It’s quiet here in D.C. with the government shutdown. The train station parking lot half full, the sidewalks are empty and Union Station is eerily quiet.

I’m currently squeaking through this week with about $7 in my pocket until my next paycheck, because of the previously mentioned refrigerator purchase and an unexpected pair of vet bills for Nox, who was throwing up his food constantly around New Year’s. We got him in to the vet and they gave him an exam and a shot of anti-nausea medication which made him pee all over the vet tech and scream as if he was being declawed with a power drill. He went back in a few days later for a sonogram, which cost more than the first visit but should rule out any foreign objects in his system (there was a cat ahead of him with a Christmas ribbon clogging his small intestine, due for a costly visit to the surgeon). In the meantime, he’s eating rabbit-based food, our supposition being he’s allergic to chicken. He’s been holding it down and mostly back to his normal self. I will admit I enjoyed his sudden shift into total lap-cat mode when he wasn’t feeling well; as he recovers he’ll go back to his semi-ambivalent healthy state. 

Over the weekend, I set up Lightroom to export all of my 2018 photos as JPGs and uploaded them to our Prime Photo account, something I’ve done with most of the earlier photos in our library. Having that done is good, but my next project will be upgrading our basement server to handle more files. It’s currently only limping along with 2GB of RAM, a pitifully small amount, so someday soon I’ll throw another 8GB at it, as well as swapping out one of the smaller drives with a 6TB unit to increase internal storage. Ideally, I’d replace the boot drive with an SSD unit, and if money allows I may do that as well. Honestly, when I look at it and realize it’s a 12-year-old machine and still running dependably (unlike the G5 tower it replaced) I’m amazed–especially since I bought it for $50 as a decommissioned unit from work.