Retirement Workstations—and a World Working Overtime

One of the joys of retirement is that I have organized our home/lives to be based on a workstation concept.  That is to say:

• The first 20 minutes was a shave, hot shower, and tossing my laundry into machines.
• A shy 15 at the coffee drinking, blood pressure taking, and red LED for eyeballs recliner.
• This is followed by 20 minutes in the e-spa (foot massage, hand massage, warm eye compress, etc.)
• Then 20 minutes at the hydroponics station. There’s always something to do here, calibrate the water instruments, prune plants, set up new units, and so forth.
• 20 minutes in the lean-to greenhouse follows – today it was cleaning off shelves, trimming back tomatoes, and putting gypsum on the toms (due to high TDS water).
• 20 more minutes did the exercises and vibration board.
• 20 min. “in the chair” dealing with Comments.
• 20 (right now) running the news compressor.

The circuit continues with:

• 20 minutes in the metal shop on equipment maintenance on the big lathe and the vertical mill.  If time, and I do run a clock, putting new desiccant in the air dryer for the plasma rigs.
• 20 minutes into a print-head change on one of the CR-10 3D printers…
• 20 minutes into putting away project parts and shop consumables.
• 20 at the Hobby Bench (cleaning day there).
• 20 minutes for a quick CW contact on the ham radio.
• 20 minutes for burn barrel work

…and by then Elaine ought to be ambulatory – this is a double-time slot with 20 minutes for baking, dishwasher emptying, and chitchat and then 20 for fresh rolls, eggs, and ham.

Finally – around 9:30 AM or so, the theoretical day off will begin.

But it gets me to the first real question of the day: How did humans ever really take Sundays off?  Kidding or fudging, right?

OK, I have to admit, we benchmark ourselves to the rest of the world.  Some of the world’s news does take a tad more than 20 minutes to make happen.

News Compressor: ON

Morning read: AMBER, with escalation pressure. The strongest compound is war ? fuel costs ? inflation ? debt stress ? political pressure. That’s a quick synthesis of this morning’s world check.

The Front Page

1. Riyadh attack widens the regional danger. Saudi authorities report at least 12 dead and more than 300 wounded after Saturday’s airport attack; Washington is considering joining Saudi strikes against the Houthis. Saudi stocks fell about 1% Sunday—an early regional risk signal ahead of tonight’s broader market reopening.
   We note that people making a stand on their home sand are easily under-estimated by stand-off “war managers.”
2. Russian diesel becomes a geopolitical bargaining chip. Trump’s diesel agreement with Putin has opened another breach with Kyiv, while Zelenskyy offers to stop refinery strikes if Russia stops attacking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Watch for an actual reciprocal agreement: statements alone do not establish de-escalation.
3. Isaias leaves a domestic disaster footprint. AP reports four deaths following Friday’s Category 2 Florida landfall, with extensive outages and continuing inland flooding danger. Recovery, power restoration and fuel distribution remain the immediate concerns.
   Upside? (Such as it is…) Reduced drought numbers to follow.
4. The energy shock is reaching sovereign balance sheets. The World Bank is discussing crisis assistance with 30–40 countries as fuel, fertilizer and debt burdens converge. This gives the week’s IMF–World Bank meetings a concrete emergency-financing dimension. Repeat after us: Global synchronized inflation.

That last point – inflation – will be in for coffee Wednesday when CPI is released.

Inside Pages

• Erie mass killing: Police report eight victims and the gunman dead following Friday’s shooting; children were among the victims, and the motive remains under investigation.
• Mexico’s Pacific coast: Hurricane Simon reached Category 4 strength as Puerto Vallarta prepared for its arrival.
• Consumer mood: Preliminary October University of Michigan sentiment fell to 46.3, with current conditions at 44.7. Deteriorating.  Yeah, downscaling looms for 2027.
• Inflation politics: A Reuters/Ipsos poll finds broad blame directed at Trump’s policies for rising living costs, including substantial Republican dissatisfaction.  Mid-terms creeping closer and power-shifts in D.C.
• Washington and the press: DOJ is examining whether the television pool’s temporary coverage boycott violated antitrust law; coverage has resumed following litigation over access restrictions. Legal conflict expanding. apnews.com
• Pakistan: The president suspended the elected provincial government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa amid confrontation with Imran Khan’s party. Escalating. Reuters
• India: A lawyer says protest leader Abhijeet Dipke and two other leaders were released from detention Sunday.
• Poland: Security services are investigating information about a possible attack on the prime minister and defence minister; the threat’s origin remains unclear. We have a quiet side bet on Ukraine-war expansion.
• Nepal: A landslide-triggered river flood prompted evacuation warnings, with five people missing and 49 rescued. No, this is not a rerun of previous.
• Arctic shipping: South Korea completed its first commercial Arctic–Europe round trip, testing a route authorities say could shorten voyages substantially. Isn’t anyone saying, “Thanks, global warming”?
• Arizona courts: A cyberattack exposed information concerning 1.3 million people with outstanding court payments, alongside sensitive protection-order and foster-care records.
• AI crosses an action boundary: Anthropic disclosed that Claude submitted a false homicide tip during a July test, plus a separate government-form submission incident. Missing: Whose session told AI to go do it?  AI is people, sorry. And some of them aren’t very good.  (We keep a list, if you’re interested.)
• Dairy bird flu: USDA confirmed H5 avian influenza in two Washington dairy herds on October 8, the state’s first livestock detections. Say, if cows can get bird flu, does this mean pigs will soon fly?
• Russian laboratory death: WHO says the cause remains unresolved; the available reporting does not establish pneumonic plague or a second case. Ah, plague research: flee or flea?

Write when you get the itch,

George@Ure.net