Volume 18 - Day 71/294, 2026 - Thursday

It cooled off overnight, enough so that I had to put on a jacket to walk this morning. After the walk, I had an early morning appointment, and then I was on a zoom meeting later in the morning. The hallmark of a really successful zoom meeting is one that does not last as long as expected. The zoom meeting today was really excellent, both because of the content and the work we got done, but also because it did not last as long as we expected. After that meeting, I went over to Paulina's, where we (really not me, all Paulina) did a few final things for our trip next month. By the time I left Paulina's this afternoon, we (again, mostly Paulina) changed my KLM return flight from Berlin, made hotel reservations in Munich and Berlin, and booked two or three tours across Italy, Ireland and Germany. There will be lots of train rides, so I am totally 'on-board' with that. See what I did there? I have had the ficus tree in the photo accompanying this journal entry for at least two decades, maybe three. We bought it from HEB, and when we bought it (maybe three bucks) it was less that a foot high. Now, it is a great big ficus, and it takes very little care, very little attention. It is not like me at all!