It is my last day to be in my forties.

Assuming that I will live to be 100, I have hit the halfway point.

My birthday weekend is expected to feature a dinner at the local steakhouse, and a trip to Clearwater.

...

One of the plant operators came by the other day. They've laid off everybody but two people who are finishing the shutdown and closeout operation. The guys did get their severance checks.

The operator said that when "they" came to serve the subpoenas, everyone was told to park on the office side of the parking lot so that "they" would not realize the lab side was part of the company. And that after that was over, a u-haul was backed up and all of the lab contents packed into it - instruments, glassware, computers - and it all went away. He said it would make me sick to see it now. I find that incomprehensibly distressing. I didn't expect to go back there really, but wow. I had previously been told, when I asked if my current employer could purchase some of the lab equipment, that nothing could leave the place because the assets had been frozen. Oh well.

...

Went to Kissimmee on Sunday. F wanted to visit a church; she'd been putting it off b/c she didn't want to go by herself, but she was going to screw her courage to the sticking place and get on with it, and then I volunteered to go to see her in time to go with. It was a nice church that she picked out, with very friendly people; the choir was small but surprisingly good, the pastor was conscious and alert, and the sermon was reasonable. She expects to go back. Afterward we had lunch and then went shopping (of course) and then back to her place for just a bit. Now that her former roommate has gotten the rest of her stuff out, F's had some time to get her place in order for just herself and the cats. She might not have been comfortable striking out on her own in a strange city last year, but she's cool with it now. And I'm enjoying being the mother of an independent, functional, happy adult. When F was small, sometimes she would ask what I wanted for my birthday, and I would say, "You to be a good girl." It would frustrate her and make her mad, but that really was what I wanted. Now I can look at her ability to get on with her life and feel pretty satisfied at my 50th.