This week looks to be incredibly gorgeous, but my calendar is packed: weight training class, TRX class, Pineapple Players group ukulele strum, a new finger-picking ukulele class, a mental health therapy session with that newbie youngster, an annual skin-health exam I need to bike across town for because of a detour caused by roadwork. Trivia with friends in a bar, trivia with friends online. All of this will be Tuesday through Friday, leaving me a glorious Monday free, to do whatever I want, retiree style.
AI House Design
I’ve been struggling for months to envision what the house will look like renovated. It’s come down to us picking all the crap we have to pick, and still I am without any ideas. Idea-less. I must be the only person in the western world without a Pinterest. The other day, someone had to remind me what a color wheel is.
My problem is that I don’t give a damn.
But, that means I’m standing there with a blank, idiot’s expression when the builder asks me what I want in the house. Light fixtures, ceiling color, I DON’T KNOW.
So, I sprang for a month of ChatGPT and loaded it up with the builder’s blueprints, and set to arguing like all hell broke lose with stupid AI. I could absolutely not figure out how to make it stick to the blueprints instead of making up crap, no matter how many ways I worded my instructions. So, I just fed it a bunch of “before” images and asked it to decorate for me. Tiny bit of our Earth’s precious resources by tiny bit, I whittled it down to pictures of the rooms that kind of make sense according to the blueprints and that kind of reflect what I like. I guess.
I won’t go on and on about what’s wrong, what I actually kind of like, whatever. All the “after” images are fake, so the details don’t really matter. What matters is if I wrote down all the colors and fabrics and recommendations. I think I did?
Lots of Befores, Some Nows, a Bunch of Made-up Stuff:
Living Room
Eating Area and Backdoor
Kitchen
Guest Bedroom
After all that Artificial Stupidity, I needed to take advantage of the glorious weather and my last chance at kayaking.
Last Paddle of the Year
I’ve been kayaking every Monday this summer, thanks to renting a kayak rack on the Yahara River between Lake Monona and Lake Mendota. I bike to the rack, drag my kayak a few feet to the river, and slide right in.
Today, the water was entirely flat on Lake Monona. Like glass. Gorgeous.
It’s not the peak of fall yet, but some trees are getting there.
Most of the trees are just starting to turn yellow, which is fine with me. This photo is gorgeous across my full screen.
Daytime temps are in the high 60s, and people are doing their usual: hanging hammocks between trees along the riverside and reading books (paper!) and lounging after work. I love Madison.
I see this guy nearly every Monday, playing classical acoustic guitar, with a variety of friends accompanying him on a variety of instruments. Always quiet, always laughing softly, always on the river right where it opens to the lake.
Tomorrow begins the busy schedule; today I document a successful day of retirement.
