queue.

I entered the door to the actual room, which was empty except for the workers. There was another QR code, which, the helpful guy told me, was the same as the one I’d already scanned. They invited me to sanitise my hands, and if I didn’t bring my own pen. I could take one to use and then take home afterward. So, I did.

I went to the lady checking people in and chatted with her and the woman next to her (who was dealing with more complicated votes). I stood on the tape mark on the floor, and there were several behind me. The lady dealing with the more complicated votes had six chairs in a line in front of her (because it can be very time consuming), each chair meeting physical distancing requirements.

I asked the ladies how busy they’d been and they told me it had been steady today, but yesterday—the first day of voting—was more hectic. I was given my two voting papers (one for Party Vote and Electorate Vote, and the other for the two referenda). She also pointed to the ballot boxes and to the freestanding voting booths (they had two for people standing, and one lower one for people in wheelchairs).

I did my General Election paper first—two ticks Labour, of course), and then the referenda: I voted “Yes” on both. I triple-checked to make sure I hadn’t made any mistakes, then folded the voting papers back in half again, walked over to the ballot boxes, put my referendum paper in its box and my General Election voting paper in its ballot box.

I paused at that point because a woman had just entered the door, wearing a mask, and I waited until she moved toward the table with the lady before I moved to leave. I was again invited to sanitise my hands, and I did. I thanked everyone and left.

Once outside, I waited until some park visitors got into their car to leave so I could take my selfie (for my Instagram post, included above). As I walked back to my car, another one pulled into the parking area, and a couple got out, neither one was wearing a mask. Then, another car pulled in and three people got out, all of them wearing masks.

I didn’t wear a mask because we’re at Level One (the lowest level) and there’s currently no community transmission. More importantly, there hasn’t been any official advice to wear masks, and none of the staff working there were wearing masks, either. If the government advised us to wear a mask, I probably would have. However, the chance of getting infected there under our current reality is next to none, and, in any case, since I scanned the QR code, the government will be able to let me know in the infinitesimally small chance that someone with Covid-19 had been there.

Once I found a voting place, everything went very well. Everyone was really nice, and it was kind of cool having the place to myself for awhile. The lady who came in just before I left didn’t look very friendly, so I wondered if maybe she was frightened. I’ll never know, of course, but I do know that for some reason some people find the process stressful, and that’s probably even more true this year.

Going to vote is like Christmas and my birthday all rolled into one—I absolutely love it. That’s why I was so disappointed when it looked like I’d have to wait after I’d already decided I wanted to vote today and had my heart set on it. I’m glad everything worked out.

We’ll get preliminary results of the General Election the evening of October 17, but the referenda votes will be counted after that, so we won’t hear the preliminary results for them until late in the month. Many years ago, probably the first one I could vote in, there were two referenda, too, but they chose to tally those and the referenda that night, which meant we didn’t know how the General Election turned out until very late that night. Clearly the elections people learned from that experience.

And that’s it for my NZ voting this year. I wish I could go do it again, but the next time will be three years from now. I’m sure I’ll get excited about that, too.

Leo makes a stand

The photo above shows what the blinds in the front window looked like after Leo saw the big elderly/dopey dog belonging to a builder who’s working on the house next door. Leo does NOT like the way that dog likes to lounge on my front lawn. (The blinds were not injured, of course, but Leo’s ego may have been).

I posted this photo (with a slightly different caption) on Instagram this morning.

Doggone (pillow) morning

View this post on Instagram

“Good morning!”, Leo says. “Now, get up and give me some breakfast!”

A post shared by arthur_amerinz (@arthur_amerinz) on Sep 1, 2020 at 1:18pm PDT

Today Leo decided to try a new trick. He’s often been stretched-out along my side, but this morning he crawled up on my pillow and lay against my head. This was, I think, because his demanding scratches hadn’t persuaded me to get up. His new trick worked.

This, of course, isn’t the first time he’s been in a weird position on or near me (see the photo at left, which is from March of last year; it's something I blogged about at the time), but this particular position is new. I think he’s trying to use his cuteness to get me to do what he wants, successfully—today, anyway.

Despite his clear manipulation of me, it was nevertheless nice to have something to laugh about, when there’s been so much about Sunny's situation lately that’s been the opposite. I’ll take it.

Representative of my life right now

View this post on Instagram

Misty morning outside the house.

A post shared by arthur_amerinz (@arthur_amerinz) on Jul 21, 2013 at 2:30pm PDT

The post above was the first I shared on Instagram. So much has changed in the seven years since: Three and a bit years later, I’d be in hospital getting a cardiac stent, six months after that, Nigel and I moved to the southern edge of the Manukau Harbour. Six years after this photo, we were a month out from what would be Nigel’s last birthday (I never blogged about Nigel’s birthdays).

Now, the dogs and I are in a new house alone, without Nigel, in a different city than the photo was taken in, and, seven years after I took it, I think that photo’s representative of where I’m at in my life right now: Some things are obvious, some are indistinct, but it’s kind of hard for me to see anything clearly. It’s familiar and strange all at the same time. And the thing I notice the most about it is something I noticed back then, but didn’t pay much attention to: A feeling of aloneness and loneliness. Like I said, it’s representative of where I’m at in my life.
And today it’s cold and raining. Seems appropriate, somehow.

Related: “And another” – my blog post about that photo, published the same day I posted it to Instagram, July 22, 2013. Back then, I didn’t embed the original post as I did above. Like I said, so much has changed.

This is a revised and expanded version of something I posted to my personal Facebook this morning. Among other things, I added links to relevant blog posts.