From Surgery to Suds

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Morning routine. Upper Hand and Dr. Tsai appointments. Breakfast with Zelda. Ontological cleanup work. Book Club scheduling via Doodle. KAI proxy project initiated. Minecraft infrastructure completion. Weighted vest walk to Suds. Beer with Brian, Jack, and Tim.

From hand surgery planning to weighted vest walks

Events and activities that occurred on Monday, January 26, 2026

The morning brought appointments: Upper Hand first, then Dr. Tsai to address the right hand that has been bothering me. The needle procedure proved too obstinate to work, so surgery will follow after the New Zealand trip. During the visit, I learned that Dr. Tsai's son had recently started at Brown University in a medical program—and had walked past the building where the December shooting occurred just an hour before it happened. The conversation turned briefly dark with that reminder of how proximity to tragedy shapes perspective.

Trees and chickens from a while ago
Breakfast with Zelda offered a different kind of conversation—reminiscing about Dan, keeping those memories alive through shared stories.

Substantial time went into what might be called ontological cleanup—reorganizing the conceptual architecture of Projects, Assets, and Entities in TheBrain. The kind of work that feels invisible but creates the scaffolding for everything else to hang properly. Related to this, the KAI USA Proxy project got properly instantiated, moving from vague intention to concrete structure.

Book Club logistics consumed attention as the group tries to find a time that works for everyone. The simple scheduling note evolved into a Doodle poll when it became clear that coordinating this many schedules required more than goodwill. Ordered the WANDRD TRANSIT backpack for Joey as part of New Zealand trip preparation—the gear accumulation continues.

The weighted vest walk to Suds provided the day's physical grounding, 16 pounds adding resistance to the familiar route. On the way, a conversation with the guy working on the lot next door revealed they plan to take all the trees down—a reminder that neighborhoods transform in ways we don't control. Beer with Brian, Jack, and Tim ranged through random topics, including Leland's adventures in Minecraft and the pleasures of watching kids discover building games. Jack gave me a ride home.

The evening turned to infrastructure of a different sort: upgrading the Foo minecraft server and then playing for a while, finally completing the NTS connection between the Cherry Forest and Porto Alegre areas. The evening turned to infrastructure of a different sort: upgrading the Foo minecraft server and then playing for a while, finally completing the NTS connection between the Cherry Forest and Porto Alegre areas.

The day traced a thread from the obstinate to the achievable—a hand that won't cooperate, trees that will come down regardless, schedules that resist coordination. Yet within those constraints, small connections got made: conceptual architecture reorganized, a project properly instantiated, two virtual stations finally linked. Sometimes progress means accepting what won't bend while finding what will.

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