My long weekend

Here we are on Memorial Day - I know people celebrate here in the US but this is really a holiday for fallen soldiers. Kind of solemn. So thinking on that. It is the holiday for people who have died in service. A time to remember them. I don't know anyone who has died in service but we have had a lot of wars and people have died for this country. So thinking on that today. It is nice to have the extra day off but it is not just about that.

I had a nice relaxing weekend - spent time at home - did lots of nothing. I got really into this show on HBO Max called Mare of Easttown. I binged it for the most part and they had the last episode on last night. Kate Winslet plays the main - lead character and I have a new appreciation for her as an actor. Really subtle performance by her. If you have HBO this is totally worth watching. Highly recommend this show. Loved it. Murder mystery and character drama. Excellent.

What else did I do - not much - read a bit. I did not do my chores.

Watching the French Open. I am pretty upset at what has happened to Naomi Osaka - she has withdrawn from the tournament because of their press policy. I really do feel like something could have been worked out there. She has a problem with doing the press interviews - as a shy, introverted person and it really impacts her. She was being honest and open about her feelings on that. She wanted to focus on her tennis and skip the press interviews. I can see how those would be a nightmare for an introvert. So Roland Garros management fined her ($15K( and were threatening to do worse to her - for not doing the press interviews during the tournament - so she withdrew - saying she did not want to be a distraction there. That is a really elegant way to do that. This is a really big deal - since Osaka is the top earning tennis player this year. I really feel like they could have worked it out. So now we don't get to see her play and that is really too bad. So really the tournament loses - so that is on them.

Yesterday, I did a fun thing. I went over to UC Berkeley campus and watched the falcons who nest there learn to fly. We have two resident falcons who live in the bell tower - the Campanile - and each year they hatch their eggs. This year they have three fledgling falcons and now is around the time that they are big enough to learn to fly. So I took my binoculars and went over there with a friend to see if we could see the babies launch themselves off the tower. Well we saw a lot. We saw them flapping their wings as they hung off the ledge and then they took off from the ledge and flapped like crazy on their first flight. It was awesome. The parents are named Annie and Grinnell and they live there all the time and the babies this year are named Fauci, Wek-Wek and Kaknu. Annie laid 4 eggs but only three were viable. Once the babies can fly well and hunt for their own food - they will go off and find their own mate and set up a nest of their own. So now is the training time and it is really exciting. Lots of peregrin falcons flying around that tower. We are going to go back and observe again. All three babies have had their first flight and are zooming around there now.

So that is about it for me. Had a low key kind of weekend. No BBQ - I am cooking a steak for dinner tonight - with a potato and some veggies.

That's it for me - hope you are doing well and having a good day.