Starting tomorrow morning, my building won't have water for at least 48 hours. This isn't a surprise; I found out about it a couple weeks ago. They're replacing the water tank, which is one of the better reasons for that kind of disruption, and I'm fairly certain it's said to be at least 48 to keep people from getting impatient and disruptive around 2PM on Friday. I've been told Saturday morning at the latest, and I can live with that. Unpleasantly, but I can live with it. I'm filling up water bottles for drinking, a bucket for the toilet, and setting my biggest bowl in the sink for flatware. Figuring out where local bathrooms are and how to at least wipe myself down in my apartment a couple times.

In planning it out, the biggest things seem to be wiping myself down, keeping my hands clean, and brushing my teeth. The usual routines can't be followed and it's making me deeply aware of how I follow them, down to each small step. I'd recommend giving it a shot. Just to be that conscious of it all.

The baby shower had two games: one where you guessed how long various animal pregnancies lasted, and one where you guessed who was who in baby pictures. The second one was supposed to have been done by watching a slideshow, writing guesses down, and then learning who was who.

"Wouldn't it be more fun to shout it out?" I asked.

And the entire rest of the party agreed with me.

Overall, I had a decent time. I arrived early to help set up, which included deciding how to arrange the table for maximum flow throughout the apartment, considering whether the plates and cutlery should be on this side or that based on how people are going to be moving and where the drinks will be. Nobody got in anyone's way, even when the room was crowded, so I take that as a small victory. I had a handful of genuine conversations with people, and the watermelon tonic I brought was a success. There were a few unpleasant moments - someone talking about generative programs as a positive thing, one of the guests not flushing the toilet after they were done in the bathroom - but overall, even with those moments taken into consideration, I'm fairly glad I went.

Leaving for Brooklyn a little early today fully knowing I didn't need to be at the client's house until a little later than usual left me able to walk around a bit and explore the neighborhood. Mostly walking under an elevated subway platform and peeking at the flowers and butterflies in a large fenced-off industrial lot that's largely been left to its own devices for the last few years. I didn't go down to the Gowanus Canal, and any temptation to do so was tossed aside when I realized it smelled like a fertile beach at low tide. Then I decided to savor the smell of a beach at low tide for a while and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

I wandered through a nursery and made my way over to a sandwich shop that doubles as a grocery and picked up some spicy jarred peppers, then went across the street and had an ill-advised espresso. I found a used record store that made the hard call to stop at cassette tapes, and spent a little while watching a pair of crows up in an old leafy tree. I don't think I'd want to make the move out there, and moments like crows up a tree make me consider it as a charming fancy.

I've committed myself to the baby shower next week. Unless something comes up, I'm going to be bringing some homemade watermelon shrub. I don't know how many people are attending, but whoever's going to be there had better enjoy the shrub. I offered to make a cake, but my brother J. and his wife E. are going with a store-bought Wegman's cake. I said I could do black raspberry or even parsley, but no dice.

It was fairly remarkable both J. and E. were at the family dinner tonight. I didn't mention anything about it, not even a vague remark, knowing better than to draw attention to it. I didn't mention anything about it being done at my brother R. and his wife G.'s apartment, or that E. plans to bring her A/C unit over and install it there for the afternoon. I know she's starting her third trimester. It still strikes me as indicative of something beyond simple physical ease, because moving it seems a major undertaking.

Of incidental and blogging note regarding A/C units and their logistics, the power in half my apartment was out for about four hours today. Yes, half. The southern half. The northern half with the fridge and computer was fine, but the lights on the other side of the apartment, including the bathroom, were out for a while while the power company did some work on the roof. It was the tidiness of the outage that's staying with me.