Welcome, 2021!

Posted on January 1, 2021 by A Dreamer

Bit grey and rainy, but that’s January for you. No first day hike for me, but the weather is going to be far better tomorrow, so I may get out and explore a local park.

Found out last night that my uncle and his girlfriend, my middle cousin, and my younger cousin and his whole family are positive for Covid.  Guessing at least one vector was the kids, as they did fall sports.  (Great job, Georgia schools!)

So, that’s 13 people now that I know that have caught it.

The vaccine can’t get into the general population soon enough.

On a more positive note, we *did* make it to 2021. Blank slate, the potential for a new start and all that good stuff. Sure, you can say that about a new day, week, or month, but there is something about a whole new year.

I will say, given how 2020 was, I’m going easy on myself in 2021. Just do the best I can in general.

No big plans for the year other than not getting Covid, and hopefully getting vaccinated by summer, and maybe eating indoors for my brother’s birthday in the fall. It’s gonna be a wild and crazy year around here.

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Goodbye, 2020.

Posted on December 31, 2020 by A Dreamer

And what a fucking year it has been.

It can basically be summed up as rage combined with deep, profound disappointment, over and over and over again.

Keep thinking back to our first suspected local case. Student from China came back after winter break and had symptoms. They were cleared – but I wonder if the test was even remotely accurate.

Governments utterly abandoned and failed us, some of our friends and neighbors failed us.

Science had to compete with idiots.

So many people tried so hard to be safe, sometimes imperfectly, but TRIED – not just for themselves, but for others – and watched as people wouldn’t mask up and had parties and gatherings and couldn’t skip two damn holidays, because, freedom.

2021 will be better. Better government. A vaccine that should help. A little bit of normalcy is on the horizon.

But I will always remember those who could have made 2020 better, and simply did not.

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That was fun!

Posted on December 29, 2020 by A Dreamer

I watched a movie last night – like, actually *watched* it, didn’t pick up my phone once, and just did this wild thing called FOCUSING. Can’t remember the last time I did that – definitely pre-pandemic.

Also – if you have not seen Crazy Rich Asians, see it – very fun.

And it’s quarter end at work, which means I am desperately trying to cram all my training hours in – we’re supposed to do 10 hours a quarter. We do at least have access to LinkedIn Learning and we can do anything, we just have to do *something*.

Yesterday I did the two and a half hour “Teams Essentials” since we just rolled out Teams at work – I now know the mechanics of it, but zero idea how I’m going to make this a useful tool. It does bring our old message board, chat & internal meetings all into one place, which is nice, but I’m still obviously missing something here.

Today I am doing the “Teams & Outlook” because as far as I can tell, it only integrates with my calendar & tasks and not actually email, so maybe I’ll figure that out. (Or maybe it doesn’t actually hook into email and if so, WHY NOT?)

And as with every new quarter, I’ll be blocking off weekly training time to avoid this end of quarter cramming – and it will get shoved aside with the next release cycle, LOL.

Time to go learn some things!

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Seems we have another Monday

Posted on December 28, 2020 by A Dreamer

As broken as time has been the last 9 months, Mondays to seem to continue to roll around with startling regularity.

After a short week of working half days, today is going to be…long. At least we only have 3 1/2 days this week – gotta ease back into that 9-5, 5 days a week nonsense, LOL.

I’ll admit, I am still totally in holiday mode – it’s going to be a hell of a week.

Go get ’em.

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Happy Boxing Day!

Posted on December 26, 2020 by A Dreamer

And yet again, I am disappointed it doesn’t mean you can punch someone in the face. Or something, like, I don’t know…2020 needs punching. (But also several someone’s in the Republican party.)

But, it is at least a Saturday, which is a good thing because after a nice little Christmas yesterday, I watched Jingle Jangle on Netflix – what a lovely movie! Great cast, fun story, visually gorgeous – it’s going in the permanent Christmas watching rotation. I did not know I needed a Black Victorian Steampunk Christmas story with singing – but I did!

Then I stayed up and watched Bridgerton. All of it. Which took until about 3:30 AM. Also delightful – I can say without spoilers that it is pretty much your typical Regency romp: Knuckleheads in love! Scandal! Pretty dresses! Young women who don’t know where babies come from! The best twist is that not everyone in Regency England is white! Which is historically accurate! Loved it.

Me & my little brother had our usual very low key but lovely Christmas – ate so much of the brunch casseroles that dinner didn’t even happen – I just snacked on hunks of Honey Baked Ham over the evening. Tonight I will make a proper side to go with it, LOL.

