Another early rise day?

Posted on August 26, 2021 by A Dreamer

Up a half hour before the alarm – what am I, a morning person?! (No, no I am not.)

Was half thinking I should get in early cause I have to take a long lunch to go see the dentist (this should be the last time for a while) – but I am also needing to burn PTO or lose it, so…yeah, we’ll just take an hour or so if needed and just enjoy having some extra time with my coffee this morning.

Doesn’t hurt that things have turned out to be a bit less jammed up at work than I thought it would be on Monday – big bug moved to next month, little bugs backfilled, then a couple other bugs moved, so it was kind of a net zero and everything that has to be done by tomorrow is DONE, so today and tomorrow will be just getting ahead of things.

I am glad I didn’t stay up to watch the entire Padres game last night – it went 16 innings and we still lost. :( Sleep was better. Our pitching staff is just utterly snakebit and I don’t see us making the postseason unless something miraculous happens. But – there is always next season. And they play here in August, so hopefully by then, I’ll be able to handle crowds an we’ll be out of the pandemic.

Granted, if people don’t start fucking masking up, this pandemic is never going to end – popped into Starbucks this morning – 3 other people coming and going as I got there – no masks. WTF people? For fucks sake, have you not seen the case numbers? I know that breakthroughs are still fairly rare, but they’re increasing cause Delta is causing our overall numbers to go through the damn roof – DON’T BE A TRANSMISSION VECTOR. Think about it – your chance of getting a breakthrough infection goes up as overall cases go up. If you’re in a room with 100 people and 1 positive case vs. 100 people with 50 positive cases – wouldn’t you want to, I don’t know, take a few extra precautions?

Well, time to go do the thing and see the dentist and convince him that I AM FINE and let the manager know that yet again, MetLife does not have the claim…

Have a dentist-free day!

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Happy Crack O’ Dawn Wednesday

Posted on August 25, 2021 by A Dreamer

Who didn’t even hit the snooze button ONE TIME this morning? THIS GAL!

I feel like a smarter person would just move their normal wake up & start work time so it was consistent all week instead of just getting up an hour earlier one day a week, but…I am not smart. The sun isn’t even really up yet, and I don’t like that.

Even Lily is very, “But why, tho?” about all this pre-7AM activity.

And can we get a round of applause for our Lily? Thanks to the pandemic, we can’t get her preferred dry food (she gets prescription wet, we supplement with dry to cover those “ewh, I don’t like my wet food” streaks that occasionally happen) – so, I grabbed a bag of Iams – with salmon! – and who was a good girl that happily chowed down on it before bed last night? THE LILYMONSTER!

Well, time to go start the day, which also means the workday ends early – gotta find those silver linings.

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It’s hard to get up

Posted on August 24, 2021 by A Dreamer

When you have this sweetie snuggled up on your legs making “must we get up?” noises.

Headshot of Lily, a black and orange tortoiseshell cat
Sister Lily Loquacious of the Order of the Chattering Cats

But, I am up, I have my cold brew, and I am ready to take on the day. Things at work are a little more hectic than I’d anticipated for the week, a big bug I was supposed to test has been moved to the next maintenance cycle so my time has been backfilled with several other little bugs, so there was some “uhh, can I actually get this all done by Friday?” thoughts yesterday, but things are well in hand and all deadlines should be met without killing myself. Always a good feeling to look at the to-do list and think, “Yeah, I got this.”

But thinking about test schedules, I need to look at my September staycation – right now, I *think* it’s in a good spot in the month, but I need to take some time today and double check that – since I’m not actually going anywhere, I can easily move it a week in either direction, but I am taking that PTO – I will NOT lose that. I am many things these days, but a workaholic is not one of them anymore.

Lily has just informed me it’s time to dry her head (she drinks from the bathroom sink and soaks her head every time) and go to work – no wait, we have to look at the birds in the carport first.

You have a great day!

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Hellooooooo Monday!

Posted on August 23, 2021 by A Dreamer

Dear Monday, I’m going to try and greet you with more grace – it’s not your fault that capitalism ruined you.

Bit bleary eyed this morning, as I slept pretty well til about 4:30 when a certain kitty needed snacks and love and I didn’t really fall back asleep til around 6.

And school starts today! With masks! And required vaccines for the adults! Passed by a large gaggle of teenagers waiting for the bus stop on my way to Starbucks – I do not miss that one bit. And they were gone when I returned, so that route at least has a bus and driver. (We’re having our annual issues with not having enough bus drivers.) One kid at the bus stop had lime green hair. I love that they can do that now – I don’t think that would have gone over well in my day.

