Weekend!
So I was lying in bed trying to sleep but I couldn’t, so I figured that I’d use my mind browser to surf the Facebook and have a lovely little conversation with Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig and her hubby Matt Bruenig but I was silly enough to have any and all responses to my comments page the pager that I had taped to the bottom of my foot. So whenever they said something back, bzzzzt, my foot would get a buzz and I would be jerked back to the weird altered consciousness of just lying in bed.
Now that the fever has broken, I’d suggest not using a mind browser to visit *ANY* site as insecure as the Facebook. Or, at least, make sure that your mind browser is something like Lynx or Emacs. Additionally, if you must use a pager, don’t tape it to your feet. Especially if you’re trying to sleep.
Which was better than yesterday’s fever dream which centered around Candy Crush getting “machine” candies that needed 4 in a row (but any given color candy could have the secondary status of “machine”).
All that to say, the last week has involved lying in bed, surrounded by the kitties who probably didn’t understand why I was kicking so much today. As such, this weekend will probably have rest and recuperation with, maybe, one trip to the grocery store because I have been put on the “BRAT” diet by the NP after I needed not one but two bags of IV fluids on Tuesday.
That said: hey. Free fever dreams.
So… what’s on your docket?
(Photo is “Footrace finish line, 1925” from the Seattle Municipal Archives, used under a creative commons license)
Hey, you know what sucks more than recovering from very minor foot surgery? Looking after a very sick person while recovering from very minor foot surgery and also working full-time. THANK GOODNESS for Jaybird’s mom.
Tomorrow is my therapy day, tomorrow night we have a dinner-and-a-movie couples date, Saturday is gaming, and Sunday is still, I think, blissfully open. Unless we manage to see our dear friends that we can never see enough of (but never see often enough).
There will also be a LOT of sleeping. And lying around with my foot elevated.Report
I’ve decided to put my smartphone to better use in helping me get things done around the house. I cleared off one of the screens and put a series of calenders and checklists, so that every night I decide what I want to do the next day, and every day I have a checklist of the things I need to do. It’s been a remarkable success – the most productive week I’ve had in a long time – but I’m not sure if it’s the system or an initial burst of enthusiasm.
Clancy may have a half-day on Saturday, which will be nice if it happens. We plan on having some cooking lessons (I’m the student).Report
Oh, among the things I did this week was clean out the storage garage and cancel our account with them. Bigger house, don’t need it.
The only thing is that I didn’t have a key to the padlock. So I had to ask them if they had any bolt cutters. They did! And so I took bolt cutters to the lock. And it was glorious. I found the key today, rendering the whole thing unnecessary. But I regret nothing.Report
A hot date of culture (art museaum), food, and irish whiskey sampling with a cute russian gal who is “not a golddigger” Her words :pReport
Watched Birdman yesterday, thinking about your “Sunday” post on the subject, and I have a better idea at what you were getting at. I can’t say it was a “story not really worth telling” though, even though it did make some rather minor thematic points that a 700-word thinkpiece could cover. The characters were so richly drawn that any one of them had a story worth telling, and they were interwoven with such skill and artistry that it made me think, “Hmm, Inarritu’s gotten much better at this since 21 Grams and Babel.”
It’s like he finally figured out how to do it. Set it in a single setting, not all over the world. Create personal relationships between the characters, not just thematic ones. Don’t paste it together in the editing room. Use one long take, never blinking.
I’m not sure if Birdman will stand the test of time as a “Great Film,” but I do think it will always be an example of an artist (in this case, Inarritu) who has, after several noble tries, finally perfected his craft.Report
I would change the phrase “The characters were so richly drawn that any one of them had a story worth telling, and they were interwoven with such skill and artistry” to “The characters were so richly drawn and they were interwoven with such skill and artistry” if I were to try to create a perfect accord with you.Report
Without delving too far into the topic of religion, I’ll say that I’ve been thinking about mindnet some more. My interactions felt so very authentic and the entire mindnet experience itself was filled with so very much verisimilitude that if I had a dream like this, oh, 30 years ago (or prior), I could easily be convinced that I had an experience with The Astral Plane.
*WITHIN* The Astral Plane, even.
But since I know what the internet is, and since I know what facebook is, and since I know what conversations with other people truly entail (e.g., other people), I know that it must be a fever dream.
“But maybe it’s The Astral Plane with a new and improved interface to better interact with people as they get a better vocabulary with which to interact with it?”
“… how testable is that?”
“Eschatologically?”Report
Let’s see — watching my brother’s kids while he starts chemo (Stage II, btw. Doctor was thrilled — gonna cut his chemo down to 4 months. The tumors — more than one in his chest, but all in his lymph system — were described as ‘about the size of a football, all together’. Also, I found out he’s lost roughly 15% of his body weight in the last 9 months, and did not consider that odd. He just thought it was…being sick and a new baby).
So I’ve been juggling his kids, my kid, trying to get house repairs done AND scheduling (and paying for. Frickin high-deductible plan. I HATE it) some minor surgery for my wife. I hit my deductible, btw. In March. That’s the thrilling stuff adult life is made of. An endless scramble for cash and time.
