Dev Log 05.04.2026: Bereavement Leave

Random Thoughts from a Restless Mind

Published On: May 4, 2026

🤓 The Technical: I took the day off from work — the day job involves complex Magento environments, and I know myself well enough to know that today wasn't a day for production code. Better to call it a service outage than ship a high-risk mistake. On the personal side, I stared at my computer screen a lot, thinking about stuff I wanted to work on. But ultimately, I didn't really get anything done coding-wise today.

😎 The Atmosphere: Quiet day, mostly. No specific show or playlist worth logging.

🐶 The Coworker: Hubert was extra close today. He always seems to know.

😡 The Rant: My dad passed away yesterday. I've written about him here before, in pieces — the cancer, the heart, the hospice — and now we're on the other side of it. It still doesn't feel real in the way it eventually will. Today wasn't a day for working on big things. It was a day for not making it worse. I cleaned up around the office, dealt with a minor ant invasion (vinegar and water did the trick), and did a few passes of decluttering — the kind of physical, low-stakes activity that gives your hands something to do while the rest of you tries to catch up. I managed some nausea and dizziness through the afternoon, kept calories up with a McAlister's run, and let myself off the hook for not being more than I was today.

🙂🙂🙂 The Smiles: I hosted some Magic with friends tonight. Pivoted off the "32 Deck Challenge" for the moment — too much cataloging overhead for a day like today — and instead did a rebuild of Vehicular Massacre, refactoring my old Mono-Black Vehicle deck featuring Massacre Girl. Streamlined, more consistent, more fun to play. Sitting at the table, shuffling cards, riffing with people I like — it was a real one. A familiar hobby is a quietly powerful thing on a hard day. Tonight, it was exactly what I needed.