Weeknotes 77

I got my second dose of COVID-19 vaccine. It was less of a production than last time: I had an earlier appointment and the hospital was much quieter so I was straight in & out with no wait at all, plus I got to pop there and back on my bike instead of walking. It was a sunny day and it felt nice to be out for a morning ride across the river to evade a pandemic.

I’m extremely grateful to be fully vaccinated, although I suppose I need to wait another two weeks for the second dose to be effective. I find it hard to imagine what’s going to change about my life after that. Rationally I should start easing back into normality, except a) I don’t really know what normality looks like now that I work remotely and b) the Delta variant situation seems a bit precarious.

In any case, I’m going to make sure I actively resist the urge to spend the rest of my days trapped in my flat avoiding contact with other people even though that’s become a comfortingly familiar way of life.

This dose has affected me more than the first one, which is apparently the wrong way around. I’ve spent today in bed feeling wiped out and flu-like. It’s a small price to pay and I’m sure it’ll pass soon.

Genuine Elements of Computing Systems excitement this week as we got a Hack assembler working. I had expected to have the second edition in hand by now, but Amazon is saying “This title will be released on July 6, 2021” so I’ll have to wait a little longer.

I’m still baking sourdough twice a week. My loaves went through a period of being a bit flat and disappointing but they’re slowly improving again. I think the dough was getting too warm so I’ve switched to cooler water and turned down the temperature on my fridge for the overnight prove. Now I’m back to nice fat loaves with plenty of oven spring.

I had a lot of late nights last week and the sleep debt was starting to affect me. I’ve tried to pay some of it back this week and I think I’m feeling a bit better, notwithstanding today’s post-vaccination fog.

I’ve still been too tired to properly read or watch or play or do anything in particular. I really need a break. Fortunately next weekend is five days long.

Still 10.7kg down. I don’t know why I’ve suddenly stalled after weeks of pretty consistent progress; I didn’t eat or exercise any differently. Oh well. Hopefully next week will be better.