The podcast is great, because it’s usually very science-based and you get to learn about all the research people are doing in the wellness space. I’ve also found a lot of authors of books I’ve actually read are interviewed there, and it gives me new books to track down and read. It does amuse me that at some point in every podcast, Dan Harris is like, “So meditation, right?” And they’re like, “Yeah, definitely meditation.”
Sunny out. Thursday it will be 60! Still haven’t heard when I’m supposed to start training. Sitting here staring at the walls as usual. Still hoping to get a 2024 calendar ( Gary Patterson is my favorite one).
So Panamanian Vice came in today, since he isn’t leaving till tomorrow.
Shaggy: “Are you OK, you seem angry?”
Me, out loud: “I’m fine.”
Me, in my head: “Angry? Just because Panamanian Vince is spending the next 17 days in Panama for Carnival, while I have to put up with your slack ass BS?!”
And he managed to nail me and Vince in the head with bags of bags.
Mine is 3 days after the dumpster overflows. I pay a fee for this.
This is what is best in life.
Howdy all. Did the Lawnmower run and it is at the place what fixes and tunes up lawnmowers, the guy said it would be a week-10 days which is better than I expected, so I apparently beat the Spring rush. Then stopped on a whim at a local grocery nearby and they have the type of braunschweiger I prefer, so I am re-stocked until the end of March. Then dropped by my credit union, I have not been able to download my 1099-INT from them, but the assistant there printed it right out for me (with proper ID on my part, of course), so that is completed. So a busy and successful morning. Have just broken fast and will head off to the gym presently for some stationary pedaling.
Cookie, I’m rather fond of DFW; were you able to use the overhead AirTrain, I find that to be the easiest way to move. Of course, if you’re at one end of a terminal building and your plane is at the other end (like gate B1 to gate B35), you are going to hike. Paddles, I like ATL too for it’s trains, but then I never brought a dog into the country there.
talkie, hope the girl is doing better.
Spicy, keep trying things out until you find what works best for you and the family.
doggio, your perseverance in the face of incompetence is either marvelous or thick-headed, I am not sure which applies…
OK, need to complete assimilation of various foodstuffs and be about the afternoon. It’s already 57F so a nice day again.
Not necessarily either/or. He could be marvelously thick-headed. (grinning, ducking, and hiding)
The only thing I can’t prep for is the internet going out. Last year I bought an inverter so we could use 12-volt batteries to keep his desktop going, but only one of his games can be played offline so no internet is a serious problem for him.
I have books and an emergency needlepoint kit. The lamps have new batteries and the walk-in bathtub is full of water for terlit flushing, but I didn’t think about the bidet. I’ve ordered a travel bidet from Amazon but it won’t be here for three days.
Other than that, we will be fine. Our power lines are buried and our home is well insulated.
Don’t lose hope, GG would certainly fall for that.
I seem to remember you mentioning his bins being left before. I wonder how long it will take before he figures it out.
The truck is still there and probably will be until next week when it dries out enough for the tow trucks to not get stuck during the retrieval. The I17 is the main drug corridor from Mexico to the Four Corners. Law Enforcement has no patience whatever when it comes to transporting meth, even if it is just the driver’s personal stash. I’m quite sure the driver is seriously regretting his life choices at the moment.
Well, dang! Didn’t she just get over something, this just isn’t fair! I hope she feels better quickly.
Do you have any office buildings in the area? If so, go in and ask the receptionist if they have any spare 2024 calendars. Every office I’ve ever worked in always got calendars from all of their vendors and wannabe vendors, most of which were thrown out during the year because they were in the way.
Started Typing: 12:38 PM ET
Clicked Reply: 1:52 PM ET
Yesterday’s work madness finally ended at a little before 6pm, after which time I happily retreated to the living room and became one with the couch: I watched Sunday night’s episode of the new All Creatures Great and Small and several episodes from the final season of Northern Exposure, and did terribly on the NY Times Connections game but (eventually) got “Genius” on the Spelling Bee. Dinner was a banana, pizza, and popcorn, and dessert was sugar-free Jello cups (both pudding and gelatin) with whipped cream. Not a bad night of sloth at all.
