Half way through the year

 

It is June of 2026, halfway through the year already. Memorial Day is behind us, Labor Day is still ahead, still early in the summer. June tends to be a busy month for me. For some reason it tends to be when my doctor and dentist appointments concentrate, and it is also when I take my vacation and go back to Montana for a week.

I have spent a good chunk of my time this year writing a book, and researching AI, for both personal and professional reasons. These two things have overlapped considerably, because my book is in the cyberpunk genre, and one of the main characters is an AI. In the last month my wife has also discovered the wonders of large language model AI. That started one night when she could not find anything to read, so she logged into my Claude account and asked it to write a new story for her to read. This started her on an interactive fiction journey that is still going on. She says the stories are about as good as any Kindle trash that is out there, not great, but readable and at least somewhat enjoyable.

This month I visited Montana for vacation. I did what I always do in Montana: visited family and friends, and wandered around town a bit. I actually spent more time driving to and from Montana than I did actually in Montana. So when I came back I was pretty burnt out. I am not sure whether I want to go back next year or not; I will have to think about it. Maybe I will be more positive about it when I have recovered a bit more.

One interesting thing I did while in Montana was visit a place called Cooney Dam with my family. We went there to spread my Mother's ashes. We chose this place because it was where we went on camping trips when we were kids. The last time I was there was in 1981, my senior year in high school. From what I remember, there were guns and beer. I am kind of surprised no one died. Anyway, while we were there it was very windy, and more than a little chilly. We hung out, we ate some sandwiches, and we reminisced about camping trips past. I honestly wish the day had been warmer and we had BBQ'd burgers, and maybe done a little fishing while we were there. As it was, it was an okay day.

I had the chance to visit with a very old and very dear friend earlier in the month as well. Bruce is someone I have known since the 7th grade. We have been playing D&D together for the majority of that time. His wife died recently, and he decided to take a vacation, visit his mother and, of course, friends. It was a good visit, 40 years fell away in an instant. The only thing that startled me was his snow-white hair. He warned me, but it did not help; it was a stark contrast to the jet-black hair he had in his youth. Oddly, this man has been balding since he was 17, but somehow still has most of his hair. I believe this is some sort of witchcraft, but I am not certain of that. This visit was definitely the highlight of the month.