A Little Tap

Because the work downstairs throws me for such a loop, I find myself at less than 100% far more than I'd like. Such was the case when we shopped this morning. On the way back home I'd stopped at an intersection behind a car I was sure had gone before a light change a block away had started oncoming traffic. She had not, and because I was looking to the side (at the traffic) instead of ahead my car wound up tapping hers a bit at like 2mph. No injuries or even scuff marks at all on either vehicle, but I felt bad about not paying attention, that's totally not like me, and I've been sulking about it ever since. My conclusion is that my age is starting to catch up on me, but I'm too tired for eternal vigilance. I'm just not sure at this point what is going to give. Perhaps all will right itself post-renovation, but I'm just not sure at this point. Until then, I continue to rewatch Frozen II and remind myself that everything changes but you just need to keep doing the next right thing.

Early to Rise

When I was living in my parents home, I trained myself to wake up earlier than they did (usually around 5-6 AM) so that I could deal with whatever was coming my way once Mom opened my did-not-lock bedroom door. I suppose that's where my morning-person habits (which have served me well during my working life) originated. The more things I can get done earlier in the day, the better off I seem to be. Now with the downstairs apartment renovations going on, it behooves me to get up before my alarm goes off (6 AM on the days when I work from home) and get stuff done before the noise distracts me. So today I did various personal financial things (which wound up continuing throughout the day talking to my family's financial advisors and DocuSigning papers) and straightening things around the house and even work prep before I actually logged on, changed my Windows password right away (with one day to spare!), and started my actual job stuff. The downside to doing things this way, of course, is that I usually find myself exhausted by the afternoon, and with all the renovation work I can't exactly nap until the workman leaves at around 6 PM. I keep reminding myself, this too shall pass. Hey, at least I got paid today!

Nice to be Needed

But OMG, are there limits. I was at my Manhattan workstation with my phone open (while the laptop was still booting up) to grab an office for my partner precisely at 8 AM when the window opens, and another partner whom I don't support interrupted me to complain about the lack of air conditioning. Why me? Just because I sit in a visible spot? He doesn't know me as an exec assistant, and even so EAs have nothing to do with facilities. Heaven forfend these people actually try to reach out themselves and try to find out whom to contact! So of course my partner didn't get the office I'd tried to reserve for her, and I now had another issue to resolve that wasn't in my area (but which affected me because OMG it was quite warm in my area). It was kind of like that all day today. Lots of meetings in the afternoon interrupted by a former partner of mine needing a dozen documents notarized (again without going through proper channels), etc. etc. I was fairly exhausted by the time I got home (crowded subway/bus combo didn't help as the youngsters next to me fidgeted so much they kept bumping me), so happy to be home the next few days despite the workman's noise downstairs!

Silly Site o' the Day

We're still mulling over whether to visit Merrie Olde this coming autumn (have lots of PTO time I need to use up), and here's one reason although they probably won't be anywhere near where we want to go: the K6 Project (via BoingBoing) which maps still-extant telephone boxes.

Silly Site o' the Day

Back to work, beautiful day, lots of stuff done, yadda yadda. Looking forward to Manhattanhenge on Thursday, although I'll probably be home by the time it happens, but if you're not in Manhattan you can still download Hengefinder (via BoingBoing) and find your nearest one!

Happy Umpteen Glorification of Warriors Day

As you can tell, I have no great love for holidays honoring warriors, of which we have way too many in this warmongering country. I'd love to see some balance, maybe consolidate Memorial Day and Veterans Day and Armed Forces Day and such into one big We Need to Remember that War is Bad Day, and have a few more holidays for heroes like firefighters and nurses and teachers. But that's just me. I have nothing against individuals who choose to fight, my starter husband was in the Navy for years and I do have a number of friends who served. But I'm 68 years old and I don't think I'll ever be convinced that killing people or being cannon fodder is a good thing. Peace and love, out...

Sand-Day Will Never Be the Same

As expected, not a quiet day at home at all. Different workers came by to do something to the downstairs apartment which featured what sounded like a siren and whirring thing all day. They were here until at least 6:30! We think they were probably sanding the floorboards, but it just didn't end, and we got in zero late-morning and afternoon naps. We are two cranky old folks at this point.

Not a Quiet Weekend

The workman came in downstairs around 8 AM and by 11 we knew we had to get out of there, so we went to ShopRite, then our sushi lunch in the same strip mall, then because ShopRite was out of milk we had to swing by Stop & Shop for some supplemental groceries. In truth this could be so much worse, but we don't get a weekend respite when we'd like to take afternoon naps and such. He says he won't be in tomorrow but, knowing our landlord, there's probably something else planned then. At least things haven't been that bad outside with the screechy childers and Hot Tub Hector and who knows what else...

No Escape

For some folks this might be a nice, relaxing long weekend. Not for us. I keep trying to find the bright side: the landlord could be hiring five guys to work on the downstairs flat instead of one or two, the noise comes in bursts of bone-shaking power tools instead of being constant, and at least the worker seems pleasant enough. Robin got him to promise to warn us next time he fiddles with the (of course unlabeled) fuse box, as he turned off our electricity for a few seconds and we had to wait another couple minutes for the router and all our electronics to reboot. Fortunately, my work laptop seems to have failsafes, so I didn't lose any of what I was doing, and I'd already made my personal-finances call of the day (this time to the holder of my pension plan from my first long-term job, who needed my divorce decree from 1998 before they could go ahead with my payments, as the beneficiary's SSN didn't match and OMG is this what getting older and having lived is like) and Robin had done his scanning (including said decree so I could upload it) before that happened, and no further elec-trickery interruptions were forthcoming. But the 9-6 noise still builds up, so we escape where we can, and today I took a bit of time off from a slow work day to pick up some prescriptions. Tomorrow, who knows? Maybe we'll luck out and get some quiet during a long weekend. Somehow I doubt it.

So Iterative

Hoorah, the heat broke at last! Unfortunately it rained a lot more in New York than anyone expected. I only got caught in a few drizzles, and I had a hoodie so it was fine... and of course we need the rain. It's the time of year when folks start to plan long weekends and go on vacations so things got a bit quieter, and I had to occupy myself somehow as I was in the office and couldn't just go into another room and watch TV for awhile, so I took some self-study courses, most of which seem to be about iterations of AI now. So, so iterative. Naturally the subway and bus were both hella crowded on the way home, but I managed a seat on both and wasn't thoroughly exhausted by the time Robin picked me up at the terminus and schlepped my backpack for me the block or so back to our home. Gearing up for more noise for the next few days as the landlord's hires are still banging and drilling away at the downstairs apartment...