Thankfully, work is on the light side today. I had two meetings this morning, but nothing else is on my calendar until 3pm; after that, I just have a workout with my personal trainer this evening. And last night’s banana was the last one, so I’ll almost definitely go to the grocery store on the way home from the gym.
Maybe not for the smaller iPads, but every time I get an iPad Pro I also buy an Apple keyboard attachment: currently I have a Magic Keyboard, which has been well worth the $300. It makes using the iPad feel like using a laptop. It does keep the tablet in landscape orientation all of the time, which is actually why I don’t like the way Chrome formats the SDMB reply windows, but 99% of the time I have no need for it to be in portrait orientation.
Did I forget to mention that you’re buying the Nats game tickets? And really good seats? 
Ooooo, I’m impressed! I started building Lego sets about a year ago and am at the point where I’m displaying them in my living room, but I don’t have anywhere near the creativity for MOCs. Luckily, I’m pretty happy with the plastic brick equivalent of paint-by-numbers.
Preach!! 
I’ve always – since school – been a “better under pressure” person. I’m also often able to get more done at the last minute than others, and with good quality. So, I do a lot of this:
I was bragging wasn’t I? I KNOW better than that, so I am blaming myself for our heat pump not heating. We have oil filled space heaters and it won’t get that cold if we can’t get someone out today, but damnit!
I do not know why I pay for a therapist when you guys are so good! I did indeed tell my beloved family members that I was folding my own laundry and graciously separating theirs out for them, and they both said thanks and took their piles of clean clothes to their rooms to do with them what they will. This is exactly what I’m supposed to do when I feel put-upon: communicate clearly what I’m feeling, do what I’m willing to do cheerfully, and let the others take care of the rest in their own ways.
All the talk of pumpkins reminds me that I had some kind of volunteer melon plant grow out of my (obviously ineffective) compost heap too late this summer to develop melons, but the pumpkins I broke apart for the birds didn’t grow. Nor were the birds impressed.
I finally broke down and ordered a calendar from the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum online because the stores I’ve been to have a dwindling stock of calendars, and none I liked. My brother used to give wall calendars for Christmas, but we mutually agreed to stop exchanging gifts a few years back.
This is what keeps me from pursuing a natural gas generator - inevitably, the gas would get shut off for some reason just when we needed it. Here’s hoping you can get a speedy repair!
And the weather is so tricky in Dallas that you can almost count on delays during (the steadily expanding) tornado season. We tend to fly Southwest, so I rarely see DFW. However, changing planes in San Diego on Southwest is a chore, since you frequently have to go through security again.
It never stops! My younger one is 30, which means I have to actually knock on her door and be invited in, but when she’s sick, I end up listening intently to hear if her cough sounds worse or if I can catch her in the hallway to casually touch her arm to assess how warm she feels. I hope overlygirl is feeling better soon!
Well, same, really. I have a few sets from the past couple of years, and happily display them too, but while putting them together, all I could think was “I can do this” and now I want to see if that is true. I haven’t freeformed a build in Lego since I was a teen, but I think I have a more considered and patient approach to making things now than I ever had before. Plus the internet provides inspiration out the wazoo.
Hi all. I apologize for not having the emotional bandwidth to interact more. I’m just feeling utterly drained. I’ve just got a couple pieces of news I wanted to update y’all with.
