Musings of a marginally sane feline-appreciating female.

And it didn’t seem totally plausible around noon on Wednesday, but it’s Friday – you did it. Pat on the back time. And we have a half day today that should actually be a half day!

I don’t mind the occasional long day, but this week has pummeled me into the ground. This special release nonsense for our one client is just not sustainable. It’s not permanent, thank god, but it’s just a mess.

Today’s big fun plans are have a normal short workday, and then go to the dentist to get the price tag for my health. And then call the dentist next door who is in-network for my insurance and see if we can’t make this cheaper. (My old insurance paid pretty well for out of network. My insurance with work is SHIT.) I really like my dentist, but he’s just too damn expensive and my insurance is just too crappy to keep seeing him given the fact that I have the mouth of a medieval peasant despite brushing, flossing, and rinsing like it’s a religion.

I’d feel bad for bailing on my current dentist, but free market health care will do that.

And I don’t know about you, but keeping up with the news is ridiculous. We’ve got the wife of a Supreme Court Justice spouting Q-Anon theories at the Chief of Staff in the middle of an insurrection. (Uhh, Ginni, what did you do to your husband?) A former President suing his opposition over an election he *won*. We’re about to run out of Covid funds. Ukraine. A new Justice having to put up with some serious racist bullshit in her confirmation hearings.

And I’ve probably missed some other important stuff, but I don’t know how anyone is keeping up with it.

Welp, time to go make the money to pay the dental bills, LOL. Have a great Friday!

Holy shit, this week is trying to kill me. In early, out late, shit broken all over the place – but things are getting done, and hopefully I won’t be working tomorrow afternoon or Saturday.

My walking streak got broken with craptastic weather here to boot and today isn’t looking a ton better. Looking like yoga at lunch unless the rain holds off, which is fine, I certainly enjoy it, but it’s apparently not “proper exercise” according to those in the know.

Hopefully today will not bring another “the client says X is broken” which we investigate and then say, “wait, did the client actually install the special update we sent?”

Welp, time to go grind those gears – you have a great day and stick it to the man when you can.

And overcatering to one client. I left work Friday with things under control and then was somehow behind when I got into work on Monday. I’m sure the folks in the Phillipines encounter the same thing with our Friday emails when their Monday starts, but damn, I came into a crush of stuff yesterday.

And overcatering…OMG. We’re doing special weekly updates for one client, and I totally get why we’re doing it, but hoooooboy, it’s fucking up our shit. Things have to be tested before they go in the special update, and then the update itself has to be tested. And rather than put things in the special update as they’re tested and available, we’re shortening test time to get more into the special updates – it’s just not ideal.

There’s one particular app that I even said I had concerns about cause it’s gonna need detail work – the last time we made changes to another app in the same way, there were so many little broken bits and I fear the same here and rushing it through is gonna be bad.

Plus, there are some “well, you can test these together” things, but not really. Sometimes you can test Process X & Y together cause they flow right into each other. But you can’t necessarily combine testing for Defect A & B in the same fell swoop cause they’re just too different to try and easily combine and analyze if the system is doing what it should. Which is totally fine when we have our regular testing schedules but these shortened schedules make it very freakin’ difficult.

In short, this is why my alarm went off at 6 this morning instead of 7 and why despite the fact that I’ll be started working by 7:30 – it is HIGHLY unlikely I’ll be escaping at 4:30, and this will likely continue for the rest of the week. I mean, if you want employees to unionize, stuff like this is how you get it.

But, I’ve said my piece and I hope I’m wrong, but no one can say I didn’t speak up.

On a personal note, in an attempt to be healthier as I get old and creaky, I have gone for a walk two days in a row, and hit my “heart points” goal the AHA recommends, and damn if my sleeping resting heart rate didn’t go back under 70 immediately. I’ve also found out that just going one loop around the block hits the goal for the day. Which is good, and also, a bit embarrassing that I’ve not been doing what is essentially very little to make a difference. Oops.

But, I’ll be finding time at lunch or after work today to get around the block again. And yes, I do look like this, going for my walk for my stupid mental & physical health:

Have a great day and get yourself out for a walk if you can.

The good news is that I am awake and relatively refreshed this morning. However, I just do not feel like being a productive member of society today.

But, we get paid this week and it’s a half day Friday, so it’s not all bad. It’s just not all awesome, either. *waves arms at everything*

Not really sure how everyone else seems to be just cruising through their days.

But we gotta do what we gotta do, so it’s off to grind those gears.

Take care today.

But I seem to be adjusted to the time change – woke up at my regular weekend time, a little before the alarm clock and I am feeling pretty decent. Amazing how one hour can mess me up so much.

Of course, age may have something to do with it, too. I did join AARP this week… Lots of discounts + very nice tote bag, hell, why not.

Age is also making me confront the fact that my lifestyle is far too sedentary, and “those who know these things” say I should be getting 150 minutes of “moderate” exercise a week. And of course, yoga doesn’t count.

So since the weather is cooperating, I went for a walk today – with music to keep me going* and singing and kinda dancing along when a banger came on. Now, this does result in my looking like I’m having a walking seizure, but I like to think that it does up the difficulty a half notch at least.

So, 38 minutes, 2 1/4 miles, felt good, lots of hills, decent bit of exercise I’d say. Fitbit: Congrats on your 12 minutes of cardio, LOL.

