mdlbear | Done last week (20150809Su

So the big things this week were getting the drains fixed (for somewhere north of $10K), and getting word from Safeco that they'll cover a good part of the water mitigation. Though not all of it, and none of the reconstruction afterward. But that's still something in five figures that we won't have to deal with.

We will still need a loan.

Last Sunday I finally started practicing for my half-hour set at Sasquan (Friday afternoon). First time I've had to stop singing because I was crying -- For Amy followed by The Stuff that Dreams are Made Of just hit all my buttons, but I even choked up some on Where the Heart Is and Windward. Losing a home is also a trigger right now - that's still a danger, if anything happens that makes me unable to work.

Oh, yeah; about work. It seems that the part of the late project that I thought was simplest, isn't (for non-technical reasons -- basically office politics). I was, apparently, relying on old information when I made the estimate. :P

I was able to get through my entire set last night without even choking up. There are still some rough spots in the chords, but that's something I can work on.

My back is pretty much back to normal (meaning it aches a little when I over-use it, but I can mostly take it for granted). Now, of course, my right knee is giving me trouble. Cane GOOD.

My mood is now merely down, rather than severely depressed and anxious. I'll take it.

Some interesting reading -- links in the notes.

0809Su Nagasaki
* up 6ish; W=199.8; shower
% back just about back to normal. Which is dangerous, of course.
@ 7 Stretches In 7 Minutes For Complete Lower Back Pain Relief (ysabetwordsmith Pain)
% my desk chair isn't all that good for my back right now.
: 10:30 Damned shower is leaking. I heard it, then went out to look. YD was taking a
shower, apparently. Thought it was delayed from _my_ shower earlier.
@ Green Planet Plumbing Company Seattle, West Seattle Plumbers
& moved some books on Cygnus to the git-controlled mm/books directory.
! 12:49 feeling down and unproductive.
* ~3pm music: Riverheart, Toolmakers, For Amy, Stuff That Dreams are Made Of, Where the
Heart Is, Windward, The River - timed out at about half an hour; I may have to cut
more. Well, I can drop The River and end on a high note, or stick in Keep the Dream
Alive or Bigger On the Inside if I need more. Ask the audience which they want.
-> Need to work on them *all* so that I can sing without choking up.
I choked up on pretty much everything from "For Amy" on. Outright tears after Amy and
Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of. The last month _has_ been rough, hasn't it?
Rhetorical question. Not sure I've _ever_ broken down in the middle of a song
before. Choked my way through a verse or two, yes.
& More serious talk with Naomi; made me promise to talk to her and Colleen if things get
bad again.
% 5:30 back starting to act up again; took naproxen and will wait 20 minutes or so
before deciding whether to go out for ingredients or order something.

0810Mo
* up 6ish; ; dishes
* call Green Planet Plumbing Company Seattle, West Seattle
-> came out at about 1pm, gave us a firm quote, ($9K. Gleep), and had the downstairs
drain (which had backed up again) routed out by 3:30. Will come back tomorrow for
slab-cutting, because there's definitely something bad down there.
% back felt normal all day
% ate a large (leftover Chinese) breakfast, skipped lunch. Probably got away with it.
% 8pm sleepy

0811Tu
* up 6:ish; W=198.6;
% back normal all day. Maybe I'm ok now. In that respect
: ServPro came in and did demolition; I'd told them to hold off while the plumber was
working. And the plumber *didn't* show (called ahead) -- he'd better be here
tomorrow.

0812We
* up 5:45; ;
~ premera account locked. x call Web Support at 1-800-722-9780 Tried p/w unlock,
which worked the second time after clearing cookies :P
* Pay Express Scripts x (call; may be something for Colleen too)
* productive morning at work. Afternoon was solid meetings from noon to 5pm. Also
productive but that doesn't count. My idea for unit testing Spring wiring worked.
: Heard from N. a little after noon -- the insurance adjuster said that they're going to
cover Servpro's demolition work, because it's too hard to separate the washer leak
from the long-term damage. Whew! That's $30-40K we won't have to spend.
% back fine, but right knee started acting up starting with my walk to the bus stop at 5
: phone update. Is it too much to hope that it was the Stagefright fix?