**Dad Update **
He’s doing a million times better. He’s eating mush food and sitting up in the chair. They’re working on getting him into a SNF this week. Once he’s strong enough from that, it will be neck in the hospital for his neck surgery. It’s going to be awhile before he’s home. Which is probably good, seeing as he had a pipe burst at some point and it wasn’t caught until over 200,000 gallons of water flowed out. My nephew is working on getting that taken care of. Trying to get everything else done… it’s getting there.
pilot, you mentioned last week about making sure I wasn’t wanting Dad to have the feeding tube for selfish reasons. And it’s not. I don’t want to lose him, but I’ve accepted that it will happen when it’s meant to. The way I phrased it to Dad was that he didn’t have to take it if he wanted to give up but if he was going to keep fighting - either of which were fine with me - he’d need the tube for a short time until he could be strong enough to eat solid foods without choking.
Fishy Update
Friday, I had my MRI done. Saturday, the nurse called saying they wanted another MRI, this time with contrast. I had that done Sunday. Today was my appointment with my spine doctor. I’ll be having a CT scan on Thursday, a pre-op appointment and a surgery education appointment on Friday. The following Thursday, the 15th, I’ll be having neck surgery.
Since I can never be simple, they’ll need to go to my spine via my throat. I had surgery on my neck at 3 months and because of that, the doctor doesn’t want to mess with the area again - the exact area where the surgery was back then. I’ll be in the hospital for 2 nights, then wearing a collar for 4-6 weeks. But hopefully at the end of it, I’ll have feelings again. Along with balance and a working bladder. So I’m not complaining too loudly.
Of course, I’m going to have to put off getting my tattoo done until I’m healed. But at least its on the other side of a get together for tonight, a date with my partner for tomorrow night, and Sunday Assembly this weekend. So I’m not missing out on all my fun.
And now I think nappage must commence.
I’ve got post-COVID syndrome and I suspect I’m also just having a bad ADHD day, but man I have been trying my hardest to get through some work. It’s like fighting through dense fog. I did okay. I spent a great deal of time staring at my calendar, feeling overwhelmed by it, until I realized I can adjust the Outlook calendar view to filter by select categories so that I’m only looking at work stuff, not my entire life at once. Whoa, what a difference that makes.
With that clarity, I was able to do a run-through of a couple upcoming applications and pick out everything I’ll need to complete it (usually means requesting things from other people, something I must do well in advance because people love giving me shit at the last minute.)
I’ve been trying not to fall asleep all day, I’ve been more than a little confused but I’ve been trying to get moving or have a snack or whatever necessary to keep the blood circulating and the work forthcoming.
So was it my most productive day? No. But I’m proud of me because I didn’t give up. Likewise I’m not giving up when I pick up my son tonight because I want to spend some time with him. It’s hard sometimes because he is so demanding. But I missed out on time with him yesterday for the same reason I’m struggling today. I have to find a way to navigate post-COVID, because who knows how long it’s going to last? I have a friend who has had long COVID going on three years now. He’s much more disabled by it than I am, so this frustration comes with a bit of gratitude.
And when my coworker recovering from COVID said she was still not feeling well but was going to “test in the morning” before our biweekly development meeting I said, “Heeeeey, how about we do this virtually?” Fortunately we were all in agreement on that point and I get to stay home tomorrow. 
I love this for you! Get it!
I have started getting the smaller kits for my son. He loves all the numbered steps. As for me, I do jigsaw puzzles. Something meditative about putting things together.
Finally! She messages me. I go in tomorrow.
Do you know how to embroider? Your son might really enjoy large gauge plastic canvas, you have to count the stitches on the pattern and then do that many stitches on the canvas. You have to follow a numbered color chart and even the colors are numbered. Geometric patterns might be right up his alley.
I just took a look and there are a ton of free beginner patterns available and thrift stores often have bags of yarn and left over canvas for not much money. If he and you don’t like it, you won’t be out a lot of money…but if he does like it, you will be putting out a lot of money in the future, so maybe not the best idea afterall.
Hurray! I hope you enjoy it.
Fishy, you snuck in while I was typing! I’m so happy things seem to be going better. I hope the good news continues!
Late afternoon all. About 5pm here at home.
