The west wall of the barn was painted Sunday, 22-Feb-26 20:06:36 CET

Sunday, 01-Mar-26 21:37:06 CET

We painted the barn’s walls and the ceiling

This week Tuesday, it was the fourth anniversary of the failed Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. On Saturday, 28 February, the Israeli and US attacks on Iran started. This week, we painted the barn's walls and the ceiling a second layer of paint.

Monday 23 February

It is a new week, the last week of February 2026. We worked from home today. It was an overcast day, with intermittent rain.

While I made breakfast, I listened to an Ezra Klein podcast titled "Who has the power in the White House?" It was not a podcast I will remember for all the names mentioned. It was good and interesting, but not extraordinary. I cannot keep all the names apart from who is doing what, etc. The reason I mention the podcast is that it highlights something fundamental I missed entirely until now. I think it was Ezra who said that Trump is not a liar, he is a bullshitter. I have never thought about it this way before. That is new for me. A liar relates to the truth while manipulating through lies. A bullshitter doesn't care about the truth; it is all about the optics. At least we can now stop being upset about Trump's lies. For me, at least, that anger about the lies has previously consumed me. Not anymore. For the bullshitter, the optics are the goal; from here on, I can focus on the optics.

Tuesday 24 February

Good morning! It’s a misty morning, with rain forecast, and it's 8.5°C. The car is on 188998.

Currently, I am in a new inflammatory outbreak in my right hand that is hurting the most. I also have pain in my lower back, but I consider that more like a normal condition. I’m eating a quarter teaspoon of turmeric powder every morning to help combat inflammation. I’ve been using that for many years now, but it's not easy to tell whether it's doing any good. During the music weekend, I forgot to eat my turmeric, so perhaps this proves that I should have it every day.

Today, it is the 24th of February 2026, and it has been 4 years since Russia began the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In that time, Ukraine has gone from scattered, defenceless farmers into Europe's most advanced, resourceful, clever army. Sweden has joined NATO, which was unheard of for a country that has been non-aligned for over 200 years.

I’m on my way home, and it’s really late because I wanted to finish a quick project. I improved the reporting module. Unless I hear otherwise, the reporting module has now reached the minimum viable product stage.

Today, we talked about what one could call rogue users. It is unclear if we have rogue users. I created a module that will start monitoring for possible rogue users. Then the following question obviously is what defines a rogue user, and what should we do about it? All very interesting, but not something I’m going to be bothered about tonight. The result tonight was that I got home really late. I think this will be good.

It would have been perfectly fine to bike today. The rain I expected to fall was very little.

I have been away from the lyrics editor project a little too long. I might need to look into it as early as tonight. Most projects are more or less under control: the violin is being repaired, the DJ set planned for Friday this week has been cancelled, the barn is being painted, etc.

Wednesday 25 February

It’s a beautiful day, 17°C, and the sun has been shining all day. In the morning, I worked from home and finished some reporting on the rogue user detection. From here on, it is a research project, I suppose. The business development manager was pleased. That's nice!

After work, I started pollarding willow trees. DW has been painting the barn the entire day. I cut the willows so they still have a stem, and from that stem, new branches will grow about 1.5 meters above ground. Indeed, this is called pollarding. I cut about nine or ten willows, and I produced an enormous amount of branches and cuttings. As I accumulated more and more of the stuff, I decided to load it all onto the trailer and take it to the recycling center. DW had other ideas; she wants some of it on an extended branch rack. We will see how that goes.

Thursday 26 February

Today we both went to our offices. It was good enough to bike, but since DW also had to go to the city, I drove as I regularly do when DW needs to get to the train station. She said I can decide to bike, and perhaps I will.

I arrived relatively early. Gwen and Rita were already in the office. After some time, Nicole arrived, and then the rest. There were so many in the office that it was actually a bit crowded. I had a productive day on many fronts. The rogue users feature had a bug that was fixed. I proceeded with another iteration of the new product feature. We have still not started the rollout in several countries, and that is good because it needs to become more robust. Nicole had an issue with a project that I could help her with.

After work, I picked up DW at the train station. Her day was also active and positive.

In the evening, I went to talk to the neighbor on our southwest side. He planted brushes where we have our sheep grazing in the grazing season. The brushes will not survive if we let them stand there like this. I promised to put nets around the brushes. According to Dutch law, you are not allowed to plant things directly at the edge of your property, but I was not the one to inform him of that. His own northern neighbor, our north-west neighbor, is perfectly capable of telling him that. We will see. It means work for me. I was annoyed, but DW was happy that I did not make things explode and that we had an okay agreement, and that the sheep could continue to graze in that area.

The rest of the evening, I was doomscrolling. Well done, Jens.

Friday 27 February

Today, DW worked from home. She had her regular well-filled agenda of meetings. I had a day off. My goal was to paint the barn's ceiling. Painting is DW's home turf, but she had a day of employment work, and I wanted the barn project to proceed, so I took on the task of painting the ceiling.

I poured paint into the bucket, added water, and mixed until the water was fully incorporated. That was at least ten minutes of intense mixing. Then I rolled the roller into the paint.

I had a false start on the painting because I hadn't anticipated that the paint roller would contain water from the last time DW had cleaned it. I had to let the water drip out into a spare bucket for some time. It dripped out slowly. No worries, I stood there and watched the drip. It is more action than watching paint dry, really. Then I got to the point where I could really start painting the ceiling.

It was hard work painting the ceiling. The roll at the end of the stick is surprisingly heavy. When held completely vertically, it is lighter, but that is the worst position for applying a consistent layer of paint. I hold the stick at an angle, and yes, that is heavier but better for the result.