0813Th
* Up 4:45; W=197;
: It occurred to me to check to see whether I'd bought our previous washer/dryer from
Home Depot, and whether there was a protection plan. Yes and yes:
Order Number: W227507064 Date: September 1, 2013 12:22:22 PM EDT
Contract Number: 461447512 Plan Purchase Date: September 01, 2013
Contact Our Best in Class Customer Service 1-800-HOMEDEPOT: 1 (800) 466-3337
* humira
% the good news is, my back is better. The bad news is, my knee is worse. And things
are even more screwed up at work than I expected, after talking to the other team.
% 9pm slowdown. Moving much more slowly than the knee would really require.
I also have a headache. Probably coming down with something on top of it all.

0814Fr
* up 6:16; W=195.4;
* practice: For Amy, Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of. A couple more times and I'll be
able to get through them ok; choked up but didn't break down like last time. Read
through them on my phone on the bus trip home.
~ contact Acorn 888 563 0410 - expensive and not the right schedule.
would have been $250 to come out and take the lifts off the rails. And another 250 to
put them back. And they gave me a time of 11-noon, which would have been too late for
a morning delivery slot if that's what I got. Bailed, and rescheduled the delivery.
* contact Home Depot customer service 888 466 3337
Order Number: W227507064 Date: September 1, 2013 12:22:22 PM EDT
Contract Number: 461447512 Plan Purchase Date: September 01, 2013
Contact Our Best in Class Customer Service 1-800-HOMEDEPOT: 1 (800) 466-3337
reschedule to 8/25: Order Number: W394063798 Order Date: Aug 10, 2015 6:01 PM EDT
-> reschedled the delivery from the 19th to the 25th (by which time I should be well
enough to handle the stairlift), and got things started wrt the extended protection
plan on the old one. (Which I had completely forgotten about, or I wouldn't have
called Jimmy Z in the first place.
@ You want to invest but you are sick of Wall Street greed? Then read this.
@ haikujaguar: Ballad
% 9:35pm - sleepy

0815Sa
* up 5:55; W=196.2; laundry
: a month since Curio crossed the Rainbow Bridge.
% the last time I weighed 196.x was 2012. The last time I weighed under 200 was 2013.
grep W=1 */*.done *.do # let's hear it for good records
* finished The Perfect Valentine. Not entirely clear why I prefer lesbian
erotica to other kinds. Maybe because it's closer to how I like to make love.
& Finally fixed the makefile for Journals/Dog (the "to.do" log) so that it once more
puts stats in the commit even when invoked from the top level. I had accidentally
broken it when I stopped keeping log files. It now writes them, but .gitignore keeps
them out of the commit.
* started reading the back pages of Digger - the last chapter, and the
stuff that wasn't on the web. -> finished, except for the notes (which will have to
wait until I'm ready to re-read the whole tome).
* Some work on r-e.net, linking Resources (->users) in prep for the memorial page.
* one-pager for Anita Brown
* making dinner - brats, roasted potatoes, leftover corn and green beans, sauerkraut
* PRACTICE - whole set, plus Ship of Stone, and Millennium's Dawn with the new verse,
which seems to work. No choke-ups this time, though there were plenty of rough spots,
mostly where I lost the chords.
* Reading: Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About (Center for the Study of Language and
Information - Lecture Notes) Don Knuth talks about a computer scientist's take on
religion. Fascinating.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yay, merely down!

I wish I had an appropriate cookie to offer. :/

Thanks. This being the web, I'm sure Livejournal has a few to offer. ;)

BTW, you would probably find Don Knuth's books, Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About (which I mention on 0815) and 3:16 Bible Texts Illustrated, to be rewarding. 3:16 is also astoundingly beautiful as a book. Read it first.

Edited 2015-08-16 20:05 (UTC)

Thanks! I'll try to get hold of those.

You'll like them -- Knuth is pretty remarkable. As one would expect from someone who's written the definitive texts on (certain aspects of) computer science, a novel (involving mathematics), a book of bible commentary (3:16, of course), and the world's best computer typesetting system.

A suggestion for the problem of getting emotional about a song when you're trying to sing it.

There are two things that work for me. Neither is 100%, but both have helped a lot. One is the most obvious: familiarity. After singing the one that really choked me up in 2001 dozens of times, maybe hundreds of times, in small groups or on stage, I now have the same feelings, but I have control and can channel it into putting some emotion into the singing, which is a good thing.

The second is a technique a friend taught me. I had just finished writing my song "Charles," a very emotional song about Charlie Brown and the gang saying goodbye to their artist, and I could not get through it. My friend happened to be visiting, and he told me to try to focus on my breathing - in and out - and sing the words in the background. I was actually able to get through the song that night, in front of an audience, with no problem.

Thanks! Good tips.

I'm relying on familiarity at the moment; it seems to be working.

Done last week (20150809Su - 15Sa)

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