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One of the hardest things to face IMO. And all those coincidences!! The only saving grace (for me) was that Andrew was becoming the person he was meant to be. He had some amazing growth in college, found some great people, and set the stage for what he is now, and that is amazing to me. His senior year, when I helped him move in the last semester, I was on my way home and Cat Stevens' "Father and Son" came on my playlist. I almost had to pull over I was tearing up so much. Good luck to Lily, you, Maura, and your Andrew!

This one will be hard to write, not because anything bad happened, only because change is hard. TL/DR - Nate is sad because Lily is in college. Longer, rambling version. Today we helped Lily move into college. She decided that she wanted to go to UNH in the spring time, so that's where we headed today. On top of the usual angst/sadness associated with dropping your first kid off at school it was a bit of an emotionally-charged day because that's where I went to school, met Maura, and lived for a few years even after graduation while Maura pursued her graduate degree. And in a simple twist of fate, the dorm that we lived in while Maura was a hall director is where Lily ended up as a Freshman. So it was a day of wildly swinging emotions. I'm confident that she'll do great there. The program that she's in (Occupational Therapy) is as good or better than any other in New England and it's very much right up her alley. So we know where she'll be for the next 5 years - it's a 4+1 masters program. What I can't figure out is why it very much feels like I have a broken heart? I mean I get it in lots of ways. As I explained to Andrew on the way home (he and I left first to get him to soccer practice), for every day in the last 18+ years I've known exactly where and when I'd see Lily next. Now, not so much. I expect it'll be at least a few weeks, if not longer before we see her. That's probably most of the pain I feel. But there's also a piece of me that feels a little, well, lost without her in the house. So we'll see how these next several weeks go with only one kid to day-to-day worry about. I'm not sure Andrew wants the additional attention coming his way. 😂

It's tough to drop off your eldest to start their life away from you. It sucks even. But you have it relatively easy in that we dropped Sophie off in Poughkeepsie and went back to SF, whereas you can take a short drive to see Lily or rescue her or congratulate her. No doubt change is still hard and you can't be swooping in every minute even if she is relatively close. Hang in there and make Andrew's life miserable while you adjust.

Speaking of more piano. For Elvira by Francesca Tandoi Trio (2014) https://open.qobuz.com/album/a7s0cd5mvszhc Example: More on the traditional side of jazzy jazz. Nice set.

Sorry I missed this. My sincere condolences to you, Antonio. In my defense, I got distracted by the thought of Jaye P. Morgan's breasts.

Antonio, my condolences to you and your family. RIP Uncle José Luis.

I don't have kids, so have no idea what you're going through, but...DAMN, she's in COLLEGE ALREADY?!?!? Fugaces labuntur anni...or as another great man once said, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." Me: Went to a new patient appointment with my new GP. Also got vaccinated against pneumonia, diphtheria tetanus pertussis. Afterwards, I got my local AI working again. (It would keep crapping out. Found out it was because there aren't a lot of good models set up for two GPUs that don't talk to each other via NVLink.) That's good, because I definitely believe I have a couple legitimate research topics that will get pretty complex, so I need to be able to have long-running conversations.

After a nice crabmeat sandwich lunch, got my Flu and (first) Shingles shots. Vaccines for the MFW!

Here's my Dolly story. During the first Gulf War the Navy flew me and about 30 others to Bahrain on a 21 hour flight to meet our ships. They evidently only had three movies to play on the plane's big screen for either a calming influence before whatever was next, or a reminder of everything great about America. Thus a The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, 9 to 5, and [Lori Anderson as a poor man's Dolly] Stroker Ace marathon loop. Over and over. RIP Dolly.

It’s just a bad year. My uncle José Luis, my father’s oldest brother, passed this morning at 96. Fulminant prostate cancer.