In the morning, the weather was lovely. It was sunny, not much wind, not that cold. The forecast promised rain, but I could not believe it with a completely blue sky.

We had lunch, and after lunch I continued painting. The clouds started to show, and by the afternoon, it became completely overcast.

At 5 PM, the ceiling was painted. Not only that, I had painted the opening to the attic of the barn. I had also improved a couple of less successful spots around the windows here and there.

DW came to inspect the work and congratulate me on a completely white ceiling. With this, the electrical contacts can be mounted, and I can tidy up the barn. It will be fantastic. It is such a hassle with all the tools heaped below this thin plastic. I would rather have the tools on tables or on the wall in neat tool holders. I am thrilled that we are finally getting to use the barn rather than work on it.

No pizza this Friday, we had a soup for dinner. I blogged after dinner and did not doomscroll this evening. You cannot waste two evenings in a row. That is just not done.

The neighbor cat came to visit Merida in the evening. You can barely see Hunter in the window.

Hunter is blinking in that friendly cat way, but I am not sure Merida is picking up the signal.

Her friend stayed posted outside the livingroom door for a while. When I let Merida out, she chased Hunter away. So much for friendship this evening. She is nurtured, and Hunter is castrated, so I suppose the relationship is platonic. I don't know how those things work.

Saturday 28 February

This morning I woke up late at 8:30 PM. I had a long, great sleep. Both DW and Merida were a little annoyed that I just kept sleeping so well. How nice it is not to sleep well and to wake up late in the morning. It was a long time ago, as far as I can remember, that I slept that long into the morning, as if I was DD. She mastered this skill, and I envy her for that. Sometime in the afternoon, I am beyond annoyed that she is still sleeping.

The forecast predicted a morning without rain, and that was fulfilled. DW had asked me to extend the willow-branch rack around our vegetable garden, which was really simple. The issue from my point of view was that the earth auger was in the attic of the barn, and how do I get up there? I put up the ladder and tried my best not to leave the newly plastered and painted edge of the hatch to the attic without dents and scratches.

I got the auger and the drill. Fine! Well, I could not start the auger. The starter line got stuck in the retractable mechanism. I disassembled the mechanism and figured it was missing a metal rod and that the opening was worn out. I stood there and wondered if there was another way of starting the auger. I removed the metal cup engaging with the start line. Then it was just a bolt left. Then I got the battery drill with the right bit for the bolt, and I started the auger with that combo. It worked! I drilled four holes for the branch rack. DW was delighted.

Then we went to friends and borrowed their branch snippet machine. It has a name, it is named "Henk". Henk was cooperative and produced snippets and was stuck just a couple of times, no worries. DW worked in the rain, but at some point, the rain got too heavy for her, so she gave up on the snippet project for today. At that point, she had consumed most of the branches stacked up in our southeast field.

In the morning, I received the first notes of the Israel-US attack on Iran. It was still night in the US. Swedish Radio One sent non-stop throughout the day with news from Iran.

Obviously, the opposition to an oppressive regime in Iran should be happy if Trump and Netanyahu come to their help, but what is it in me that doubts the sincerity of human rights from these two men?

Donald Trump just gave his State of the Union speech, during which he used 1 hour and 47 minutes to reveal that he has completely lost his sense of reality. It is one thing to know what the reality really is, and bullshitting the world about it; this man does not know what is going on, and lives in an alternative reality, and tries to bullshit us into adopting his reality.

While working in the barn, I listened to the Ezra Klein podcast from The New York Times on Donald Trump's lack of awareness of reality. Even worse, Donald is increasingly believing his own bullshit. There is noone around him for a reality check.

What can go wrong when the United States attacks another country? Look at Vietnam (1967-1973), Afghanistan (2001-2021), the hostage crisis in Iran (1980), and Somalia (1993). Some of these failed because they misjudged the situation, be it hubris or self-inflated confidence.

The podcast Battle Lines from The Telegraph in London had a bonus episode about the Israeli and US attack on Iran. In there, it was said that the window of opportunity for removing the Iranian regime by attacks from the air is shorter this time compared to Afghanistan in 2001.

In the evening, someone at a surprising distance from our house had a disco party. They had not invited me as a DJ; that was a pity. The PA system was loud enough. They did not have a well-insulated barn for their party.

Sunday 1 March

The sunrise was exquisite this morning.

This morning we had a meeting with the road association. For some time, the board has been a single person and, as such, has had no decision-making mandate. New members of the board were elected. It means the association can now make decisions and function. The idea now is to prepare for a new stretch of the road. The meeting was held in a neighbor's greenhouse. This way, there was no need to rent a space at an expensive venue. I liked it. The new people were good board material. They knew how to distill complicated matters to an easy-to-understand summary. That is important; it is powerful.

The weather today was wonderful. It was epic spring weather, according to meteorological weather. Astronomically, it is still winter until March 20. DW continued processing the willow branches. It was much more enjoyable with this beautiful weather.

I worked in the barn, applying the aluminium corners to the attic hatch hole. Aluminium is necessary to protect the siding's plastering. It looked nice!

With the hole ready for use, I could bring down table tops for the work tables I need to store tools, bits, and bobs.

In the evening, Merida slept on the cushion next to me. She looked so lovely.

It was a busy week. My shoulders got sore from painting, and my stiff neck got worse from having me look up at the ceiling while painting. It is lovely, though. I wrote 2507 words this week. Welcome back next week!