It’s been the most tiring week long vacation I’ve ever had.Report
Best wishes to your family. I hope things become less “thrilling” soon.Report
That’s ahelluva week, hope it gets better.Report
Dude, that totally sucks. Stay healthy.Report
Thanks. Actually, as much as I’ve been running around, it’s actually been a good week. My brother’s cancer is solidly in the 90%+ 5 year group. His chemo is actually going to be shorter than anticipated.
My wife’s had some issues that needed resolving, and now they are. Finding 3k was a bit of a problem, but I both have the resources for that AND have an HSA that I can repay myself with. (It’s my first year with an HSA, but I’ve arranged to contribute the max over the year). Being able to do that makes me lucky.
My kid is not just working, he’s making twice as much as I expected — which means he’ll not just be capable of paying his particular bills and debts, but also having more than enough left over not to feel he’s working 30 hours a week (and going to college) and getting nothing from it.
I feel broke and hassled and tired, but…all that stuff is good news in the end (except house repairs, but hey — I own a house. That’s just how it goes with houses. It’ll be paid off in 6 years).
I’m lucky, all told. But it’s my god given right to complain about it! 🙂Report
Glad to hear the good news and willing to read peoples complaints. Because a little bit of complaining/griping does help.Report
“Yard cleanup” was moved way down the to-do list by a couple inches of snowfall overnight. In its place, house cleanup, maybe starting some seedlings (a bit late but oh well), if I’m lucky / self-indulgent enough, a run to the homebrew store.
Saturday going dancing, which doesn’t seem to happen as much as I’d like.Report
Wild mustard has pretty much taken over the yard to a depth of 33 inches. Probably need to take a machete to clear the walkways. 3 cherry tomato plants are blooming maddly, first year ever my tomatoes have lived into their second year. The mustard shielded many of them from frost in february and the rain has been constant. Pulling the sow thistle out of the beds has been a task, but the chickens love the fodder.
The fava beans are about 18 inches tall and started blooming last weekend. The snow peas are about 15 and putting on the pods. Kale has recovered from the first harvest and is ready for a second collection. Kohlrabi is kinda hit an miss. The patch of dill has grown to about 16 inches. Leeks are taking forever to get any size to them. Carrots look good in their second year, and are about the size of store boughts. Lost a couple of beets last fall, the replacements are looking good. I can’t recall if the 2 jalapeno plants are on their second or third year, but they look like they could bounce back with a few sunny days. Rye is hit and miss, will no more when it heats up.
Having some progress in sprouting echeveria. Starting to consider that nopals are capable of exponetial growth with a minimal amount of work and water.
The small hand crafted pond is starting to hold water from the numerous downpours lately. May convert it to a cistern when the rain dries up.
The two huisache trees transplanted in december look dead but still show green under the bark. FTR transplanting that type of tree should only be conducted by a certifiable pincushion.
We tried the AC last night and it didn’t run so will be trying to diagnose the problem. Suspect it may be the breaker built into the cord.Report
grrr… it’s snowing outside.Report
WTH is snow, I keep hearing about that nasty sounding stuff.Report
Currently 76 and cloudy.Report
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fq4UIu-r0QReport
It’s an ugly take-care-of-the-house weekend. Spent this afternoon cleaning out the duct from the clothes dryer to the outside. Tomorrow the son is coming down to help install the new dishwasher. Sunny and 70 plus-or-minus both days, and no chance to get out on the bicycle. Finding the right can of old wall paint and trying to get it matched on Sunday.Report
Ha! The two hard ones done. Large amounts of air coming out the dryer vent, and the new dishwasher runs. At one point in the dishwasher job, we needed to connect a new hose to an old pipe. “But wait!” I exclaimed, “I have just the fitting to do the job in the old plumbing parts box down in the basement!” And I did. Based on the label, it moved here from NJ with us 27+ years ago. Geez, what a pack rat.Report
At this very moment I am sitting at a campsite in Indiana, surrounded by friends, watching basketball streaming from a phone to a very nice HD television we brought along (yay 4G coverage!) We always bring it correct on the annual guy’s camping trip.
Had omelets and bacon for breakfast. Grilled steaks and roasted potatoes. At almost 40 we have all given up any pretense of roughing it. It’s so fun to spend some time in the outdoors with competent dudes.
Tomorrow I’ll head home and spend the next week smelling the campfire smoke on my jacket.Report
Awesome weekend!
Saturday I got a bunch of stuff done around the house, hit the grocery store and had dinner and a movie at a friend’s house. Sleepover! When we woke up, we took Junior hiking, wine tasting, and lunching on the *best* Indian food. Now I’ll nap before attending my mother’s birthday party. 🙂 Can every weekend be like this?Report
So last night my Synology servers nagged me to update the OS on them, which I was actually in a position to do. Or at least thought I was.
Everything went smoothly with the backup server.
The primary server, though, did not go so well. First, it got stuck during powerdown. It says in no uncertain terms not to turn it off during an update, but I was 99% sure that it was a glitch in the powerdown, so I risked it. Which I was correct about. But then I still couldn’t access the drives. It turns out that it changed addresses on me, but wouldn’t let me change it back because it said the previous address was taken. Multiple reboots of everything did no good. Then Lain woke up and I had to tend to her and put everything off until today (I hate going to bed with things like that undone).
I eventually gave up and accepted a new network address (changing it from 192.168.1.3 to 192.168.1.4. Then had to go to all of the computers around the house and change the mapped drives.
Unfun.Report