Got home last night OK, straight to bed just after 10pm, slept 9 hours and been kickin’ it ever since. Breakfast at better-than-Denny’s, bought a 5-night cruise on Virgin for Sun-Fri. Should be fun; they’re the one line that is explicitly no children allowed. Got some more stuff from storage, picked up my mail & Amazons from my new PO box, hit bank, Target, & the groc store, then got more settled at the house now that my host’s houseguests have left and the spare bathroom is all mine. And ran a mongo load of laundry that will need putting away as soon as I hit [send] here.
Ref all the laundry convo in this MMP my process doesn’t exactly include “folding”. Instead it’s hang up all the outerwear, do an organized crumple on undershirts, and simply put the other stuff into FIFO piles / wads in the appropriate segregated drawers or cubbies.
My host, “Mike” for reference, and I then went to Cuban lunch together and we’re gonna have a great time as a not-so-odd couple of semi-fun semi-grumpy old men. I expected that from our prior acquaintance-ship bordering on friendship, but things change over a few years separation. Not so much in our case.
Came home from lunch and killed a bunch of accumulated administrivia.
Next steps for today are another trip to the storage unit, this time to deposit some stuff I don’t need here and also retrieve different stuff. Then to find dinner while my host entertains some lucky lady with a home-cooked fresh lobster dinner.
Tomorrow = Wed I’ve got that cancer removal stupid early in the morning, so it’ll be noonish before I check in w y’all. This’ll be a big enough slice-job that I expect the rest of the day to be pretty low-energy. Hence the frenzy today.
As to y’all …
If you’re northwest of Brownsville (the one in Texas that is), something has gone really wrong with geography.
As to recycling.
This neighborhood has curbside recycling. Lots of bins out this morning. And lots of cardboard and empty laundry detergent bottles strewn all up and down the street. Overnight it rained and apparently it was really windy too.
As to airports:
Any of the hub airports are gonna be ginormous. Making getting around on foot arduous, and maybe even impossible for infirm folks in a hurry. AA in MIA is a legacy layout which means more illogic and less ease of use. DFW or ATL are much huger (is so a word 
), but are logically laid out and well provisioned with inter-terminal transportation. Not so MIA.
That is quite snazzy. I have a similar docking station for my Surface, which lets me have a second monitor and real keyboard. Or at least it did when I had a desk; that’s all in storage now. The TypeCover is what I use when traveling, or the couch, or away from the desk. Which also forces landscape mode, but that’s not much of an issue for my use cases. I actually find I prefer typing with the thing on my lap rather than at a desk or table.
Would that be before or after getting the tickets for one of those fancy-pants jazz clubs you keep telling us about? Might need to be a separate night; don’t want to overdo it all at once. It sucks passing 30.
I loved your timeline diagram. One great pic is worth a lot of good words.
My personal equivalent is similar, except the deadline falls about halfway through the yellow “panic” segment and all the work is to the right of the deadline.
Yaay for you! Happy the MMP has been of some service.
You totally made my week with that one. Yaay for Dad!
Second best news of the thread, right after realfish’s Dad.
For all the Lego people:
What’s a MOC?
Laundry is done, time to fold hang and stuff, then go storage-ize then partay.
Cheers all!!
ETA:I got the last of the Sint Maarten pix uploaded, including a movie of some other folks jumping off the side of the mountain.
I have done some cross stitch here and there. I’ll think about this. I’m not sure he has the patience for it, but we could try.
It’s rare for my son to draw things unprompted, but this morning at breakfast he started writing equations on his drawing pad. I’m hoping he keeps at it so he can move into actual pencil and paper math some day.
I did get to spend some time with him tonight. We put water in my water bottle until it got to 2lbs. Lots of running back and forth to remove/add water. Of course 2.004 pounds was not sufficient. He wants the perfect round number. Oh, kid.
@TruePisces so glad your Dad is getting better, so sorry you are having a bunch of your own medical drama on top of this. I really hope the surgery helps.
