Off today, rainy wandering.

I took off today in order to take the car in for an oil change. Was looking forward to wandering around the city, but the much needed rain is going to be hiting all day today. So I'll still wander around, but maybe try to do a few more indoor things here and there. Looks like the whole holiday weekend will be rainy, then of course it clears up in time for the work week. The next few weeks will be rough at my job, probably with some level of overtime. When I first started, it was miserable, it's eased up in past years. We had a really terrible director in our department who was incompetent. My first September there, I realized right away that they had no idea what to do. One year, I worked a 16 hour day, most of it just sitting around waiting for people to decide something. She left [promoted, of course] and we have someone else who is really bad with people and a terrible communicator, but at least knows how to plan and organize work and understands what needs to be done.

I want to hike somewhere this weekend, maybe just because there are often very few crowds here when it rains. But best to hike someplace with a lot of tree cover. I have a hiking trip planned in a month, hope we don't get too much rain for that. I have the rain gear, so I will go on no matter what.

Almost finished with the book Martry by Kaveh Akbar which I struggled with during the middle part [not a big fan of the "rotating POV" format in novels] but it's been worth it. A young Iranian-American writer struggles with identity and other issues, living alone as a college student after losing both parents in separate events. The book has a lot to say about grief and art. I'd been seeing it around, but saw it at the "Staff Recommends" section at the library branch near work and am glad I picked it up. Gotta go soon, have to brave the traffic and rain to get to the mechanic, and the dog needs out first etc...