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Pretty Good Hat

It’s 2018 and I still have to screw around with VLOOKUP for half an hour before it works.

Photo of a black dog on the floor.

Haven’t had lots to say for a little while. Here’s my dog looking ready for something.

Photo of a black dog in comic book style.

This comic book photo filter really is as cool as they say. It’s too bad it’s so inconvenient to use.

Photo of a man fishing hip deep in a river.

My mom snapped this photo of my dad last week, fishing in Dillon, Montana. I’ve looked at it dozens of times since. My dad has hit some health problems the last few years, and it gives me joy to see him wading in a river, fish on, in such a spectacular place.

Josh Ritter performing on stage at Flagstaff Cornucopia.

Last weekend I got to see my favorite songwriter, Josh Ritter, perform his first ever show in my little town. It was a wonderful, outdoor solo show on a perfect autumn night, a needed change of mood from a tough week. Josh plays with such a joy, such a tremendous heart and hope. Today I continue to reflect on that as the week ended again in a way that makes me feel gutted and bleak, and I’m playing more of his music on a long Sunday afternoon.

From his “Girl in the War”:

Because the keys to the kingdom got locked inside the kingdom
And the angels fly around in there, but we can’t see them
And I gotta girl in the war, Paul I know that they can hear me yell
If they can’t find a way to help, they can go to Hell
If they can’t find a way to help her, they can go to Hell

Paul said to Petey “you gotta rock yourself a little harder;
Pretend the dove from above is a dragon and your feet are on fire”
But I gotta girl in the war, Paul her eyes are like champagne
They sparkle, bubble over, in the morning all you got is rain
Sparkle, bubble over, in the morning all you got is rain
They sparkle, bubble over, in the morning all you got is rain

We got an inch of early-season snow overnight (all melted, now, but it’s still cold out), turned on the furnace for the first time today, have a bison roast in the oven, and I’ve been playing loads of Forza, AMA.

It’s 2018 and Apple Music still can’t properly play a live album without mixing it up with studio tracks.

This cascade of reboot-required windows updates is really putting a dent in my Friday afternoon work momentum, which was already pretty significantly unhurried.