“Maedhros laughed saying: 'A king is he that can hold his own or else his title is vain.' "

Good and bad news right away. The good news is that I refinanced my home today, dropping the interest rate from 3.75% to 2.875%. I've only owned it for less than a year, so this will save me something like $40,000 over the lifetime of the loan! The actual process was just as annoying as it was last time, with everything seeming to take place at the last second and with Guaranteed Rate having to send a person over to my home to sign the documents, but it all worked out in the end, even with the surprise $688 dollar extra charge that we had to track down the reason for. The reason is interest. Interest accumulates really fast on a six-figure sum.

The bad news is that adult Jew camp was cancelled thanks to the climbing rates of plague. I was expecting this--honestly, I'm surprised it hadn't happened sooner--and I was almost definitely going to cancel myself if they hadn't cancelled it for me, since while most of the events were taking place outdoors, lodging was inside in cabins. Maybe I'll go next year!

I'm thinking about the indoor/outdoor thing lately as I read that Chicago's beaches won't open soon, which is hilarious in line of how many people I've seen at the beach every time I've gone. Last Saturday, I went to the lakefront with britshlez and arsduo, to the path that was destroyed by the winter storms and still hasn't been repaired, which has formed little tide pools by the border of the swollen lake, because in the sun and the sea wind and the heat, the danger from the plague is reduced to almost nothing. But apparently for the mayor, opening indoor bars is okay but opening the lakefront isn't? She talks about making decisions based on the science right up until beach-goers don't provide extra tax revenue, and that means that plague-ridden indoor dining comes back. We've been doing very well in Illinois so far, but I'm looking forward to the rising numbers now that people are crammed into spaces with recirculating air together. All those articles about coronavirus spread with photos of beaches are eye-catching, and editors probably want an excuse to run women in bikinis, but the real photos should be lines to get into bars.

Go to the beach, not to a bar.

sashagee is coming tonight for her weekend (Thursday and Friday)! Last week I took Thursday off and had Friday off due to Independence Day, but this week I'll be working. She's planning on bringing her PS4 and playing FFXV, so I'll finally see how Noctis and the bros' roadtrip ("bro-dtrip"?) goes!

( Farmer's Market dinner )

neilworms has been doing a series of Anime Deep Dives on Discord, and last night I watched 走れメロス / Run, Melos!, a film based on the book of the same name, about the tyrant of Syracuse and two friends, one of whom is accused of treason and sentenced to death and the other of which takes his place in order to allow the first to attend his sister's wedding. In the Anime Chicago Spring Sampler, we watched an anime called 文豪とアルケミスト / Bungo and Alchemist that heavily referenced Run, Melos!, so neilworms put it on the schedule. It was...hmm. I thought it was a fine story, but nothing special. On the other hand, unlike most Japanese children, I haven't read the book it was based on, so there's no nostalgia there. I'm glad I watched it, but I wouldn't seek it out again.

Book club just finished, so now it's off to prep for when sashagee gets here!