RUDE.

* One earbud only – safety first and all that.

Don’t know what it’s like where you are, but it sure seems like spring has arrived here. Didn’t even have to warm up the car this morning before Starbucks, WOOHOO! And my day started with a good cuddle with the LilyMonster, who has forgiven me for not napping at lunch yesterday. She then followed that up with trying very hard to get herself stuck between the couch & end table. Then a round of belly rubs and bunny kicks, and she’s now doing her best impression of the Sphinx and being all dignified.

I can’t stop watching the news on Ukraine – and I can’t wrap my head around it. I mean, I get that Putin is just a monster, but seriously, what the fuck is the point of any of this? Russia is huge already, leave the rest of the world alone. And if we let him get away with this, he’s going to keep going – maybe we shouldn’t have let him annex Crimea or invade Georgia, or fuck with Syria or any of the other shit we’ve just let slide – we might not be where we are today. This is definitely a worldwide fuckup.

I will say that I hope I never have to be even half as brave as the Ukrainians, cause I’m pretty sure I couldn’t do it.

It makes everything else seem so, IDK, meaningless? Or at least not terribly important in comparison. Working and going about my business and my to do list and whatnot feels very weird, but I’d prefer not to be homeless, the dishes won’t do themselves and the pantry doesn’t get magically restocked by itself.

But, the mile long to-do list was done, and I will hit the grocery store in the morning, and I’m off to get the car washed. Life goes on whether we’re happy about it or not.

And I am SO READY FOR THE WEEKEND. Spring time change always messes me up, and I swear this year is worse, but I probably say that every year. I know the sleep experts say it’s better to stay on Standard Time, but I also understand why Congress stuck w/Daylight Time since we’re already there 8 out of 12 months a year. I just hate the spring switch so much.

Add to it a plague and the world being on fire, and well, it’s a lot for my aging brain and body.

Speaking of plagues, we’re within spitting distance of Moderate Community Transmission here in the county – just in time for Omicron 2 to swoop in. As someone pointed out on Twitter it’s amazing how we went from “everyone needs N95’s everywhere” to “fuck it, go lick some doorknobs” in no time at all. I will never, ever forgive the feds (BOTH admins) for abandoning us over and over again. I’m all for everyone doing their personal part, but we still need some structural support here.

And a petty thing that REALLY pisses me off? After non-vaccinated people, vaccinated folks who have managed to not get Covid are at the highest risk for this new variant. It’s just one of those SERIOUSLY? moments. I did everything I was supposed to do and every damn variant seems to mean I have to avoid it harder. And I realize how lucky I am that I can fairly easily take steps to avoid it – but I’m still annoyed as fuck about it.

Well, it’s time to go do the thing to pay the bills. Figure out some small kind thing you can do for yourself today and this weekend – you’ve earned it and then some.

ETA: And my day gas started with “Can you do this thing because coworker is out?” Sure, not like I had enough work to last me until August or anything like that.

And this has been one of those weeks. Combination of time change, 5AM checkins from the LilyMonster, the news being continually awful, etc, etc, and that results in a rather tired and sad me.

So, I’m trying to extend the grace I would give anyone else in my shoes to myself. Novel concept, huh?

Not worrying about anything beyond the basics around the house. Couple extra catnaps here and there. (Literally – the Monster has been an excellent companion.) Ice cream for dinner tonight. (It was perfect.) Not going at a breakneck pace at work.

Just gonna get myself through tomorrow and have a proper sleep in on Saturday. I think there will be donuts this weekend and/or a nice takeout lunch.

Take care of yourself. It helps.

And thankfully, Miss Monster let me sleep through the night.

So, looks like we’re ditching Standard Time if the bill gets through the House. I did not expect that legit EVERYONE on my Twitter timeline would hate it, for all different reasons.

Some folks are mad that Congress seems to be able to do this and nothing else.

Some folks are mad that it will be dark in the morning.

But pretty much everyone was mad.

God help me, I am in agreement with Marco Fucking Rubio for once in my life – he pointed out if folks don’t want their kids going to school in the dark, we should move school start times later, cause study after study after study has said that school starts too early for kids.

Overall, it was quite the “fuck your seasonal depression” scrolling day and for all the bitching twice a year about the time change, I did not see that reaction coming at all. Guess more people liked Standard Time than I’d ever imagined.

Welp, time to go grind those gears for capitalism – you have a great day and enjoy the fact that it’s not dark at 4-fucking-30 in the afternoonl.

Thanks to the furry one, I am running on about 5 hours of sleep which is more than I expected when I looked at my fitbit. 5AM to 6:30AM: Hey Girl? Girl? Hey? You up? Hey? She’d settle for a bit, then all talky again. She FINALLY decided that yes, a snack was what she wanted (it was there THE WHOLE TIME) and sacked out so we had a whole half hour of peace & sleep before the alarm went off.

Kinda undid the benefits of the long-ish weekend, and today is gonna be a SLOG to be sure.

It’s really a good thing she is so damn adorable, cause I seriously do not know how I am going to get through today. I have a very large cold brew at my side, which will help, but it can only do so much. I think there may be a lunchtime nap in my future.

Off to go do the thing to the best of my ability today, which will probably kinda suck, LOL.