And I’m so glad I got the shelves up yesterday. It took all of an hour at the most, including clearing out the spot for them. It’s between the TV and other plant shelf, and was a collection spot for old DVD’s and I shit you not, some VHS tapes. I tossed those – I really don’t need 20 year old pilates videos. And vacuumed. And vacuumed. And vacuumed some more. There is so much dust in this house. But it’s nice to have more space for the 13(!) plants, and a proper shelf for the router.

This coming weekend, I need to try to get together the rolling shelves for the bathroom – as much of a nice difference the shelves made down here, I know it will do the same upstairs. Also thinking there are probably more spots around the house I could tuck in skinny shelves like the ones downstairs – they were super easy to assemble and look nice, and anything that gets crap off the floor…

Well, time to go make some money to buy more shelves. Payday and half day Friday this week, and I don’t think anything insane is going on in my testing realm, so it should be a reasonable week.

Go get ’em.

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Success!

Posted on August 22, 2021 by A Dreamer

Stretching done and shelves assembled!

Shelves filled with houseplants
So much nice space for the plants!
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Ow. Ow. Ow.

Posted on August 22, 2021 by A Dreamer

So, the yoga app I use – Yoga by 7M – the developers have been making tons of great updates to the iOS app (wish they’d do the same on Android, but you can’t have everything) – and the latest update reset the rest time between poses from 15 back to 10 seconds.

No biggie, go into the settings to fix it – I need that extra 5 seconds to untangle myself. The setting for pose time is there, too. And it was 30 seconds. And I looked at it and thought, “Oh, that must have reset too, because I’m totally sure it was 45 seconds before.”

Oh, dear reader, it was not ever 45 seconds. OH MY GOD IT WAS SO MUCH HARDER. And my dumbass did 4 sessions this way – nearly an hour. And holy shit did I feel it by the end. And I am still feeling it today.

While I did manage to make dinner, the shelves did not happen. And I am so utterly grateful that the hashbrown casserole recipe makes A LOT so we have leftovers, because OMG.

And as much as I want to just lay still for the next, oh, 48 to 72 hours, I need to get back at it today – but at 30 seconds, and ALLLLLLL stretchy stuff. No balance stuff, I will definitely fall over. WTF was I thinking, “Oh, I was totally doing 45 seconds at a time”?! LOL. At least now I know that when I feel things are getting too easy, I don’t have to move to the Intermediate sessions, I can just up the time on the Beginner ones.

I’m going to try and get myself stretched back out – you enjoy the rest of the weekend and don’t overdo it. :)

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Stop the world, please, I’d like to get off…

Posted on August 21, 2021 by A Dreamer

So, we’ve got a humanitarian crisis in Haiti, a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, a hurricane bearing down on New England, a dude threatened to blow up the Library of Congress, and multiple health care systems are failing in the US in the midst of our FOURTH Covid surge because idiots will not get vaccinated.

Did I miss anything? If I did, I’m not sure I want to know – this is already waaaaay too much. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by all of this – I can at least tell you that you are NOT alone, if that helps at all.

I have donated to the local Lutheran Social Services chapter to help with their work with Afghan refugees that are resettling in our area. It doesn’t feel like enough, but I also have to remind myself that every little bit adds up and helps.

But I am wrung out. Last night would have been an ideal night to go up to the bar, have some beers, watch some west coast baseball, and commiserate a bit with others – even if you can’t fix anything, there is a lot to be said to just be able to sit and go, “OMG, can you believe how fucked up everything is?” BUT I COULDN’T DO THAT CAUSE OF THE FUCKING PANDEMIC.

So, we had porch beers and then watched Thor: Ragnarok, which was hilarious. Taika Waititi should direct more movies. (My brother is on a mission to get me caught up on all the Marvel movies.)

I’m trying to resist the urge to engage in retail therapy today – the Hallmark store and the Target silly dollar aisle have a strong pull, but I will overcome it! (I did fold a bit and make a very exciting Amazon purchase of underwear, but I don’t think that really counts given the overwhelming practicality of of a dozen Fruit of the Looms.)

I have at least decided to cook something tonight, even though I have a free large pizza reward waiting for me at Pizza Hut. The challenge is – what to cook. I think I have settled on a batch of hashbrown casserole. Yes, it’s just potatoes for dinner, but it’s reasonably easy, doesn’t involve standing over the stove, and tastes really good. I should probably grab some chicken tenders of some sort at the store as well – a protein would probably be a good idea, and that can just be put on a sheet pan and tossed in the oven and would be ready before the casserole even cools.

But, it could be worse – on top of everything, I could be the person who just posted on Nextdoor that they’ve been stuck in the Dunkin drive through for 45 minutes, LOL. (There is a reason I never mess with that drive through when I need a donut fix.)