Lily had an excellent Christmas with treats and toys and TISSUE PAPER!! and a new grooming mitt and a kong grooming…thing. Even if I did inadvertently buy her toys that look like every illustration of the coronavirus we’ve seen this year, she is a contented kitty. (So, how early in 2021 can I use “Santa is watching!” when she gets up on the counter she’s not allowed on?)

Ball and feather cat toys that have a very unfortunate resemblance to a coronavirus illustration
Oh dear.

On the whole, despite everything, it was a good day. I hope your day was safe and filled with love.

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Christmas 2020

Posted on December 25, 2020 by A Dreamer

And it starts with an RV exploding in downtown Nashville, next to an AT&T network facility, taking 911 offline and shutting down the airport.

What will the history books call America’s version of the Troubles?

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Bring on the holiday!

Posted on December 24, 2020 by A Dreamer

Work is done and the final errand has been run, and the drugstore was pleasantly *not* a total shitshow. (I suspect the same cannot be said about the grocery store.)

I do think I will crack open a beer here shortly, as then I can’t leave the house at all, LOL. (Not that I’m particularly tempted to venture out again, it’s quite wet and gross out there today.)

Package wrapping has not started. Next year I will wrap everything as it comes into the house! (We’ll see if I remember this proclamation in 11 months.) Though it shouldn’t be too terrible since it’s not so much wrapping as putting things in the nice reusable bags that I collected over a couple years of having Amazon wrap things for me.

The re-watching of all The Christmas Carols is in full swing. FX’s 2019 version was last night (so dark, but so good) and we’re currently on Scrooge with Albert Finney, and next up will be Sir Patrick Stewart.

I have at least gotten the bags upstairs, and Lily is very keen to help.

Lily, a black and orange tortoiseshell cat, sitting on a stack of gift bags
Merry Christmas!

OK, time to get wrapping done so I’m not doing it at midnight.

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We should all work half days

Posted on December 24, 2020 by A Dreamer

Or 6 hours a day, tops. Seriously, EVERYBODY. Nobody has more than 6 hours productivity in them anyway, so let’s just stop pretending.

In other news, half days this week have been nice, even if I have been beating my head into a wall a bit – that was going to happen half-days or full. It’s just nice to get off work and not be totally knackered.

Honey Baked Ham has been acquired – 1/4 bone in ham is the perfect size, about 4 pounds total. Good amount for now, some to freeze, and a good, meaty ham bone for ham, beans and cornbread down the road. (That is going to be soooo good come mid-January.) I also got a pound of ham salad, which I thought might be overkill, but no, we have just the right amount of ham *and* ham salad.

And the shop was a well oiled machine for getting folks in and out asap.

My brother very kindly cleaned out the fridge to make room for the ham (no small undertaking) and though I had said before I was only getting a 1/4 ham, the look of relief on his face when I walked in and he saw that I had *not* gotten a 12 pound half-ham was priceless.

Of course, I had to pass by the mall on the way to the shop and it was a bit horrifying the amount of traffic going into the mall. WHY? Same with listening to the traffic reports of all the highway traffic. WHAT ARE Y’ALL DOING?

And because 2020 is the gift that keeps giving, A BEAR HAS BEEN SPOTTED less than 1 1/2 miles from here. A. BEAR. (It has happened before, but it’s pretty unusual.)

I only have one last very quick Christmas errand to run after work today, pretty pleased with that.

And now I am going to go attempt to work a half day while constantly checking the Norad Santa tracker. (He’s in Papua New Guinea!)

I know it’s not going to be an easy Christmas, but do the best you can, hang in there, and be safe.

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I am helping!!!

Posted on December 22, 2020 by A Dreamer

I signed up for a research study, and you don’t have to try to get Covid19 to be helpful!!

They’re looking for folks in the DC Metro and it’s a daily questionnaire and you can also optionally sign up for a monthly antibody test.

WTOP article with info and link.

I’m too chickenshit to do the vaccine studies, but I can do this, and it will help, and honestly, I’m really excited to help, even in a small way.

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34 days for 2 day priority mail

Posted on December 22, 2020 by A Dreamer

But, my SportPepperCat shirt is here, benefitting kitties in need!

But for real, these got dropped at the Post Office on 11/18, never got scanned in and have been in shipping limbo for a month.  Tracker says they’re still in Chicago waiting to be shipped.

I know it’s Covid and DeJoy – I’m not at all mad at the folks actually working at the USPS, I’m just happy it got here.

Another package that was supposed to arrive today was shipped, sent to wrong carrier facility, returned to Amazon and returned to seller. (Fortunately it is just a replacement drain stopper and not a gift.)

Looks like the Sees candy won’t be here til next week, but hey, great candy to ring in the new year with.

Hopefully this time next year, Covid will be less of a factor and DeJoy will be gone.

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