Day-um, you are going through it. I’m glad the dad unit is feeling so much better, and jeez Louise, lady - I’m so sorry for what you’re going through! All of that, combined with the burst pipe, and one can hardly blame you for not really wanting to chat. Any big emotion is draining, even the good ones. It’s okay - come here occasionally, lurk, scream. Whatever you have to do to stay sane.
Have an absolutely incredible time with your partner, and I can’t wait for you to get your tattoo (the design is lovely, by the way - meant to say that earlier but I have the attention span of a gnat).
Not entirely sure what’s up, but half of my 'hood smells like farts.
Went to Walmart, got out of the car and was like, “Well, definitely not hungry any more. Guess I’ll still take out a loan buy toilet paper.”
The funk was the small talk o’the day for the line at the dispo (okay, I made two stops) where one woman said, “My sister thought it was her car!” and I got to be the mechanic expert: “Oh, honey. Tell her, it’s not her car.”
But what IS IT?!?
Somebody messed with the sewage pipes?
Got your steps in! 
Maybe he’s going out of town?
I went thru Miami Int’l once, as a kid. At customs, there was a heaping pile of luggage higher than I was tall, literally just piled in a heap.
Maybe they were having a bad day.
Having lived there, I got to know DFW airport. At least it’s clean.
As long as we’re hatin’ on airports, Frankfurt is bigger than DFW AND has bookstores prominently 
showing off books featuring German smut on the front cover.
That was interesting, for a sheltered and very sleep-deprived and jetlagged tween trying to find her next gate-- OMG 
.
That’s pretty much every post over in the “Workplace Rants” mega thread.
Is that what they’re calling “a bucket of water” these days?
I’m guessing there’s a whole lot of “doesn’t give a shit” in play here. And not from either of you.
While still good advice, please be advised that due to the entire economy going up in flames management changes, many freebies of yesteryear have gone “bye-bye.”
Welcome to … pretty much my entire life. Still workin’ on it.
I finally heard from G.C. earlier today. He’s doing way too much at work and sounded like he was on his last nerve … but he took the time to call me between assignments, and I am SO glad I dived for my phone.
After a week of radio silence, we basically were both convinced the other { pose of woe } hates ussss!
So it was a few moments of mutually reassuring each other; he asked about this weekend (“Dude, it’s the Super Bowl, it’s, like, one of our busiest nights. Imma be slammed this entire weekend.” “Fuck! Super Bowl. My niece is probably gonna wanna do something.”)
.. and then ..
He was getting to his destination and kind of tossed off a hurried but heartfelt, “Love you!”
… and almost reflexively, but I wouldn’t have said it otherwise, “Love you too!”
… and then spent a solid ten minutes staring into space, thinking, “Did that just happen?”
I’m glad it did, that way. I hate contrived stuff; this seemed organic and natural, if that makes any sense.
Sooooooo gonna hafta request a day off next weekend. We need to reconnect in person.
{ tries to catch up with y’all }
Holy socks, Batman! Some of y’all are riding a serious struggle bus.
Hugs 
to…
… aaaaand I poked buttons on my phone and lost the actual thread.
Will come back later. Maybe.
I’ve said enough already. Someone else’s turn:
I flew out of Frankfurt for several years when I was posted to the consulate there. Got quite a jolt on my first flight when I saw the military guards with automatic weapons patrolling the place.
Oh, yeah, them too. But as a sheltered tween, I had nothing on me that would interest them, so other than a mental “Do NOT pet the doggie!” we made no contact and I didn’t even have a mental twinge.
Ah, being a sheltered lil’ white girl. Those men with dead eyes and big guns? Nah. Bigger worry back then was finding my connecting gate and navigating the potty in a foreign language on zero sleep and some serious motion sickness.
ETA: now? Men with dead eyes and big guns (and dogs trained to sniff for things I may, ah, have encountered) scare the everlovin’ bejeebus outta me.
No longer a sheltered tween. Cue “Cherry Bomb” by Mellencamp.