Do Androids Dream of Losing the Plot
Took me two years to finish watching the last season of Westworld, and I could only do it as I was also working on something else to occupy the big chunk of my attention.
Normally, when a show, movie, or book loses my interest I just stop and move on, but I enjoyed the first two seasons of Westworld so much I felt like I needed to know how it all wrapped up. And surely the fourth season couldn't possibly be worse than the third. Should've stuck to my regular behavior.
I don't know what happened between the first two seasons of the show and the last two, but the story had been drained of all nuance and depth, replaced with pointless reveals and one of the stupidest denuements I can remember.
I will certainly rewatch season one and two every few years, having found them brilliant examples of story telling and cinematic introspection, but never the rest.
The Ghost Oak's Halo
I found a formula a bit back which could approximate the age of a tree by its circumfrence and type, so we wandered through the woods last Saturday with cups full of coffee and a surveyor's tape measure, gathering abroreal waist measurements.
My initial, and quite uneducated, estimate of the age of the woods as a whole is about 50 years, and at some point in the near future I'll put together a grid, get measures for samples in the grids, then see how close I am in my estimation and whether parts of the woods are significantly older than others.
Last weekend, though, we were just doing the big trees we'd already identified.
This oak unfortunately died just over a year ago, right before we closed on the property. Lightening strike and infection, and who knows what else, but it lived for about 120 years.
The oldest trees we found were two pine trees, one of which was also dead. Both clocked in at around 195 years old.
The Huitl Wood Ghost
Finally caught a darkened glimpse of the great horned owl which haunts the woods while putting out apple bits for the deer tonight. Was absolutely beside myself with joy.
Stars Tucked In
Another evening in the meadow with love and crickets.
Still Waiting To See Her Live
This surprised me at first, but as I thought about it, she is well represented on my main playlist.
Most of my listening for the last couple years has been podcasts, but I've been moving back into a music discovery mode, so it'll be interesting to see what next year looks like.
If she releases a new album in 2024, Gordi may still be my number one.
"All The Love That I Ever Needed"
Hidden meadow in deep wood;
He strung a makeshift constellation of adoration.
Lured out to discovery,
She smiled, laughed, danced
to cricket chorus on purple cast autumn carpet.
Diversion
Walking back from a quick lunch at the island, the largest cotton mouth I’ve ever seen was camped out on the trail back to the house. After expressing suitable admiration, I took a different path home.