And as I’ve sat here and vented my spleen and half-listened to The Roosevelts, I’ve noodled through my plan for the day – and I think it’s doable. (It also helps that for reasons I cannot fathom, I am not utterly knackered despite everything going on and drinking a fair amount of beer last night.) Gonna hit the market, do some yoga, and then finally clear the space next to the plant shelf and put in the skinny shelves I bought, oh…three months ago.

Oh, and wash the blanket off my bed since a certain kitty yakked on it.

Lily, a black and orange tortoiseshell cat, looking intently out the window
Sorry I ate my treats too fast in the middle of the night

You have a great day, and may the kitties in your life choose to barf on the tile.

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It’s Friday

Posted on August 20, 2021 by A Dreamer

We made it. It’s not been an easy week for anyone, but we made it.

And at least my day is starting on a positive note, just got a message from She Who Assigns All The Bugs saying, “good job on finding this new bug!” that was totally unrelated to the testing at hand. :-D Work makes me crazy some days, but I do like what I do and I do so enjoy finding a weird ass edge case bug, even if it is by accident.

And I’m just gonna hold that close today and go do the thing for capitalism and use it for news avoidance. If you have to do that, too – it’s OK.

It’s all just too much and there is nothing wrong with stepping back so you can be in a place to help where you can when you can.

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Good start so far

Posted on August 19, 2021 by A Dreamer

Great to wake up to a text from my brother saying, “Coffee is on the way!” The 8 minute round trip to Starbucks is hardly an ordeal, but it’s nice to have it just arrive. (And he hit the grocery store, too!)

Watching the news of out Afghanistan is just gut wrenching. At least we’re getting people out, but it’s not happening fast enough, and I still don’t understand why the powers that be thought they had more time. And Biden getting pissy in an interview about the fact that we may have to leave some troops there a while longer, well, that’s such a damn white dude reaction. No non-white man or any woman would EVER be able to do that.

Just admit, we fucked up, believed bad intel, and we’re trying to fix it and it’s gonna take longer than we thought. Just own it. (I am more than a little, “Elizabeth Warren would NEVER…” right now.)

And to every Republican out there going, “Would you want this plane landing in your neighborhood?” YES, YES I WOULD. JFC. As my brother slightly crudely pointed out, “We’ve killed 600,000 people in the last year and a half, we have room.” He’s not wrong.

On the work front, being able to back off the stupid project I shouldn’t have been put on in the first place and just being able to watch someone who knows what they’re doing and take notes – well, that has reduced my stress levels quite a bit.

And this week, we’ve had two separate webinars that I am sure management is just *loving*. One on productivity where the presenter said hustle culture is shit and no one should be working more than 40 hours a week and should absolutely be taking 10 minute breaks every hour, and one on stress which also reiterated the importance of regular breaks throughout the day. And here I am, clawing back my uncompensated overtime 10 minutes at a go not realizing it was better for my productivity.

Stay safe, do good, and stick it to the man for your mental health.

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*sigh*

Posted on August 17, 2021 by A Dreamer

I know we had to get out of Afghanistan – we probably never should have been there to start. It would have been a mess if we’d left 10 years ago or 10 years from now. As far as blame – this was a multi-party, multi-administration failure and the blame goes everywhere, and I am heartbroken for the people still there.

At this point, I only want to hear two things. One – when and how are we getting everyone out. Two – why on earth did we think we had three months to clean up after leaving? Who gave us that intelligence and why did we think it was reliable and actionable?

And that’s where I am on that. And I don’t expect to get satisfactory answers for either question.

On a slightly less shitty note, I knew the state was tracking breakthrough Covid infections, but I only just found where it is on their website. It had been tucked away under “data insights” and they just moved it to the main dashboard yesterday – that should have been front and center all along.

Out of 4.6 million people who are fully vaccinated in the state, there have been 4,056 breakthrough cases, 233 hospitalizations, and 52 deaths. This is out of a total of 244K cases, 8.6K hospitalizations, and 2.8K deaths since we started vaccinating folks.

To me, those are very good numbers and reinforces what I thought – that we hear *so much* about breakthrough infections that it seems like they’re far, far higher than they actually are. I’m not going to run out and start licking doorknobs, but this is good, and THE VACCINES ARE DOING THEIR JOB.

But JFC, we have GOT to get more people vaccinated. 98% of cases, 97% of hospitalizations, and 98% of deaths are in unvaccinated people. The vast majority of these are PREVENTABLE. I just don’t know how we get more people vaccinated other than fixing the access problems and employers forcing it.

In “good and feels selfish given everything else” news – the basement is dry! My brother went to town with the waterproofing materials and it seems to have done the trick and he will be reinforcing it over the course of the week. He said he found a couple old/empty tubs of waterproofing stuff as he worked, so it would seem this is not the first time it had to be done – but that would have been a minimum of 16+ years ago when my Mom was still alive, so I’d say it held well.

Hang in there everyone and just do the best you can.

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